2021 Air Force Reserve Big West Championship Bracket, Presented By The Hawaiian Islands

2020-21 MEN'S BASKETBALL RELEASE NO. 16

BROADCAST GUIDE

BIG WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL

The 2021 Air Force Reserve Big West Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands, is ready to go with the bracket announcement.

Action begins on Tuesday, March 9 in Las Vegas at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Mandalay Bay. It is the 45th edition of the championship and marks the first time the event has been held in Las Vegas since 1995.

It is also nearly two years to the day that Big West postseason competition will take place as the last tournament game played occurred on Mar. 16, 2019 when No. 1 seed UC Irvine defeated No. 3 seed Cal State Fullerton in the men’s championship game. The 2020 championship was wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eight different schools have won the even in the nine previous years of competition.

All 10 men’s teams are entered in this year’s field.

Tuesday’s first round schedule on Mar. 9 is as follows:
 

No. 8 CSUN vs. No. 9 Long Beach State	3 pm
No. 7 Cal State Fullerton vs. No. 10 Cal Poly	6 pm

Thursday’s quarterfinals on Mar. 11 will feature four games with the two first round winners advancing into the main bracket.
 

No. 1 UC Santa Barbara vs. No. 8/No. 9 winner	11 am
No. 4 UC Davis vs. No. 5 CSU Bakersfield	2 pm
No. 2 UC Irvine vs. No. 7/No. 10 winner	5 pm
No. 3 UC Riverside vs. No. 6 Hawai‘i	8 pm

The semifinals are slated for Friday, Mar. 12 at 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. while the championship game tips off at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Mar. 13.

ESPN3 will provide all the of the first round and quarterfinal action, as well as Friday’s first semifinal. ESPNU will air Friday’s second semifinal live to a national audience, and ESPN2 will carry Saturday’s final.

UC Irvine remains the reigning tournament champion, seeking to become the first repeat winner since UC Santa Barbara in 2010 and 2011.

The champion receives the Big West’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The championship game will also be broadcast on Sirius XM to 31-plus million subscribers. The game is available on the following channels: Sirius – 136, XM – 201 and Online – 964.

TIPOFF TIME

UC Santa Barbara Earns Regular Season Title
UC Santa Barbara clinched the Big West regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in this week’s Air Force Reserve Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by The Hawaiian Islands. The Gauchos swept Cal Poly to improve to 19-4 overall and 13-3 in conference play. The 13 conference wins are the most by a UCSB team since the 2002-03 team went 14-4. UCSB is a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2010, a year it won the league tournament.

The Gauchos secured their first regular season title since the 2009-10 squad shared the distinction with former member Pacific. It is UCSB’s first outright title since that 2002-03 team and the fifth overall in program history.

Gauchos Go For 20
The ultimate prize for all 10 teams competing in this week’s event is the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, awarded to the champion. In the meantime, UCSB can achieve a goal of another sort with a win in Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup against either No. 8 CSUN or No. 9 Long Beach State. With a win, the Gauchos will have achieved four straight 20-win seasons.

Tourney Look-In
The 2021 Air Force Reserve Big West Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, will be played March 9-13 at the Michelob ULTRA Arena (formerly Mandalay Bay Events Center) in Las Vegas. All 10 eligible men’s teams will have a chance at earning the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

UC Irvine Seeks To Repeat
UC Irvine won the 2019-20 regular season title, but did not get a chance to defend its crown as the 2020 Big West Championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Anteaters enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed for the first time since 2016. UCI enters with a season-high tying four-game win streak. The Anteaters seek to become the first program since UCSB in 2010 and 2011 to win back-to-back tournament titles. The Anteaters finished 10-4 in the Big West, the ninth straight season with double-digit league wins.

How Bout Them Highlanders
Under first-year mentor Mike Magpayo, the first Division I men’s basketball head coach of Asian descent, UC Riverside is having a remarkable season. The Highlanders nailed down the No. 3 tournament seed, highest in the program’s Division I history. By virture of going 13-7 overall, the .650 winning percentage is also a highwater D-1 mark. UCR’s eight Big West wins ties the school record by the 2008-09, but this year’s squad achieved that mark in four fewer games.

Aggies On The Rise
UC Davis has faced adversity this season like everyone else, but no one else had to deal with a Yolo County health order which sidelined the Aggies for 48 straight days. After playing a Dec. 4 game, the Aggies did not return to the court until Jan. 22. The rust showed on the restart with losses in four of their first five league games, but since then UC Davis won six of their final seven to nab the No. 4 tournament seed.

