Here's a list for the first games of every Big West Men's and Women's Basketball teams playing in the post-season.

MBB:

Tu 3/19 NIT #15 Irvine #2 Utah 8 pm on ESPN2
Th 3/21 NCAA #15 Long Beach State vs #2 Arizona 11 am on TBS
Sa 3/23 CBI #2 UC San Diego vs #15 Chicago State 12:30 pm on FloHoops

WBB:

Th 3/21 WNIT Cal Poly @ Pacific 6 pm on ESPN+
Th 3/21 WBIT Hawai'i @ Cal 7 pm on ESPN+
Fri 3/22 WNIT Riverside @ South Dakota 5 pm on ESPN+
Sa 3/23 NCAA #13 Irvine @ #4 Gonzaga 4:30 pm on ESPN2

Thanks, BlueGold. I knew about the WBIT, of course, because Hawai`i is in it, but I thought the WNIT was gone. I read that the WBIT is replacing the WNIT, but I guess not this year. I'm in the dark about the women in general, so I won't be writing much about them. I note that the Beach is a huge 17.5 point underdog to Arizona and UC Irvine is a 7.5 point underdog to Utah. In the CBI, UC Sand Diego is a 10.5 underdog to Chicago State. If I were a betting man, I'd take the Tritons in that once. Chicago State was 9-18 as an independent against fairly weak opponents.

The NCAA has full ownership of the NIT and the WBIT not the WNIT. They created the WBIT this year in an effort to maintain more control in women's basketball. The following link, which was posted in another thread here, discusses the WBIT and the WNIT.

https://dknetwork.draftkings.com/2024/3/17/24104099/what-is-the-wbit-womens-basketball-new-tournament-wnit-ncaa-ownership-rules-regulations-indianapolis

Here's an interesting article about how more schools are not accepting invitations to the NIT because they they think they can get an early recruiting advantage over the other teams who are involved in post-season tournaments. St John's, Memphis, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and Ole Miss all declined to play in the NIT this year. I think it stinks since these schools are thinking more about getting ahead of other schools in recruiting than they are about giving their current players a chance to play in the post-season.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nit-practically-obsolete-more-teams-204003228.html

you got the odds wrong on UCSD - they are 10 point favorites as the #2 seed.

Utah 46 Irvine 40 at the half. Irvine is playing well but the Utes are shooting lights out. The Anteaters need to stiffen up their defense especially beyond the arc.

really surprised Irvine with a 24-9 record is a 15 seed. Tough draw

Here's my source: https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/game/_/gameId/401641083/uc-san-diego-chicago-st But I'm with you. I think it should be the opposite.

The Anteaters were hanging with Utah until the Utes went on a 12-2 run just before the first half and into the second. It's 69-55 now and I don't think UCI is going to advance.

Utah 84 Irvine 75 - Final

Toke, the -10.5 actually means that San Diego is a 10.5 point favorite. I think it's has something to with the way betting odds are listed. I don't bet on games but I know that the team favored to win is shown with the negative number.

I agree...not much respect for the Big West teams I guess. Irvine was a very good team this year and I think they would have won a couple of games in the NIT with a better draw.

I don't know when, but someone at ESPN has changed the odds on that game so it now shows UCSD as being a 10.5 favorite. Watching Utah play I am surprised they did not make the big dance, but I understand that they lost their point guard and fell to 6th in the Pac12 as a result. UCI is the biggest team in the Big West (?) but Utah is gigantic. They had 11 blocks.

You're right, Utah has incredible size! I thought Irvine played very well against them and they fought their way back to within 4 points with 2 minutes to go.

-10.5 means UCSD is the favorite; in betting terms, they are starting with a 10.5 point deficit that they have to make up for the bettor to win.

Just read your late post - they must have changed it

what’s weird is UCI had a NET ranking of 77, Long Beach had a 170. LB is a 15 in NCAA, UCI a 15 in NIT. Maybe LB is a result of weak automatic berths, but there can’t possible be 56 with higher NET in the NIT!

Yes, I think Irvine got shafted at being the #15 seed in the NIT.

The Beach is hanging in there with 2 seed Arizona so far, 24-22 Arizona with 6:40 to go in the first half.

They've fallen way behind now. 70-53 with 7:16 to go.

Arizona 85 Long Beach 65 - Final

Long Beach has a lot talent but they simply don't play good, disciplined defense. I can only imagine what a defensive minded coach like Les could do with a team with their level of talent.

I just finished watching my dvr of the game and was surprised by how poorly the Beach played. Not only were they undisciplined on defense, but on offense as well, with very poor shot selection. They also shot poorly and had a lot of trouble inside, where Arizona blocked (8) or altered a lot of shots. When take bad shots, miss good shots and can't get inside shots, you aren't going to have a very good field goal percentage. I was surprised that they hit as high as 33%. They started well, aside from allowing the Wildcats to hit a lot of uncontested 3s, because Monson had them in s a 3-2 zone to prevent UA from going inside. So we have another one and done in the NCAAs for the Big West.

Pacific 63 Cal Poly 43 in the WNIT
Cal 65 Hawai'i in the WBIT

South Dakota 72 Riverside 57 in the WNIT

San Diego 38 Chicago State 38 at the half in the CBI.

Chicago State 77 San Diego 75 - Final

San Diego pays some big bucks to travel to Florida as the #2 seed in the CBI and goes one and done. The Tritons won nearly all of the team stats but lost the game at the FT line by going only 9-18 and they finish the season with a 21-12 record while Chicago State improves to 13-18.

So far, the Big West is 0-6 in the post-season tournaments for both men and women. Only Irvine's women have a chance to keep the Big West from going 0-7 when they play #4 Gonzaga in the women's NCAA Tournament today at 4:30 pm.

#4 Gonzaga 75 #13 Irvine 56 - Final in the Women's NCAA Tournament.

All 7 of the Big West men's and women's basketball teams lost their first games in the post-season tournaments. 0-7...I thought we would at least win one or two games...

Well, Big West teams were mostly underdogs, with one exception. The UCSD loss was particularly disappointing. I wonder what happened there? The Tritons hit 52.6% of three 3s, out-rebounded and out-assisted Chicago State and still lost. Near as I can tell, it was at the foul line, where San Diego got out-scored 15-9, but still. Yeah, a tough post-season all the way around. I like to think it would have been different if the Aggies had gotten in somewhere.

Chris Acker, who spent the last 5 seasons as an assistant coach at San Diego State, has been named the the new Head Coach at Long Beach State.

https://longbeachstate.com/news/2024/4/2/mens-basketball-chris-acker-selected-as-the-new-head-mens-basketball-coach-at-long-beach-state