Randy Youngman is a former Page 2 columnist with the Orange County Register
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Parity Creates Wild-Open Battle for Trophy
Page 2 From The Tournament
ANAHEIM -- There are upsets – and then there are UPSETS.
During a coaches’ conference call earlier this week, UC Santa Barbara’s Bob Williams, the dean of Big West coaches, alluded to the parity during the regular season when he declared, “I’m not going to be surprised if any one of the top four (seeds) doesn’t make it to the second round.”
As if on cue, Williams’ second-seeded Gauchos became the first domino to tumble, during Thursday’s opening quarterfinal matchup at Honda Center.
But no one could have expected the lopsided final score: Cal Poly 69, UCSB 38.
That is not a typographical error.
No. 7 seed Cal Poly, which entered postseason play with a 10-19 record and nine losses in its past 11 games, absolutely dominated a 21-8 UCSB team featuring Big West Player of the Year Alan Williams.
2It was also the same Cal Poly team that had lost at home to the Gauchos by 16 points six days before the tournament.
No, it wasn’t surprising; it was stunning.
“We certainly didn’t expect to come out and get beat like this and play like this,” a dumbfounded Bob Williams said afterward. “To be dominated like that for the last 35 minutes is unacceptable.”
The Gauchos actually sprinted to an early 7-0 lead and led, 12-7, six minutes into the game, but then Cal Poly shifted into overdrive.
A 15-0 run propelled the Mustangs into a commanding lead and another 12-0 run late in the first half increased their lead to 41-20 at the intermission.
With apologies to Yogi Berra, it was over long before it was over.
Cal Poly increased its lead to as many as 36 points in the second half before settling for its largest winning margin in Big West Tournament history, as well as holding the Gauchos to their lowest point total in tournament history.
Even winning Cal Poly coach Joe Callero, who had said during the conference call that he thought his team had a chance to pull the upset, conceded he didn’t expect such domination.
“Six days ago Santa Barbara beat us on our home court by 16 points,” Callero said. “We knew we needed to improve about 10 percent in 10 different areas . . . We hit on all cylinders today. If you do everything well, magical things can happen.”
The magic on this afternoon was making Alan Williams – all 6-feet-7, 280 pounds of him – all but disappear with a swarming defense that pressured UCSB’s wing players before they could get the ball to the big guy inside.
“The difference was our defensive intensity on the perimeter,” Callero said. “Last week when we played them, we allowed the reversal of the ball too freely, so we stepped up and took about three or four feet of space (away).”
And it took the Gauchos out of their game.
“We didn’t play our style of basketball,” said a somber Alan Williams, who was limited to 14 points (on 7-of-17 shooting) and 10 rebounds before fouling out with 7:06 left. “It’s crazy for us to come out here and put on a performance like that . . . We don’t like the taste in our mouth; it’s sickening.”
Or as UCSB guard Michael Bryson (team-high 19 points) put it, “They punked us, offensively and defensively, the entire game, and we didn’t respond. Our team just got punked.”
Did someone say the Mustangs were the No. 7 seed and had a losing record?
“We got the (No.) 7 seed, but I just think it’s a number,” said Cal Poly forward Joel Awich, who hit all four of his field goal attempts and contributed 11 points and five rebounds in the victory. “It doesn’t say who we are.”
No, the score said it all.
UCI BLOCK PARTY: Another day, another block party, another defense-dominated victory for Big West regular-season champion UC Irvine, the latest a 63-43 romp over UC Riverside in the tournament quarterfinals.
The top-seeded Anteaters (23-10) eliminated the eighth-seeded Highlanders (10-21) with their trademark suffocating defense, limiting UCR to 29.4 percent shooting from the field while blocking eight shots to move two victories from securing the school’s first Division I NCAA Tournament berth in history.
UCI entered postseason play ranked third nationally in field-goal percentage defense (.375) and ranked seventh nationally with 6.41 blocks per game – and actually bettered both marks.
“We worked and guarded every possession of the game,” UCI coach Russell Turner said – and, as usual, it was the formula for success.
The Anteaters are now 21-0 when holding the opposition under 40 percent shooting for the game and improved to 16-0 when holding opponents under 60 points.
Freshman center Mamadou Ndiaye, at 7-foot-6 the tallest player in the nation, contributed four of the blocked shots to set the Big West single-season record with 98 rejections, breaking the 1997-98 record of Pacific’s Michael Olowokandi (95).
Ndiaye also scored four points and grabbed four rebounds to complete what is believed to be the first “triple-quadruple” in conference tournament history. (Yes, I’m smirking.)
“He just stands there in the middle (of the key), and you’re not sure how far you have to be away from him to get your shot off,” 6-10 UCR center Chris Patton said, summing up the challenge of scoring inside when Ndiaye is in the game.
Junior forward Will Davis II and freshman guard Luke Nelson led the way offensively for the Anteaters with 16 and 14 points, respectively.
“We just come in making sure we play our game and set the tone with our defense,” Davis said. “We come in with the same mind-set no matter who we are playing.”
Thanks to the UCSB upset, UCI will play Cal Poly in Friday’s 6:30 p.m. semifinal. The Anteaters defeated the Mustangs twice during the regular season: 64-50 on the road and 55-48 at home. Interestingly, they rank 1-2 in points allowed in the conference.
