For the first time in a decade, the Hawaii men’s basketball team is NCAA Tournament-bound.
Showing posts with label Big West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big West. Show all posts
UC San Diego: 2024-25 Big West Men's (and Women's) Basketball Champions
HENDERSON, Nev. — The UC San Diego women’s basketball team cut down the net in the Lee’s Family Forum after winning the Big West tournament Saturday to claim an elusive NCAA berth in the university’s first year of full Division I membership.
Workers emerged from the back, climbed up a ladder and replaced the net.
Three hours later, the UCSD men’s team cut it down again.
Snip, snip, snip. It’s a beautiful sound.
The fever dream continues for the Tritons, beating UC Irvine 75-61 to win their 30th game of the season and now go national with what has heretofore been a regional phenomenon.
That makes it a record three San Diego men’s or women’s teams to qualify for the Division I Big Dance. A fourth, San Diego State’s men, will learn if it receives an at-large berth during the Selection Show on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m., CBS).
There was some question whether top-seeded UCSD (30-4), with major metrics in the top 40, would receive an at-large berth should they lose in the Big West tournament and need one. We’ll never know because they overcame a nine-point deficit in the first half, then gradually pulled away from the second-seeded Anteaters behind a barrage of 3-pointers from senior guard Hayden Gray, one deeper than the last.
Gray finished with a Division I career-high 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting (6 of 7 from 3) on a night when UC Irvine bottled up UCSD’s top two scorers.
The other star was their defense, holding the Anteaters to 33.9% shooting and 7-foot-1 German center Bent Leuchten to 10 points after he had 23 in each of the two regular-season meetings.
The Tritons built their dream season on a five-out offense predicated on the 3-ball and a matchup zone defense that teams generally don’t see. But their real secret might be something else: turnover margin.
It’s simple mathematics. If you attempt more shots than your opponent, you have a better chance of winning. And if you turn it over, you’re not taking a shot.
They entered the game ranked fourth nationally with only 13.2% of possessions ending in a miscue, and second nationally with their opponents coughing it up 23.5%. In the semifinals Friday night against UC Santa Barbara, they had a season-low three.
A day later, they had three in the opening 12 minutes and seven by halftime, an inordinate number for them. The Anteaters converted them into seven points and built a 25-16 lead.
All things considered, though, trailing just 33-31 at intermission was a blessing of sorts, because it could have been far worse. Leading scorer Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones had six points but needed nine shots to get them. Tyler McGhie, their second leading scorer, had two points and two fouls.
Gray came to the rescue, scoring their next eight points after coach Eric Olen called timeout down nine. But Gray needs to produce the way the Anteaters defend the Tritons, putting Leuchten on Tait-Jones and parking him under the basket (given Tait-Jones’ hesitancy to shoot 3s) and face-guarding McGhie to limit his clean 3-point looks.
The unique defensive scheme worked in the first meeting, a 60-52 Anteaters win at LionTree Arena on Jan. 11. It didn’t work as well in the return game at UC Irvine, an 85-67 Tritons win on Feb. 8. McGhie had five points in each.
And it was more of the same Saturday night on a neutral floor.
The Tritons got their first lead since 12-9 on a lean-in baseline jumper by McGhie with 17:25 to go, and they never trailed again.
UC Irvine got within four with four minutes left, but Devin Tillis drove baseline and lost the ball into the basket standard. UCSD went to the other end, and Nordin Kapic splashed a 3 from the right corner.
Next Irvine possession: Another turnover.
Next UCSD possession: McGhie 3, his first of the game after being 0 of 5.
Next Irvine possession: turnover.
Next UCSD possession: A free throw by Tait-Jones (14 points) for an 11-point lead with 2:34 to go.
The Tritons — yes, the program that was Division II five years ago — are going dancing.
Snip, snip, snip.