Rested And Ready
CSU Bakersfield played the second-most Big West games with 16, tying Cal Poly and UCSB for that mark. Hawai‘i played 18 conference games to top all teams. The Roadrunners had a bye during the last week of the regular season, making them the most well rested group going into Las Vegas. In CSUB’s first year as a Big West member, the team locked down the No. 5 seed in the event after going 15-10 overall and 9-7 in league play. CSUB has a win against UCI and UCR, and swept No. 6 seed Hawai‘i earlier this season.

NOTEABLES

• Seeding for the 2021 Air Force Reserve Big West Men’s Basketballl Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, was based on Conference regular season win percentages.

• The Big West played 62 of its final 70 conference games, including three straight weekends with no COVID disruptions. Twenty-six of the 110 conference games have been canceled due to COVID or county-related pauses, although 18 of those occurred within the first four weeks of the start of league play.

• Hawai‘i has finished .500 or better in all six seasons under Eran Ganot. The Rainbow Warriors have been involved in several close encounters this season, posting a 6-3 record in games decided by five points or less. That doesn’t include seven and eight-point overtime losses to UC Santa Barbara and CSUN, respectively. UH has a win against UC Davis UCI and UCR among the higher seeded teams in the bracket.

• UH is not the only team involved in a bevy of close contests. So has Long Beach State. Ten of the 12 league games the Beach played were decided by five or less points. Not helped by a 4-6 record in those games, LBSU ended up with the No. 9 seed. Those 10 league games were determined by a combined total of 27 points. CSUN is another team in that boat. The Matadors went 2-5 down the stretch, but lost three of those games by a combined six points.

• First round matchup between No. 7 Cal State Fullerton and No. 10 Cal Poly – the two teams have met only once before in the Big West Championship, a Mustang win the 2007 semifinals. No. 8 CSUN and No. 9 Long Beach State square off. The two have only one previous tourney meeting, which the Matadors took in the 2014 semifinals. In Thursday’s quarterfinals, UCR and UH will be meeting in the tourney for the first time, as will CSU Bakersfield and UC Davis.

MORE NOTABLES

• 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).

• Hawai‘i head coach Eran Ganot accomplished one career head coaching milestone and now he’s working on another. He reached career win No. 100 last week (including 3-2 record as acting coach at Saint Mary’s). With 97 wins at UH, he can hit the 100 mark again with three wins in the Big West Championship.

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

• The Lou Henson Award Midseason Watch List was released in January, and both Sow and UC Irvine junior forward Collin Welp represented the Big West.

• UC Irvine senior center Brad Greene was named one of 30 candidates for the 2020-21 Senior CLASS Award. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as a Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. The list will be narrowed to 10 finalists in late February, and the winner will be announced during the 2021 NCAA Men’s Final Four®. Greene is the first UCI player to be recognized for the prestigious award.

• Through 82 Big West conference games, 34 were decided by five points or fewer. In conference play, the home team posted a 47-35 record.

CHAMPIONSHIPS MOVE TO VEGAS
The 2021 Air Force Reserve Big West Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, has been moved from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., to the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay 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.

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. The 2020 championship, scheduled to be played at Honda Center, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

BIG WEST BY THE NUMBERS

2 – Two Big West point guards are ranked in the top six nationally for assist-to-turnover ratio. CSUN junior Darius Brown II is No. 4 in the country with a 3.83 mark. UC Santa Barbara senior Devearl Ramsey ranks No. 5 overall (3.78).

3 – UC Santa Barbara senior guard JaQuori McLaughlin is one of just three players in school history with 1,000-point and 300-assist career totals. The others are Carrick DeHart and Connor Henry.

5  UC Irvine’s Russell Turner ranks fifth all-time on the Big West’s career wins list. The 11th year head coach now has 225 wins, one of only seven in league history with more than 200.

15 – UCSB finished 11-0 at home this season and  broke the school record for consecutive wins at the Thunderdome, which now stands at 17.

26 – Number of players in the Big West this season who have recorded at least one double-double. UC Irvine’s Collin Welp leads the league with six.

97 – Hawai‘i head coach Eran Ganot picked up his 100th career victory last week, with 97 of those coming at his current school. He would get to 100 at UH winning three straight at the Big West Championship.