UC Santa Barbara Isn’t Apologizing : Southeast: Gauchos feel they deserve to be in tournament and they are, facing Houston today.

The eyes of Cal State Long Beach are upon UC Santa Barbara today, watching the dribbles that could have been theirs and the rebounds that would have been theirs until the 49ers got low-bridged by the NCAA selection committee on Sunday.

The Gauchos are here, facing Houston in the first round of the Southeast Regionals, because the 49ers aren’t. And the 49ers aren’t here because the NCAA got peeved at the timing of the Big West Conference tournament final--Never on Sunday--and decided to turn Long Beach’s sure thing into a multiple-choice stumper:

a) If Long Beach beats No. 2-ranked Nevada Las Vegas in the Big West final, Long Beach goes.

b) If Long Beach loses, Santa Barbara goes.

You didn’t need a crib sheet to know what happened next.

Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington cried robbery and lashed out at the NCAA for not picking the right team, which, by way of extrapolation, made Santa Barbara the wrong team.

Fact: Santa Barbara (20-8) had two fewer victories than Long Beach (22-8).

Fact: Santa Barbara lost a regular-season game on its home court to a 5-23 UC Irvine team.

Fact: Santa Barbara lost in the first round of the Big West tournament to a 15-14 team from the University of the Pacific.

“We won 12 of our last 16 games,” UCSB Coach Jerry Pimm said, building his case. “And we lost by two at (New Mexico State), by two at UNLV, by one at home (against Irvine) and by three in the tournament.

“We were competitive in all those games, going into the last possession.”

Pimm also pointed to Santa Barbara’s season-series sweep of Long Beach--”A big factor”--and the Gauchos’ 78-70 upset of Las Vegas on Feb. 26, which “gave us a shot in the arm” come pairings time.

Pimm’s conclusion?

“I feel like we deserve to be here,” he says.

The Southeast Regional seedings have the same kind of feel. Santa Barbara landed in the middle of the pack, seeded ninth of 16 teams and drawing eighth-seeded Houston (25-7) in today’s 9 a.m. (PST) playoff opener. A victory over Houston would move the Gauchos into Saturday’s second round against either Michigan State (26-5) or Murray State (21-8).

The second round would be a new experience for Santa Barbara. This marks the third consecutive postseason appearance for the Gauchos’ Eric McArthur-Carrick DeHart nucleus, but Santa Barbara was ousted early in both 1988 (by Maryland in the NCAAs) and 1989 (by Wichita State in the NIT).

Statistically, the Gauchos do many things well. They led the Big West in scoring defense, rebounding and three-point percentage.

So how did they lose eight games this season? Seventeen turnovers a game, that’s how.

McArthur averages 15.7 points and led the conference in both rebounding (13.3) and blocked shots (3.3), which at least gives Santa Barbara the quality to counter Houston’s quantity. The Cougars are a strong rebounding team, led by 6-9 forward Carl Herrera (9.2 rebounds) and 6-8 forward Craig Upchurch (7.0).