THE MONSON STORY: FIRE A COACH AND WATCH HIM REACH THE TOURNAMENT
THE MONSON STORY: FIRE A COACH AND WATCH HIM REACH THE TOURNAMENT
There’s no better revenge against a dismissive university than by winning the Big West tournament, which is how Monson and Long Beach State responded to his dismissal as March Madness continues
Before Dan Monson, none of us could pronounce Gonzaga without blanks, blurs and stutters. He was the original mid-major coach who proved he could reach the Elite Eight at a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Wash. The year was 1999.
If he stayed, he would be Mark Few today. He left for Minnesota, and for the last quarter-century, America’s elite young coach couldn’t stop crashing. He cleaned up a repulsive academic scandal and resigned under pressure in 2006, escaping to Long Beach State, which decided to call itself “The Beach.” For 17 years, he went 275-272 and entered the season with one NCAA tournament appearance in 2012. Last Monday, Monson was fired by athletic director Bobby Smitheran, who suggested a rampant revision of a program whose best-known recent player is Bryon Russell. You remember him as the Utah guard, pushed slightly by Michael Jordan before a wrist-suspended jumper led to his sixth NBA title.
“A change in leadership creates an opportunity to re-envision the future of our storied men’s basketball program,” Smitheran said. “We are committed to finding the right person for the job — one that can harness the incredible energy of this community, build meaningful connections and elevate this program to the next level.”
Little did he know that the right person for the job was … Dan Monson.
In an industry that doesn’t care how a man once performed, he and his team accepted the news and flung themselves into the Big West tournament near Las Vegas. The Beach, or 49ers, kept playing games and kept winning. Saturday night, they needed a victory over UC Davis. Many of the seats were empty. A dude named Roxy was broadcasting the game on ESPN2. Would a program with a canned coach somehow save the man for more March Madness?
Call it sex on the Beach. Monson carries on, with resumes floating around the country, when college basketball burns coaches in flames. His advantage is a berth in the big tournament, which should remind lost souls that he can coach a team. At 62, he still wants a gig with another program, and why the hell not after a 74-70 victory? And you think the AD should have waited until after the season was over?
“God has blessed me with a great career and these kids have been awesome to coach. When Jim Harbaugh says who's got it better than him, somebody needs to tell him Dan Monson,” he said as his players celebrated in the stands.
Why not simply accept the grace and move on? His celebrated pal, Few, seemed to suggest as much in a text. “I got the '99 run at Gonzaga, but, as Mark Few texted me ‘Why don't we have a run in the first year and a run in the last?’ But I don't think this is my last year,” he said. “I love coaching. I love teams. I need a new challenge. It's life. It's onto the next chapter.”
Can Long Beach State, which has dealt with leakage in a 20-year-old campus pyramid, do any better with someone else? UCLA, coached by Mick Cronin, didn’t make the tournament. Nor did USC, which lost to Monson this season despite the presence of Bronny James. Stanford fired its coach. California went 13-19. Yet here is Monson, who better make sure he still has insurance, ready to keep winning and making money. A few days earlier, he said it was “time for a new voice.”
Maybe it’s him. “Being in it is one thing. Winning it is another and we're happy,” Monson said. “We feel like we deserve it, but we're not done. We didn't come here to get to the championship game. We came here to go to the NCAA tournament. These kids have been awesome to coach. They’re great people.”
His players felt horrible that he’ll lose employment. In hindsight, maybe Smitheran spurred a big rally. “It was a silent moment for everyone when we heard. The guys became motivated,” said Lassina Traore, who scored 25 points. “We know that firing him is not his fault. We lost the games. The leaders agreed, we had to have his back. We weren’t going to let him down.”
Said Traore’s brother, Aboubacar, who had seven points and 13 rebounds: “The main thing was, we were helping the coach. For us, it would be really bad for him to leave without winning a championship. He has been a great mentor for us. He could have easily said, all right. But he wanted to do his job to the end. He still wants to win. So we’re gonna do the same thing because he’s not giving up.”