Defense, anyone?
UNFINISHED BUSINESS: The end of Long Beach State’s three-year reign as regular-season Big West champions this season apparently is being used by Coach Dan Monson as a motivational tool in the postseason tournament.
“We didn’t come here to play one or two games,” Monson said after the third-seeded 49ers (15-16) held off sixth-seeded Cal State Fullerton, 66-56, in Thursday’s second quarterfinal. “We’re not about rebuilding in the Big West. We were very disappointed we didn’t defend our regular-season championship.
“We’re not as talented as we’ve been the last three or four years, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be a better team.”
Like in the Cal Poly-UCSB quarterfinal, the 49ers avenged a recent loss to an archrival in their tournament opener. Two weeks ago, Long Beach allowed 49 points in the second half of an 84-76 loss at Fullerton in which Titans guards Michael Williams and Alex Harris combined for 50 points.
But with its season on the line in Anaheim, Long Beach turned up the defense and limited Williams (3 for 17, 10 points) and Harris (6 for 16, 17 points) to collective 28 percent shooting and a total of 27 points.
The turning point came after a Long Beach timeout midway through the second half, when freshman guard Travis Hammonds (12 points) hit back-to-back 3-pointers to turn a four-point deficit into a 45-43 lead. That was also the start of a 16-2 run that enabled the 49ers to pull away.
What did Monson say during the timeout?
“I told ’em if we go on a 16-2 run, we’ll be fine,” he quipped.
CSF coach Dedrique Taylor credited Monson for switching to a zone defense in the second half, saying “it threw us out of our rhythm a little bit.”
Michael Williams, the Titans’ leading scorer and a second-team All-Big West selection, said it was just one of those nights. He said his shots felt good coming off his hand, but “just had some pop out on me.”
The 49ers advance to play No. 5 seed Cal State Northridge in Friday’s 9 p.m. semifinal.
Asked what he thought of UCSB being blown out, Monson was refreshingly honest.
“I’m OK with them losing,” he said. “Santa Barbara beat us twice.”
The Titans finished the season at 11-20.
CSUN REFUSES TO LOSE: In a wildly entertaining game that neither team deserved to lose, No. 5 seed Cal State Northridge (16-17) pulled out an 87-84 overtime thriller over No. 4 seed Hawaii (20-11) in Thursday’s late quarterfinal.
Northridge surged to a 16-point lead in the first half before Hawaii whittled its deficit to 42-36 at the intermission. The Rainbow Warriors stormed back in the second half behind the shooting of Christian Standhardinger (game-high 28 points) to tie the score at 46 and steadily built their lead to as many as 13 points (67-54) with 6:30 left in regulation.
Then it was the Matadors’ turn to rally, regaining the momentum behind the clutch 3-point shooting of senior guard Josh Greene (team-high 27 points), who swished a long, step-back trey in the closing seconds to send the game into overtime.
“It’s my last year,” an exhausted Greene said afterward. “I am just trying to will my team to win and extend my senior year as long as I can.”
Greene came up huge again in overtime, knocking down another long 3-pointer with 1:05 left to tie the score at 81. When the Rainbow Warriors regained the lead, 84-81, with 24 seconds left, Hawaii coach Gib Arnold instructed his team to intentionally foul Greene.
“We wanted to foul him before he could get another 3 off,” Arnold explained, “but we wanted to foul him (with) under 10 seconds and we fouled him a little too early (with 0:19 left).”
Greene converted both free throws, not surprising considering he was 9 for 9 at the line in the game and has made 22 in a row to increase his season percentage to 92.4 -- best in the conference and sixth nationally.
His two free throws pulled CSUN within a point, and during the ensuing timeout, Northridge coach Reggie Theus ordered a full-court press that paid an immediate dividend when Hawaii turned the ball over on the inbounds play.
Then it was all-conference forward Stephen Maxwell’s turn to deliver in the clutch, and he spun into the lane for a bank shot that stood up as the winning field goal when UH guard Brandon Spearman’s 3-point attempt from the corner rimmed out just before the buzzer.
“That,” said Theus, the winning coach, “was a great college basketball game.”
“That,” countered Arnold, the losing coach, “was a real tough one to swallow. These guys didn’t deserve their season to end that way.”
Agreed – on both counts.
LAYUP LINE: This was the third time in the past four years that the No. 7 seed has eliminated the No. 2 seed in the men’s quarterfinals. It was the second time in four years that two of the bottom four seeds advanced to the semifinals. . . This was UCSB’s third consecutive tournament defeat in as many years, but that includes a loss in the tournament title game in 2012 . . . Despite the first-round loss that dashed their NCAA Tournament hopes, the Gauchos likely will receive an invitation to another postseason tournament, perhaps the NIT . . . Cal Poly, which was ranked sixth nationally in fewest turnovers, had only five in its upset victory . . . UCI (23-10) is two victories from tying the single-season school record set by the 2000-01 Anteaters (25-5). . . .This is the first time since 2005 that the top four women’s seeds made it to the tournament semifinals. No. 1 Cal State Northridge will play No. 4 UC Irvine at noon, followed by No. 2 Cal Poly vs. No. 3 Hawaii in Friday’s semis . . . Attendance for Thursday’s quarterfinals was announced at 3,693.