IRVINE, Calif. — Hawai’i, the 2021-22 Big West regular-season and championship victor, is the favorite to repeat following the annual preseason poll conducted by the league’s 11 head coaches and announced on Thursday.
The Rainbow Wahine picked up nine of the 11 first-place votes for a total of 99 points. UC Santa Barbara follows in second with 84 points and the remaining two first-place nods. Long Beach State (73), UC San Diego (72) and UC Davis (71) are grouped together closely in third through fifth.
Laura Beeman, the Big West Coach of the Year for the second time in her milestone 10th season in charge at Hawai’i, will have to find a replacement for 2021-22 Big West Player of the Year and Big West Championship Most Valuable Player Amy Atwell, who led the conference at 17.8 points per game. Sure to miss Atwell’s leadership, the Rainbow Wahine do welcome the return home of Lily Wahinekapu. The product of Kane’ohe, O’ahu, was the 2021-22 Big West Freshman of the Year at Cal State Fullerton. They also retain fellow guard Daejah Phillips, coming off a second collegiate year for which she earned All-Big West honorable mention.
UC Santa Barbara will be guided by senior Ila Lane, a 6-foot-4 big out of Moraga. She easily topped The Big West in rebounding in 2021-22 at 9.7 boards per game, and was 11th in scoring at 12.1 points per outing. The Gauchos also bring back senior guard Alexis Tucker, who ranked 16th while producing 11.0 points per night.
Long Beach State lost all three of its 2021-22 Big West postseason honorees and top three scorers, all in double figures, in Maddi Utti, Justina King and Jasmine Hardy. The Beach do return their next two scorers, both at over seven points per game, in Ma’Qhi Berry and Kianna Hamilton-Fisher. The latter connected on 29 three-pointers.
UC San Diego, heading into its third season as a Big West member, is fourth in the poll. The Tritons and head coach Heidi VanDerveer, also coming off her 10th go-around at the helm, were buoyed by the returns of fifth-year seniors Sydney Brown and Julia Macabuhay, their top two scorers. Brown, a graduate student from Rexford, N.Y., averaged 12.0 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, while Los Angeles native Macabuhay contributed 8.1 points per night. In the third year of its four-year reclassification period from Division II to Division I, UC San Diego remains ineligible for the 2023 Hercules Tires Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands.
For UC Davis, five-time Big West Coach of the Year Jennifer Gross still has sharpshooter Evanne Turner to rely on. The junior guard from Fontana finished ninth in the conference in scoring a year ago at 12.6 points per game, and knocked down 73 of 194 three-point attempts (.376), leading The Big West with 2.6 made triples per outing.
UC Irvine, The Big West regular-season and tournament runners-up a year ago, is slotted in sixth in the preseason poll with 62 points. UC Riverside (40 points), CSUN (36), Cal State Fullerton (33), Cal Poly (18) and CSU Bakersfield (17) round out the listing. The Mustangs feature the league’s lone first-year coach entering the new campaign in Shanele Stires. Carlene Mitchell was named head coach of the Matadors in mid-March after serving in an interim role in 2021-22.
The coaches’ preseason All-Big West Team consists of Brown, Lane, Macabuhay, Turner, Wahinekapu and CSUN’s Tess Amundsen. Wahinekapu averaged 14.7 points to rank fifth in the conference and is its highest returning scorer. Amundsen, a graduate student and forward out of Fresno, was right behind her at 14.1 points per game. Lane was also on the preseason team ahead of last season.
Amundsen, Brown and Lane were on the 2021-22 All-Big West Second Team, while Macabuhay, Turner and Wahinekapu each picked up honorable mentions. Brown was a repeat second-teamer from 2020-21, while Lane was a first-teamer in 2019-20 as the Big West Freshman of the Year.
The 2022-23 season begins with six teams in action on Monday, Nov. 7. Big West play, consisting for the final time of a 10-week double round-robin schedule, opens just ahead of the new year with five contests on Thursday, Dec. 29. The 2023 Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, return for a second edition inside The Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev., March 7-11.
| 2022-23 Big West Women’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Poll |
|
Rank
|
Institution
|
Points
|
|
1.
|
Hawai’i
|
99 (9)
|
|
2.
|
UC Santa Barbara
|
84 (2)
|
|
3.
|
Long Beach State
|
73
|
|
4.
|
UC San Diego
|
72
|
|
5.
|
UC Davis
|
71
|
|
6.
|
UC Irvine
|
62
|
|
7.
|
UC Riverside
|
40
|
|
8.
|
CSUN
|
36
|
|
9.
|
Cal State Fullerton
|
33
|
|
10.
|
Cal Poly
|
18
|
|
11.
|
CSU Bakersfield
|
17
|
First-place votes in parentheses
2022-23 All-Big West Women’s Basketball Preseason Coaches’ Team
|
|
Student-Athlete
|
Year
|
Position
|
Institution
|
Hometown
|
|
Tess Amundsen
|
Gr.
|
Forward
|
CSUN
|
Fresno, Calif.
|
|
Sydney Brown
|
Gr.
|
Guard/Forward
|
UC San Diego
|
Rexford, N.Y.
|
|
Ila Lane
|
Sr.
|
Forward/Center
|
UC Santa Barbara
|
Moraga, Calif.
|
|
Julia Macabuhay
|
R-Sr.
|
Guard
|
UC San Diego
|
Los Angeles
|
|
Evanne Turner
|
Jr.
|
Guard
|
UC Davis
|
Fontana, Calif.
|
|
Lily Wahinekapu
|
So.
|
Guard
|
Hawai’i
|
Kane’ohe, O’ahu
|