Not once did Monson rip the school. He was filled with class. “What a great week. What a great week,” he said. “What a privilege to have a team that has the kind of character to figure out a way to win three straight days. We said we were in Vegas. We said we were in a heavyweight fight. I am so proud of them and I’m lucky to ride with these guys. I’ve been to the NCAA tournament. My wife says she’s never had drugs in her life, but it’s got to be a similar feeling. It’s a high I’m expecting these guys to enjoy. It’s a team that can win games in this tournament. We’ll find out.”
Wisely, someone asked Monson how he’d like to be remembered. “He did it the right way on and off the court,” he said. “It’s not just about wins and losses. It’s doing it with principle. It’s a tough business. I’m OK with whatever other people do, but I have to look in that mirror. I tell parents to trust me with your young man. In four to five years, I’ll give you a grown man. I’m proud of all that.”
Stanford works. Vanderbilt works. Why not Louisville, which needs a cleanser?
With another victory or two, consider it a massive job promotion for a man who deserves much better.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.
Long Beach State: 2023-24 Big West Men's Basketball Champions
Long Beach State entered the 2024 Big West men’s tournament a bit adrift. The once-proud Beach finished the regular season 17-14; they’d lost their last five games and an early victory over Michigan had proven misleading.
They responded by parting ways with coach Dan Monson—a veteran of the coaching ranks who helped mold Gonzaga into a proto-national power in the late 1990s. He would be allowed to coach his team in the conference tournament but would not return in 2025.
How did he respond? By leading Long Beach State to the NCAA tournament.
On Saturday, the Beach edged UC Davis 74-70 in the Big West tournament title game to complete an improbable conference tournament run in a year chock-full of them.
To make the moment even more special, Monson’s 90-year-old father Don—a decorated former coach of Idaho and Oregon—was in attendance.
The younger Monson discussed what the moment meant to him after the game.
On Sunday, Monson and Long Beach State will hear their names called for the Big Dance for the first time since 2012.
What a week.
UC Santa Barbara: 2022-23 Big West Men's Basketball Champions
UC Santa Barbara punched its ticket to the Big Dance with a 72-62 victory over Cal State Fullerton for the Big West championship.
The Gauchos last made the NCAA Tournament in 2021, losing in the first round to No. 5 Creighton.
Sophomore guard Ajay Mitchell led all scorers with 20 points for UC Santa Barbara. Three other players scored in double figures for the Gauchos.
UC Santa Barbara shared the regular-season title with UC Irvine, who Cal State Fullerton eliminated from the Big West Tournament on Friday.
Cal State Fullerton: 2021-22 Big West Men's Basketball Champions
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — E.J. Anosike had 22 points and eight rebounds, Damari Milstead hit five 3-pointers and finished with 17 points and CSU Fullerton rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Long Beach State 72-71 on Saturday night to the Big West Conference tournament.
The Titans, who have won four games in a row, clinched a berth into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
Tray Maddox Jr. had 13 points and six assists for Fullerton (21-10) and Jalen Harris scored 10.
Tobias Rotegaard and Jadon Jones sandwiched 3-pointers around a jumper by Joel Murray to give Long Beach State a 54-50 lead midway through the second half but Anosike scored nine points and Harris the other five as CSU Fullerton answered with a 14-2 run to take an eight-point lead about 5 minutes later and the Titans led the rest of the way.
Jones hit a 3-pointer to pull the Beach within a point with 38 seconds left and, after the teams traded turnovers, Milstead was fouled and missed the front end of the 1-and-1 with 19 seconds left but Latrell Wrightsell Jr. poked away the ball at the other end and Long Beach State failed to get off a potential winning shot in the closing seconds.
Murray led Long Beach State (20-12) with 24 points and Colin Slater, the conference's player of the year, scored 23, hitting 5 of 9 from 3-point range. Jordan Roberts added 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Slater scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers, as Long Beach State jumped to a 29-15 lead with 4:37 left in the first half but Maddox scored eight points and Anosike added six in a 17-2 run that gave the Titans a one-point lead at the break. Maddox converted a three-point play with 55 seconds left and Wrightsell stole a pass and found Maddox for a 3-pointer to make it 32-31 just 20 seconds later.
