Big West Men's Basketball: Composite Schedule || Standings || Stats 

POSTSEASON SCHEDULE

Wednesday, March 16
- NIT First Round - 
Long Beach State at No. 2 BYU, 6 p.m.

Marriott Center | Provo, Utah
Watch: ESPN+

Friday, March 18
- NCAA Tournament First Round -
West Region 
No. 15 Cal State Fullerton vs. No. 2 Duke, 4:10 p.m.

Bon Secours Wellness Arena |  Greenville S.C.
Watch/stream: CBS | MarchMadness.com

All times Pacific

BIG WEST CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Tuesday, March 8
- First Round -
No. 8 CSUN 45, No. 9 CSU Bakersfield 58
No. 7 UC Davis 63, No. 10 Cal Poly 53

Thursday, March 10
- Quarterfinals -
No. 1 Long Beach State 72, No. 9 CSU Bakersfield 61
No. 4 UC Irvine 69, No. 5 UC Santa Barbara 78
No. 2 Cal State Fullerton 77, No. 7 UC Davis 55
No. 3 Hawai’i 68, No. 6 UC Riverside 67

Friday, March 11
- Semifinals - 
No. 1 Long Beach State 67, No. 5 UC Santa Barbara 64
No. 2 Cal State Fullerton 58, No. 3 Hawai’i 46

Saturday, March 12
- Championship -
No. 1 Long Beach State 71, No. 2 Cal State Fullerton 72


Big West victories in BOLD

Last Week, Today - Championship Edition
Second-seeded Cal State Fullerton swept through the 2022 Hercules Tires Big West Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, to claim the conference’s automatic qualifier into the 68-team field of the 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. The men’s & women’s championships marked the historic first events inside the brand-new Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev.

The Titans’ E.J. Anosike provided a team-high 22 points on just six attempts from the field while making all six, as he shot 10-of-14 from the free throw line, and grabbed a game-best eight rebounds in Saturday’s title-tilt thriller against top-seeded regular-season champion Long Beach State, who got 24 points from Joel Murray and 23 from Big West Player of the Year Colin Slater. Freshman Jadon Jones connected on a huge late triple for the second straight night to make it a one-point game at 72-71, and the Beach procured one last possession, but could not get a potential game-winning shot off before the final buzzer.

Slater poured in a career-high 30 points in Long Beach State’s semifinal victory over 2021 tourney champion UC Santa Barbara. Jones’ deep three-pointer with 1.3 seconds left was the difference in the 67-64 win. Cal State Fullerton got past third-seeded Hawai’i, 58-46.

Winners during Tuesday’s first round were ninth-seeded CSU Bakersfield and No. 7 seed UC Davis, both by double digits. The Beach knocked off the Roadrunners to begin quarterfinal action on Thursday afternoon. The fifth-seeded Gauchos followed by taking out the No. 4 seed, UC Irvine, and the Titans rolled over the Aggies. In the nightcap, UH narrowly held off sixth-seeded UC Riverside by a single point.

Anosike was named the Most Valuable Player, with teammate Damari Milstead, Murray, Slater, Ajare Sanni of UC Santa Barbara and Junior Madut of Hawai’i joining him on the All-Tournament Team.

What 2 Watch 4
Cal State Fullerton (21-10) is the No. 15 seed in the NCAA Championship’s West Region, and awaits a first-ever meeting with second-seeded Duke University (28-6) in the first round this Friday night, March 18, in Greenville, S.C. Tipoff inside the Bon Secours Wellness Arena is slated for 4:10 p.m. PT (7:10 p.m. ET) on CBS. The Titans will get the top March Madness announcing team of Jim Nantz, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson. The advancing side would take on the winner between No. 7 seed Michigan State and 10th-seeded Davidson in the second round on Sunday, March 20, at the same venue.

Long Beach State takes its 20-12 overall record into Wednesday night’s National Invitation Tournament (NIT) first-round contest in Provo, Utah, against second-seeded host Brigham Young University (22-10). Tipoff inside the Marriott Center is set for 6 p.m. PT, with the game airing on ESPN+. Wednesday’s winner would take on the victor between No. 3 seed Saint Louis and Northern Iowa over the weekend.

Postseason Particulars
Cal State Fullerton is in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time as The Big West’s automatic entrant via conference tourney title. The Titans last appeared in the NCAA postseason in 2018, also as a No. 15 seed (lost to Purdue), and are 2-3 in their three prior trips. Their first two occurred in 1978 and 2008, with both victories coming in the 1978 edition.

Long Beach State is an automatic NIT qualifier as The Big West regular-season champion. The Beach are making their ninth postseason NIT appearance, fourth of the Dan Monson era, and first since the 2015-16 campaign, when they dropped a 107-102 decision at Washington in the first round.

