Overview:
UCSB’s 2004 women’s basketball team compiled a record of 27-7 and became only the seventh team seeded 11th or lower to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16
Big West Conference basketball reaches just the midway point of its league schedule this week, but the stakes will loom high and the nostalgia strong at UC Santa Barbara.
The Gaucho men (12-7, 5-4 Big West), fourth place in league play, will play host on Thursday at 8 p.m. to third-place UC Davis (12-8, 7-2) in a game that will be nationally televised on ESPU. UC Irvine (15-6, 8-1) and UC San Diego (14-7, 8-1) are tied for first.
UCSB is promoting Thursday’s game with a raffle for Coachella Concert tickets and a Gaucho striped-shirt giveaway.
The contest will match two of the nation’s top-scoring guards. The Aggies’ Elijah Pepper ranks 14th with an average of 21.0 points per game. The Gauchos’ Ajay Mitchell is 33rd at 19.8.
UCSB lost at Davis in its league opener, 76-62.
The Gaucho women (13-6, 7-2) will play a crucial league game on Thursday at 7 p.m. at UC Davis (10-9, 6-3) and then celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 2004 NCAA Sweet 16 team during Saturday’s 1 p.m. game against Cal State Bakersfield (6-12, 3-6).
UCSB is expecting every player from the 2004 team except Kristen Mann, who is still playing professionally in France, to be in attendance for Saturday’s celebration and post-game reception.
That Gaucho team beat Colorado and Houston in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament before giving eventual national champion Connecticut its closest tourney game, 63-55, in the Round of 16 at Hartford.
Current UCSB senior Alexis Whitfield, who was named Big West Player of the Week for last week’s double-double of 23 points and 19 rebounds against Hawai’i, leads the league in rebounds at 9.2 per game while also scoring at a 15.5-point clip. She has won the Big West award twice this season.
The Gauchos’ 65-53 victory over the Rainbow Warriors gave them sole possession of first place in the league race. Both Hawai’i (10-8, 7-2) and UC Irvine then pulled into a temporary tie for first on Saturday by winning games while UCSB was idle.
Irvine (14-6, 8-2), however, assumed sole possession of first place this week when Cal Poly (10-10, 6-4) was forced to forfeit its Thursday game against the Anteaters “due to illness among players in the Cal Poly program.” The game will not be made up per Big West bylaw 4.3.3.
