Two of our OOC opponents are playing today. Norfolk St is a 16 seed getting crushed by Florida. Grand Canyon got beat bad by Maryland.

I thought this was an interesting article. It's behind a paywall:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6220777/2025/03/21/ucsd-ncaa-tournament-bryce-pope-transfer-portal/

“My story is something you’ll probably see going forward,” Pope said. “It’s kind of like, is the grass greener? Kind of buyer’s remorse. That’s going to be something that happens.”

I'm back for another post having realized that UCI plays in the NIT quarterfinals today as the #1 overall seed. The Big West is still playing!

The game was a very dramatic overtime win for the Anteaters, 81-77, over UAB with their usual stars, Bent Leutchen and Devin Tillis leading the scoring and rebounding for UCI. Hope some of you got to see it on ESPN2. The Big West might get an NIT championship for the first time, I think, since 1983, when Fresno State won when it was in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. Irvine plays second seed North Texas State on Tuesday. The game will be televised on ESPN.

This was a really good basketball game. Myles Che was outstanding also and he's only a sophomore. Irvine and San Diego were definitely the best of the Big West this year.

irvine has been the standard to shoot for in the conference for awhile. They haven’t been dependent on transfers, rather getting good recruits and keeping them in the program. At the home game vs them I was looking at the game program hoping to see 5 senior starters; unfortunately, they have key returners (although Tillis and Bent will be tough to replace). They seem to be able to win with different offensive styles and their defense never seems to take a night off.

Good point about Che. He had a poor first half but really came through in the clutch. Wev can hope he transfers, but is it the case that all of the Big West's UC schools tend to retain guys who come either as frosh or transfers? Seems that way. Has to be largely because of the coaches, no?

The fans over on the Big West Boards are following the transfer portal and, as of today, there are 44 players from BW teams who have entered the portal. LB and Fullerton have been hit the hardest. Both of those teams have 10 players in the portal. Riverside was looking like they had the players in place to be one of the top teams in the BW next season after a very good year this year but some of their best players have entered the portal.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bigwest/bw-transfers-t29507.html

how can Devin Askew still be eligible. One season at Kentucky, one at Texas, 2 years at Cal and one at Long Beach. That’s kind of ridiculous. Following the ex-Ag Mikey Henn career path.

Just a guess, but maybe one redshirt year, plus two covid years? I read that a school can allow a player to have six years if one of their seasons resulted in playing less than half a season.

Hopefully never but I'm sure it will at some point. Got to make more money by whatever means necessary!

he’s post COVID. 20 plus games at Cal over 2 seasons in addition to his 3 full seasons. Bizarre

I endorse this move!!

Again, just guessing, but if a player playing in 2020 got 6v years, his two years at Cal counted as one so he has one more year. Knowing how the NCAA srcutinizes these things, I'm sure it's legit, just not sure how.

I think it’s the 20-21 COVID year.

Congratulations.

New Mexico hires UC San Diego's Olen as coach

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/44467550/sources-new-mexico-hire-uc-san-diego-eric-olen-coach

He's been tremendously successful and this year's team lost a very close game to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament. He 240-119 at UC San Diego and now we'll be playing against his team again starting in 2026.

Here's a more detailed article about Olen:

https://themw.com/news/2025/03/30/eric-olen-named-head-coach-of-lobo-mens-basketball/

Just our luck. Since New Mexico is in the Mountain West, the Aggies will have to face Olen's team twice a year now.

He’s shown that he’s a great coach but, if we’re going to build a stronger program, we need to be able to compete with well coached, good teams. So I welcome the competition. They’ll set the bar high and we’ll need to meet the challenge or be left behind.

LA JOLLA, Calif. – UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards has named Clint Allard '08 the new head men's basketball coach of the Tritons. Allard becomes the 13th head coach in program history, and the second at the Division I level. Allard will report to Edwards in his new role.

"I have the distinct privilege to announce Clint Allard as our next head men's basketball coach," said UC San Diego Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards. "As an alumnus of our program, he knows what it means to be a Triton. His successes as our associate head coach were put on full display as we transitioned to Division I, won the Big West regular season and tournament titles, and competed on the national stage. His ability to recruit elite scholar-athletes, his coaching acumen, and his vision for continued success in this competitive climate make him the ideal candidate to lead our program into the future. I'm excited for the Coach Allard era to begin!"

https://ucsdtritons.com/news/2025/3/30/clint-allard-08-named-mens-basketball-head-coach.aspx

#1 seed UC Irvine vs #2 North Texas NIT Semi-final game today at 4 pm on ESPN.

Irvine is currently a 1.5 point underdog according to the oddsmakers.

North Texas State seems to be all recent transfers, but they're very good. Impressively quick. They held UCI without a field goal for the first 7 and a half minutes of the half. They also have a rebounding edge and shot out to a 15 point lead. (One thing I've noticed about Bent Leuchten, for all his size, he has weak hands and often loses rebounds to shorter, stronger players.) The Anteaters have hung on though and made some good adjustments on offense to tie the game at the half 30-30.

Rough start for the Anteaters but they rallied to come back for a tie at the half.

Not a big crowd - so many empty seats - even the good ones

Irvine wins 69-67 and will play in the NIT championship game on Thursday.

And the Big West's season continues when only four other conferences are still playing after today. Irvine has a chance to get the leagues second NIT title ever if they can beat the winner of the Chattanooga-Loyola game tonight. The Anteaters got some great performances by Tillis and Leutchen plus two others in double figures.