in 93 UNLV and New Mexico State (didn’t realize that!) made it. There’s a few years before this where both of them made it. But, you’re right - never in the (mostly) California version.

https://bigwest.org/sports/2022/9/24/mbb-big-west-ncaa-tournament-history.aspx

Kind of fun that Davis will be playing with those schools in a couple years even though UCD never over-lapped with them in the BW.

Games of Dec. 19:

UC Irvine (away, 10-1/2-0) 92, Belmont (9-3) 80
Long Beach State (away, 5-8/2-0) 79, Pepperdine (5-8) 76

Anteaters roll all the way in Nashville.

I watched a good portion of the Irvine win over Belmont on the road. The Eaters are a really good basketball team. They play disciplined and smart and, from what I've seen, they're solid on both sides of the ball. Their big man, Bent Leuchten, is as good as any big man I've seen in the BW in a long time.

I've only seen UCSD play for a few minutes this year but they too are very impressive. The Tritons and the Eaters are definitely the frontrunners in the Big West by a good margin at this point.

Irvine is just always good. Well coached, very disciplined and tough as nails. Remember in 2019 when they had a little run in the tournament and Russell Turner was a hot commodity - until he made a borderline homophobic comment toward an Oregon player. Cost him some big opportunities, and kept Irvine at the top of the conference.

Out of curiosity, I googled Russell Turner and found he's been at UCI since 2010. He had a rough start but turned it around in the 2012-13 season going 21-16 and a spot in the CIT. I was surprised, though, to see that he's only taken the Anteaters to two NCAA tournaments in 2015 and 2019, despite 8 20+ win seasons. It shows how competitive the Big West has been.

Or the big west bid should go to the regular season winner rather than a tourney winner if we want to send the best team.

Don’t get me wrong, the bid from the tourney makes that fun but it rewards a team who gets hot for one single week.

Early games of Dec. 21:

Duquesne (4-8) 70, UC Irvine (away, 10-2/1-0) 54
UNLV (6-5) 66, UC Riverside (away, 8-5/2-0) 53
CSUN (home, 8-4/1-1) 81, Chicago State (0-14) 57

Late games of Dec. 21:

Omaha (5-9) 86, Cal Poly (away, 6-8/0-2) 82
UC San Diego (away, 11-2/2-0) 77, San Diego (3-9) 71
Portland State (7-5) 59, CSU Bakersfield (home, 6-7/0-2) 58

Games of Dec. 22:

Missouri State (7-5) 68, UC Santa Barbara (away, 7-5/0-2) 56
Wyoming (7-5) 73, CSU Fullerton (home, 4-9/0-2) 69
Long Beach State (home, 6-8/2-0) 83, La Sierra (0-15) 57
Hawai`i (home, 7-3/0-1) 78, Charlotte (6-5) 61

Games of Dec. 23:

North Dakota State (11-4) 94, CSU Bakersfield (away, 6-8/0-2) ,60
Nebraska (9-2) 69, Hawai`i (home, 7-4/0-1) 55

Technically, Hawai`i is playing in a tournament so this is a neutral site, but not really.

Game of Dec. 25

Hawai`i (home, 8-4/0-1) 73, Oakland (4-9) 70, OT

Games of Dec. 28:

UC Santa Barbara (home, 8-5/0-2) 89, Westcliff (5-5) 72
UC San Diego (home, 121-2/2-0 )109 , Occidental (4-5) 50
CSUN (home, 9-4/1-1) 87, La Sierra (0-16) 52
CSU Fullerton (home, 5-9/0-2) 93, Nobel (1-10) 60

FYI, Nobel is NCAA Div. 2, Occidental is in NCAA Div. 3, the others are NAIA schools. Looks like the Big West wanted some easy wins before league play.

Game of Dec. 29:

UC Riverside (home, 9-5/2-0) 81, St. Thomas (10-5) 79 OT

Game of Dec. 30:

UC Irvine (away, 11-2/1-0) 71, Cal Baptist (7-7) 63

Lancers auditioning for future Big West slot?

Games of Jan. 2:

UC Irvine (11-2/2-0) 98, Cal Poly (home, 6-9/0-3) 89 OT
CSUN (9-4/2-1) 95, CSU Fullerton (home, 4-10/0-3) 65
UC Riverside (10-5/1-2) 76, Long Beach State (home, 6-9/2-1) 60
UC Santa Barbara (9-5/1-2) 64, Hawai’i (home, 8-5/0-2) 61

Cal Poly is going to be tough to beat at home as shown by taking the Anteaters to overtime.
I watched the second half of the Hawai`i game. The Gauchos built an 13 point lead with a 15-0 run in the second half and almost blew it at the end making only one field goal over the last 7 minutes.

Games of Jan. 4:

UC San Diego (13-2/3-0) 90, CSU Fullerton (home, 5-11/0-3) 51
UC Irvine (home, 10-2/1-0) 81, UC Riverside (10-6/1-3) 57
CSU Bakersfield (home, 8-8/2-2) 80, Long Beach State (6-10/2-2) 65
Hawai’i (home, 9-5/1-2) 68, Cal Poly (6-10/0-4) 55

It's hard to believe that CSU will be able to host a game tonight with all the fires in that area, but there is no news about it and I am sure that a basketball game is not a priority nor should it be in the middle of this terrible conflagration. They're going ahead with the game.

Games of Jan. 9:

UC San Diego (home, 14-2/4-0) 95, Cal Poly (6-11/0-5) 68
UC Irvine (14-2/4-0) 77, CSUN (home, 11-5/3-2) 67
Hawai’i (10-5/2-2) 83, UC Riverside (home, 10-7/3-2) 76
UC Santa Barbara (home, 10-5/2-2) 78, CSU Bakersfield (8-9/2-3) 66

Tritons and Anteaters still looking very tough. Look at how UCI handled the same CSUN team that beat the Aggies last week.

Games of Jan. 11:

UC Irvine (15-2/5-0) 60, UC San Diego (home, 14-3/4-1) 52
Hawai’i (11-5/3-2) 95, CSU Fullerton (home, 5-13/0-6) 86
UC Santa Barbara (11-5/3-2) 75, Cal Poly (home, 6-12/0-6) 72
CSU Bakersfield (home, 9-9/3-3) 94, CSUN (11-6/3-3) 90 - The Roadrunners were down 20 at the half.

The game between UCI and UCSD was a key contest in the Big West this year. Looks like the Anteaters are in good shape with a road win.

Big West Conference Standings:

Kind of funny that there's two crappy teams that most of the average teams have beaten up on. Davis, Northridge and Hawaii all beat both of the bad teams. Santa Barbara, Long Beach and Riverside each beat one of them. That's one positive for Bakersfield as they haven't played either one yet. Will be interesting to see how those middle teams shake out.