Wrightsell and Fullerton's Jadon Jones were called for a double technical in the closing seconds of the first half.
UC Santa Barbara: 2021 Big West Men's Basketball Champions
LAS VEGAS -- — JaQuori McLaughlin scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half to help UC Santa Barbara beat UC Irvine 79-63 on Saturday night and win the Big West Conference Tournament.
The Gauchos have won 18 of their last 19 since losing back-to-back games against UCI on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28 to open conference play and earned their first berth into the NCAA Tournament since 2011.
McLaughlin hit two 3s and Robinson Idehen scored four points in a 10-0 run that gave the Gauchos their biggest lead at 59-44 with 8:22 to play. The Anteaters, who had their six-game win streak snapped, trailed by double figures the rest of the way.
Miles Norris added 19 points and Amadou Sow had 13 points and 11 rebounds for UCSB.
Collin Welp lead UCI (18-9) with 22 points and DJ Davis added 11.
UCSB, which led for 37 minutes, 31 seconds, committed a season-low tying seven turnovers and scored 18 points off 10 Anteaters miscues.
The Gauchos shot 56.7% from the field in the second half and made 29 of 58 overall.
UC Irvine won the regular season and conference tournament crowns to earn a No. 13 seed in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The Anteaters beat No. 4 seed Kansas State before losing to Oregon in the second round.
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For more AP college basketball coverage: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/AP--Top25
UC Irvine: 2018-19 Big West Men's Basketball Champions
They met in Fullerton first and then Irvine, and then, Saturday night, they met in the middle.
In Anaheim. At Honda Center. In the finale of the Big West tournament.
Turns out it didn’t matter where the games started because each finished in the same place: with UC Irvine on top.
The Anteaters defeated Cal State Fullerton 92-64 with a blitz from the opening tip led by junior guard Max Hazzard.
With the victory, Irvine (30-5) advances to the NCAA tournament for the second time in school history. The 2014-15 Anteaters were seeded 13th and sent to Seattle, where they lost their first game to Louisville 57-55.
The win also avenged their loss in the Big West final a year ago to the Titans (16-17), who were trying to make consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament.
Hazzard delivered the early punches and freshman teammate Collin Welp the final knockout.
Hazzard had 15 of his 23 points in the first half and Welp 12 of his 23 in the opening 10 minutes of the second.
Fullerton’s Khalil Ahmad, who scored 60 points total in his first two tournament games, missed eight shots to start Saturday and finished with six points.
Hazzard began by making three three-pointers in the game’s first four minutes. He added a driving layup before finally missing another three-point try.
The Anteaters made 10 of their first 13 shots overall and, after barely 10 minutes, had ballooned the difference to 30-12. The Titans closed to within 33-22 on a Kyle Allman Jr. three-pointer 4:46 before halftime.
But Irvine reasserted itself to close on a 9-2 run to restore the 18-point edge — 42-24 — after 20 minutes.
From there, the Anteaters continued to pour it on, burying Fullerton with an overwhelming display of offensive efficiency.
These two schools are conference rivals that share Orange County and equal measures of respect and distaste for one another.
The Anteaters won both previous meetings against the Titans this year, 63-46 in January and 60-53 nearly a month later.
At that point, the schools had played 110 times in men’s basketball. The record for each was the same: 55-55.
Two institutions that sit roughly 23 miles apart couldn’t have been any closer.
In the Big West tournament, however, Fullerton had carved out a sizable gap. The Titans entered Saturday 7-2 against Irvine when the stakes were one-and-done.
In 2018, they knocked off the third-seeded Anteaters as the No. 4 seed 71-55 in a title game Irvine led only once after the first three minutes.
Both these programs arrived at Honda Center riding upward trends established over the past few seasons.
