It’s anybody’s ballgame
If the Big West Conference regular season showed anything, it was that there will be no sure things when the conference tournament gets underway tonight at the Anaheim Convention Center.
UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton tied for first place in the regular-season standings with Pacific a game behind and UC Irvine two back.
It is only the second tri-championship in Big West history, and the type of parity that has many of the league’s coaches scrambling to find a way to survive this weekend’s tournament.
“I think a whole bunch of teams can win it,” Fullerton Coach Bob Burton said. “A lot of it is matchups and who you play. I wouldn’t be surprised if one through five or six win it. Nothing would surprise me.”
The stakes are high: an NCAA tournament berth goes to the winner. There aren’t many other guarantees.
Should UC Santa Barbara fall short of the tournament title, the Gauchos are guaranteed a berth in the NIT by virtue of tiebreakers over Northridge and Fullerton. But that’s it.
“Everybody is dangerous in this tournament,” said Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell, whose 2004 team made the tournament final out of a No. 6 seeding. “If you make just one mistake at the wrong moment, your season could be done.”
The Matadors could be the poster children for how tight the conference was. They played seven conference games between Jan. 31 and Feb. 28 and five of them were decided by eight or fewer points.
Long Beach State was 3-13 in conference and finished eighth after losing its last five Big West games, but during that stretch it lost to Northridge by four, to Irvine by seven and to Santa Barbara by two in overtime.
“Every game we’ve had has been a tough game,” said Fullerton’s Burton. “We just didn’t have many easy games. We could have lost games that we won and vice versa.”
Santa Barbara and Northridge were seeded Nos. 1 and 2, giving them byes into the semifinals. Fullerton and Pacific will skip the first round and pick up play in the quarterfinals.
The momentum going in seems to be with Santa Barbara, the preseason favorite that started conference play 3-3 and then won nine of its last 10 conference games to take the No. 1 seeding.
The run of must-win games gives Coach Bob Williams hope that his team can handle the pressure of the tournament.
“Our guys have responded well to those pressure-type games where there has been a sense of urgency,” he said. “There will never be a time with more sense of urgency than when you roll into the Big West tournament.”
If there is a dark horse pick for the tournament, it’s UC Irvine. The Anteaters won five of their last seven conference games with victories over Northridge and Santa Barbara during that span.
Irvine was the only team to sweep Santa Barbara this season.
“They have our attention,” Williams said. “And so does everyone else in the top five.”
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Schedule, capsules
Pairings for the Big West Conference tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center. Tickets are $25 today and Thursday, $35 Friday-Saturday, $70 for an all-session pass:
TONIGHT’S GAMES
UC Irvine (15-15) vs. Long Beach State (6-24), 6 p.m. -- The Anteaters swept the regular-season series, winning 70-48 on Feb. 2 and 64-57 on Feb. 28. They have won five of their last six games but are 3-14 in games played away from campus this season, including 0-4 at the Anaheim Convention Center. All-conference guard Donovan Morris, the Big West scoring leader at 21.0 points a game, leads the 49ers, who have lost their last seven games.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (12-17) vs. UC Riverside (8-20), 8 p.m. -- The Mustangs, a conference tournament finalist last season, have struggled with their shooting all season and finished the regular season at 40.7%, last in the conference. They are without third-leading scorer Dawin Whiten, who had foot surgery Feb. 25. The Highlanders split the season series with Cal Poly, defeating the Mustangs, 62-58, on Feb. 2 and losing in overtime, 70-63, on Feb. 28. They were 3-3 in their final six games.
THURSDAY’S GAMES
Cal State Fullerton (21-8) vs.
first-round winner, 6 p.m.
Pacific (21-9) vs. first-round winner,
8 p.m.
FRIDAY’S SEMIFINALS
UC Santa Barbara (23-7) vs.
second-round winner, 5:30 p.m.
Cal State Northridge (20-9) vs. second-round winner, 8 p.m.
SATURDAY’S FINAL
8 p.m.
-- Peter Yoon
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