2020-21 MEN'S BASKETBALL WEEKLY RELEASE NO. 7

BROADCAST GUIDE

TIPOFF TIME

Standings Update
UC Irvine remains atop the Big West standings with a 2-0 record. Three teams sit at .500 as 2-2 UC Santa Barbara has played the most conference games of any team so far. CSU Bakersfield and Long Beach State split their series last week and are 1-1, while Cal State Fullerton is 0-2.

Six squads await their first conference action of 2021 as Cal Poly, CSUN, UC Davis, UC Riverside, UC San Diego and Hawai‘i have yet to play a league game.

Schedule Update
The CSUN and UC San Diego series, scheduled for Jan. 8-9 this week, has been cancelled due to a positive COVID test within the CSUN program. UC Davis remains on hold due to a Yolo County order and its games this weekend against UCI have been cancelled.

Games on the docket for this week include Hawai‘i at UC Riverside, Long Beach State at Cal State Fullerton, and Cal Poly at CSU Bakersfield. Please check the men’s basketball composite page at BigWest.org for schedule updates.

Big Picture
In total, Big West teams have lost or had to reschedule 46 games through January 9. Eighteen of the first 30 conference games were cancelled due to COVID-related or county-mandated pauses. A list of those games can be found on page 4 of this release.

UC Riverside Top Big West Team In NET
The NCAA released the first NET rankings of the 2020-21 season on Monday, January 4. UC Riverside was the highest ranked Big West program at No. 82. The Highlanders started off the season 3-1 with wins against Washington, Denver and Northern Arizona, but have not taken the court since Dec. 10 in Flagstaff, Ariz. UCR has cancelled six consecutive games due mostly to COVID-related concerns. However, the Jan. 1-2 games at UC Davis were lost due to Yolo County restrictions preventing  the Aggies from playing since Dec. 4.

Chomping At The Bit
Hawai‘i will leave the islands for the first time all season, traveling to the mainland to face UC Riverside on Jan. 8-9. UH will be tested against Division I competition for the first time after playing non-Division I opponents Hawaii-Pacific and UH Hilo earlier. UH intended to open up Big West play at home against Cal Poly Dec. 27-28, but cancelled the series due to a positive COVID test within the Mustang ranks. UCR had beaten its last three foes by an average of nearly 20 points per game. The Highlanders are the only Big West team to have not played at home this season.

Scheduling Primer
On October 21, the Big West announced a 20-game conference schedule under a modified format designed to reduce travel and emphasize health and safety amidst the pandemic.

The traditional home-and home round-robin schedule was altered to allow teams to play each other on consecutive days at one site, with the majority of games scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Teams would play out the schedule over an 11-week period with one bye week built in. Games lost due to team quarantines would not be rescheduled. No fans will be allowed to attend games to start the season with the spectator attendance issue to be revisited later.

Recent cancellations have reduced the maximum number of league contests for various teams as follows: Cal Poly (16), CSU Bakersfield (18), Cal State Fullerton (18), CSUN (16), Hawai‘i (18), Long Beach State (18), UC Davis (14), UC Irvine (16), UC Riverside (16) and UC San Diego (16).

Basketball Championship
The 2021 Big West Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, presented by Hawaii Tourism Authority, has been moved from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.,  to the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. All 10 men’s teams and nine women’s teams will compete at the five-day event, March 9-13. The bubble-like setting will utilize daily screenings and rapid PCR and antigen testing to safeguard the health and safety of all parties. The men’s first round and quarterfinal games will be carried on ESPN3, while the semifinals and championship game will be aired on ESPN linear networks.