Irvine has claimed the Big West’s regular-season title four times in six years, reached three consecutive tournament finals now and won at least 20 games in six of the past seven seasons for coach Russell Turner.
The Titans have won 10 Big West games in each of the past three years after winning 10 total in coach Dedrique Taylor’s first three seasons at the school.
Cal State Fullerton: 2017-18 Big West Men's Basketball Champions
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Kyle Allman scored 26 points, and Khalil Ahmad added 23 to lead Cal State Fullerton to a 71-55 win over UC Irvine Saturday in the Big West Tournament championship.
Allman was in a groove all game and had a glorious, two-handed breakaway dunk with 4:29 left to put the exclamation mark on the game. He made his first four 3-point attempts. That gave the fourth-seeded Titans a 65-49 lead. When he was at the free-throw line at the end of the game, Titans fans chanted "MVP! MVP!"
Allman made 8 of 16 shots.
Cal State Fullerton won the Big West tournament for the first time since 2008, making the Ttians' upcoming NCAA Tournament appearance the first in a decade and first under coach Dedrique Taylor.
After going scoreless in the semifinals, UC Irvine's Evan Leonard scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half.
Both teams suffered from poor shooting in the first half. The Titans shot 25.9 percent from the field and the Anteaters 30.3 percent.
CELEBRITY SIGHTING
Lakers rookie guard Lonzo Ball sat courtside for the championship game. Ball played high school basketball with UC Irvine forward John Edgar Jr. and Fullerton guard Austen Awosika at Chino Hills (California) High.
BIG PICTURE
Cal State Fullerton: The Titans made their mark this season by beating top seed UC Davis three times this year, including the Big West semifinals.
UC Irvine: As UC Santa Barbara coach Joe Pasternack said, the Anteaters are the "gold standard" of the conference. Even with a young team, the Anteaters advanced to the Big West Tournament final, so the future should be bight.
UP NEXT
Cal State Fullerton: The Titans are battle-tested, winning close games in the quarterfinals and semifinals to get to the championship but controlled the tournament championship most of the game.
UC Irvine: The Anteaters are putting themselves in good position in the offseason. They played for the tournament championship for the second consecutive season but lost both. The Anteaters have also played for the tournament title for the fourth time in six years.
Pacific: 2012-13 Big West Champions
The Pacific Tigers defeated the UC Irvine Anteaters, 64-55, to win the Big West championship and clinch a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Pacific started out dominating the game, allowing the Anteaters to score just 25.9 percent of their field goals in the first half. They went into halftime up 30-21, but UC Irvine tried to mount a comeback. They used a 7-2 run early in the second half to cut the deficit down to four points, but that's the closest they ever got. The Anteaters only held the lead once in this game, way back at the 16:29 mark in the first half.
Tony Gill came off the bench to score 19 points, and Lorenzo McCloud added 16. The Tigers had their own issues finding the bucket, shooting 39.6 percent from the field. Daman Starring and Chris McNealy led UCI with 19 and 12 points, respectively.
This is Pacific's eighth appearance in the NCAA tournament, and their first since 2006. In their last tourney appearance, they lost to Boston College in the first round.
No miracle needed on Friday
Well, the guys took care of UC Irvine, without needed last-second heroics.
We would win 77-63, and while out perimeter shooting leave much to be desired, the great thing was we didn't need to havwe the game go to a miracle shot. If there was one closest to it, it would go to soon-to-be-captain Artis Gant, who drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer in the 1st half. Afterwards, the 49ers played their game.
When one of our guys attempted a 3-pointer, I turned to my folks to see their reaction, if they were leaping the the air, eliciting a roar, I nodded my head, then slowly turned to the other sides of the crowd, nodding my head. As the final seconds ticked, I inspected Pete's Posse, congratulated Prospector Pete, who I like to call "Boss" as I am his right-hand man, and thanked the UC Irvine folks for their participation.
And as I got on the the band bus, I changed my expression to a focused look. Our work at the Anaheim Convention Center was not done yet. We would have to beat Cal Poly first.
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