UC Irvine takes momentum into Big West Tournament
UC Irvine men’s basketball coach Russell Turner took extra pride in watching his team celebrate its latest Big West Conference regular-season title.
UCI (22-10 overall, 15-5 Big West) had just returned to the floor after knocking off visiting Cal State Bakersfield 52-44 on Saturday night to clinch a share of the conference championship, its sixth title in 13 seasons under Turner.
Joining them in celebration was the UCI women’s team, which also clinched a conference championship on Saturday.
“This is really special,” Turner said. “Never had it like this here, championships with both programs, something that’s really hard to do. A lot of people get a lot of credit for that.”
Both teams head into the Big West Conference Tournament this week at Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. as the top seeds in their respective brackets.
The UCI men’s team is scheduled to play Thursday at noon against the winner of today’s matchup between No. 8-seed Cal State Bakersfield and No. 9 CSUN. The Irvine women’s team is scheduled to play Wednesday at noon against the winner of today’s game between No. 8 CSUN and No. 9 Bakersfield.
The UCI men shared the regular-season conference title with UC Santa Barbara (24-7, 15-5). The Anteaters split their two meetings against the Gauchos, but UCI earned the top seed based on a better record against thirdplace UC Riverside. Irvine won both meetings against UCR this season, while
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UCSB lost both matchups.
Irvine hasn’t had nearly as much success in the conference tournament under Turner as it has in the regular season. The Anteaters have won the tournament just twice since Turner was hired 13 years ago, most recently in 2019.
Cal State Fullerton (1812, 12-6) is the defending tournament champion and the Titans arrive in Henderson as the hottest team in the conference, winning their past six games to finish fourth in the standings.
Fullerton will also be well rested, having played just one game in 17 days entering their tournament opener against fifth-seeded Hawaii on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
Two of Fullerton’s final three games were cancelled because the opponent did not have enough healthy players.
Long Beach State (17-15, 11-9) missed out on a firstround bye when it fell to UC Davis in double overtime on Saturday.
LBSU was expected to drop off after starting point guard Joel Murray went down with a seasonending wrist injury against UCI on Jan. 7, but Long Beach still managed to go 10-6 in conference play without Murray, the lone first-team all-big West returner from last season.
LBSU, which averages the third-most rebounds per game in the nation (41.0), is scheduled to open the tournament tonight against last-place Cal Poly (7-24, 1-18), losers of 18 consecutive games.
Cal Poly has recently shown it can compete with the top teams in the conference, however.
The Mustangs pushed UCI to the wire on Feb. 20 before losing 59-56, and then forced Riverside into overtime on Saturday before losing 73-72.
UCR (21-11, 14-6) remains the biggest surprise this season.
Picked to finish fifth in conference play in the preseason coaches’ poll, Riverside has been near the top of the standings from start to finish.
UCR is scheduled to open the tournament against sixth-seeded UC Davis on Thursday night.
Riverside is 7-0 in games decided by two points or fewer this season.
“I believe that this collection of experiences will be hugely valuable to us in the Big West Championships,” Riverside coach Mike Magpayo said. “The ability to find a way under any circumstance is something this team has proven over and over again.”
CSUN (7-24, 4-16) is looking for its first tournament win since advancing to the championship game in 2014.
The Matadors split their two meetings against Bakersfield this season, most recently beating the Roadrunners 75-68 on Feb. 23.
CSUN also owns the biggest upset during conference play, knocking off UCSB 72-67 on Feb. 4.
Bakersfield beat CSUN 58-45 in their tournament opener last season.