PRIOR TO TIPOFF – JANUARY 8-9, 2021

CAL POLY AT CSU BAKERSFIELD (ESPN3) | PXP: Vance Palm | COLOR: Greg Kerr
• Cal Poly returns to action for the first time since Dec. 19 to a positive COVID test in its program.
• Cal Poly has lost five consecutive Big West road openers.
• CSU Bakersfield hosts its historic first Big West game at the Icardo Center, where it is 83-29 under head coach Rod Barnes.
• The ‘Runners committed a season-low nine turnovers against Long Beach State on Jan. 2.
• CSU Bakersfield has 11 players averaging at least 11 minutes per game and only three with at least 20 per game.

LONG BEACH STATE AT CAL STATE FULLERTON (BIGWEST.TV)
• Cal State Fullerton has won six straight in the all-time series against Long Beach State.
• Junior Tray Maddox Jr. – a transfer from Oakland – had 27 points on 5-of-8 three-point shooting against UC Santa Barbara last week.
• Missing several players due to injury last week, Long Beach State managed a split of its series with CSU Bakersfield.
• Senior Isaiah Washington leads the Beach in scoring (16.8 ppg), assists (3.6 apg) and minutes (36.6 mpg).
• The last five meetings have been decided by a total of 17 points.

HAWAI‘I AT UC RIVERSIDE (BIGWEST.TV)
• Hawai‘i seeks to win its third straight Big West road opener.
• The Rainbow Warriors are 4-1 in their last five games at the SRC Arena.
• UC Riverside returns to the court for the first time in 28 days as it plays its season home opener against Hawai‘i on Friday.
• The Highlanders rank No. 7 in the nation in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 35.9% on the season.
• UH’s Eran Ganot will be on the sidelines for his 150th career game as a head coach in Friday’s matchup.

MORE NOTABLES
• UC San Diego is the lone Division I program in the country to have completed the 2020 calendar year undefeated. The Tritons have won 24 straight games since December 2019.

• UC Davis sophomore guard Ezra Manjon and UC Santa Barbara junior forward Amadou Sow were selected to the Lou Henson Award Watch List. The award is presented annually to the top mid-major player in Division I.

• When the Big West plays the 2021 basketball championships in Las Vegas, that will mark the first time in 21 years that the event will have been contested outside the state of California. The Big West held its postseason event in Reno, Nevada, at the Lawlor Events Center from 1996-2000. The conference has some familiarity with Las Vegas, having played the championship at UNLV’s Thomas and Mack Center in 1994 and 1995. From 2001-19, the championship was held in Anaheim at either the Anaheim Convention Center or Honda Center.

• CSU Bakersfield head coach Rod Barnes will participate in his 300th career game at the school on Saturday against Cal Poly. Barnes enters the two-game series on Friday with a career record of 153-145 with the ‘Runners.

• Two teams have posted perfect 19-for-19 performances at the free throw line this season. Cal State Fullerton did so against UC Santa Barbara on Jan. 2, while UCSB accomplished the feat versus UC Irvine on Dec. 28.

BIG WEST BY THE NUMBERS

2 – CSUN junior guard Darius Brown II ranks No. 2 nationally with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 6.60. Brown II has dished out 33 assists with just five turnovers through seven games.

3 – Three former Big West players are listed on current NBA rosters – UC Santa Barbara’s Gabe Vincent (Miami Heat), Cal Poly’s David Nwaba (Houston Rockets) and Long Beach State’s James Ennis III (Orlando Magic).

6 – UC Irvine head coach Russell Turner occupies sole possession of sixth place on the Big West’s career wins list with 214. He is now eight shy of tying UC Santa Barbara’s Jerry Pimm for the fifth spot.

11 – The Big West became a conference of 11 schools when CSU Bakersfield and UC San Diego officially joined on July 1, 2020.

19 – Cal State Fullerton set a single-game program record for free throw percentage, going 19-for-19 at the stripe in Saturday’s contest at UC Santa Barbara.

47 – Total number of offensive rebounds for CSU Bakersfield in two games against Long Beach State. The ‘Runners rank second in the NCAA in offensive rebounds per game (16.3) and seventh in total offensive boards with 147.