Bustingbrackets.com just released their 2018-19 predictions for the Big West Men's Basketball:
1. Santa Barbara
2. Irvine
3. Davis
4. Fullerton
5. Long Beach
6. Hawai'i
7. Riverside
8. Cal Poly
9. Northridge
The article includes a summary of each team. They like the fact the the Aggies played well even after the suspension of Chima Moneke. I think the team to watch is UCSB. They could be explosive this year. They're loaded with legitimate D1 talent transfers from major programs and also had a stellar recruiting year that includes a 4 star freshman.
That's a pretty solid review. It certainly is nice to see the Ags regularly picked near the top. Looking forward to a year of John at full speed, and how the new guys fit in.
As usual, it looks like the BW will be an all-out dogfight. Lots of parity among the better teams and, of course, anyone can beat anyone on any given day. I'm surprised that the Ags are ranked above Fullerton since they have 3 of the best players in the Big West in their starting 5: Ahmad, Allman and Rowe. UCSB and Fullerton look very strong to me.
UCSB has a ton of talent. How they mesh will be the interesting variable. A lot of new guys from different systems.
I worry about the size and quickness of the backcourt of CSUF. I think both Ahmad and Allman are 6'3" or taller, and quick, and I'm not sure we had enough on-ball defenders last year to stay with them. How Gonzalez, Jackson and Nelson (plus Shorts/Schneider/Mooney of course) play defensively against them will be important.
So we will get a WBB twins versus twins game with Stanford November 6th. I just hope Stanford does not RS its twins as they are true freshman. If it goes as planned it will be an awesome historic game. I think that Nina and Cierra will be solid replacements for Dani and Pele; maybe eventually better because of their greater size. The real test will be if newcomers Cierra Jo McKeown and Sage Stobart can replace Rachel and Marley. Cierra Jo is a solid 3 shooter- maybe more than solid- great. Sage is a talent yet to be seen. She has great size and an excellent bio, but Marley was just a monster coming off the bench. I hope Sage is working on some of Morgans spin moves and some of Marleys hook shots during the off season!
A lot of new pieces to fit in place for the women this year but Jen Gross has built a very strong mid-major program. I hope the new players will pick up where their predecessors left off.
I gleaned the following from a post by Sparky over on the Big West Boards. He nicely sums up the explosive potential that UCSB will have this year:
""Looking deeper at SB, they will be unbelievably deep at the guard/wing positions. Max Heidegger was a contender for POY for much of the season before fading late. Devearl Ramsey was a 4 star recruit before transferring after his freshman season at Nevada, Ar'mond Davis was the #8 rated JC player in the country before heading to Alabama, he comes to SB as a grad transfer, Zach Moore was a starter his final 16 games at Seattle and average 10.4 ppg as a soph. Additionally, JaQuori McGlothlin was a starter for Oregon State in 32 of the 38 games he played as a Beaver, and set the frosh record for three pointers at the school. He will be eligible at the break. The problem for UCSB appears to be in the post. They will rely on returner Ami Lakoju and to back him up have JC forward Robinson Idehen who averaged 8.5 points and 7.7 rebounds a game at the JC level, and 4 star freshman Amadou Sow. Their season depends on how quickly they can jell these guys and also how solid the post play is."
When I was a student I lamented that I might not even see a single winning season for football, MBB, or WBB before I graduated. Now it looks like three all will pull it off this year. Times have changed!