 

Titans Face Titanic Test Against Duke
Cal State Fullerton senior forward E.J. Anosike, a graduate transfer from Tennessee, is coming off an MVP performance at the 2022 Hercules Tires Big West Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by the Hawaiian Islands. The Big West Newcomer of the Year and All-Big West First Team pick is second in the conference in scoring (16.45 points per game), rebounding (8.3) and field goal percentage (.518), and is first with nine double-doubles, including two last week in Nevada. All-Big West Second Team honoree Damari Milstead also averages double digits at 12.1 points per game, while fellow senior guard Jalen Harris, The Big West’s Best Sixth Player, produces 9.2 points per outing. The Titans are winners of four in a row and seven of their last nine. In his ninth season, Dedrique Taylor is the first coach in program history to direct Cal State Fullerton to multiple NCAA tournaments. His squad’s performance in Henderson, Nev., also made Taylor the only coach to lead the Titans to 20-plus wins in two seasons.

Duke was upset by Virginia Tech in last Saturday night’s championship game of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Tournament at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., 82-67. The Blue Devils are led by ACC Freshman of the Year Paolo Banchero, a projected top-three pick in this June’s National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft. The 6-foot-10 forward out of Seattle, Wash., averages team bests of 17.0 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. The All-American and All-ACC First Team selection ranks sixth in the conference in scoring and fifth in rebounding. All five starters from the Blue Devils’ three ACC tourney games average double-figure points, with three of them freshmen. Junior captain Wendell Moore Jr. is second at 13.5 points per contest. The Titans will have a front-row seat to arguably the biggest storyline of the entire event, as Naismith Hall of Fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski announced back on June 2, 2021, that this would be his final year of coaching after 42 seasons in charge of the Blue Devils.

The Beach at BYU
The Beach are led by Big West Player of the Year Colin Slater. The senior guard out of New Orleans, La., and fourth-year transfer from Tulane averages 14.4 points per game. Joel Murray, a first-year transfer from Division II powerhouse West Texas A&M, tops the league in scoring just ahead of Anosike at 16.47 points per game, and was named Tuesday to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-District 9 Second Team. Both Slater and Murray have appeared in all 32 games, started 29 times, and dished out 92 assists. Jadon Jones, The Big West Best Defensive Player as a second-year freshman guard, is a third player averaging double-figure scoring, at 10.5 per game. The Long Beach native hit the game-winning three-pointer against UC Santa Barbara with 1.3 seconds left in last Friday’s Big West championship semifinals. Dan Monson was named The Big West Coach of the Year for the fourth time, having guided the program to its first conference regular-season crown since 2012-13.

BYU lost to San Francisco, 75-63, in the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on Saturday, March 5. Fousseyni Traore posted his ninth double-double in the contest with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. The 6-foot-6 forward from Bamako, Mali, is second in program history in double-doubles by a freshman, only behind former NBA center Shawn Bradley’s 10. Senior guard Alex Barcello, an NABC All-District 9 First Team member, had a team-best 18 points against the Dons and paces BYU in scoring at 17.2 points per game. The Arizona transfer is the lone Cougar to start all 32 games. Mark Pope is the third-year head coach at BYU.
 

Overachievers
Both Big West postseason representatives in men’s basketball well out-did their preseason prognostications. Cal State Fullerton was picked to finish seventh in the coaches’ poll and eighth by the media, while Long Beach State was favored for eighth and seventh, respectively.

First to Vegas
While there were 106 men’s and women’s teams competing for conference championships in the Las Vegas Valley last week, it was The Big West who first staged an NCAA Division I conference tournament in the state of Nevada nearly 30 years ago. Previously, the Thomas and Mack Center hosted the event in 1994 and 1995, before the tournament moved to the Lawlor Events Center in Reno from 1996 to 2000. After hosting the event in Anaheim, California from 2001 to 2020, The Big West returned to Las Vegas a year ago, holding the 2021 championships at Michelob ULTRA Arena inside Mandalay Bay.

“Many have asked why The Big West chose Henderson for our basketball championships,” said Dan Butterly, Big West Commissioner. “The Big West stands for bold innovation and boundless opportunity and The Dollar Loan Center provides a state-of-the-art venue to showcase The Big West, its member institutions and our women’s and men’s basketball programs. It is a spectacular facility that will become an entertainment hub for the City of Henderson and the Las Vegas Valley. It’s a place that I know our student-athletes, as well as staff, coaches, administrators and fans will love. I would like to give a special thanks to Henderson Mayor Debra March and Vegas Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz and his team for working with us to elevate our brand and return the Big West to the Silver State.”
 

The 2022 Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships, presented by the Hawaiian Islands, christened the brand-new Dollar Loan Center as its first publicly ticketed event. The five-day tournament ran March 8-12 featuring 10 women’s and 10 men’s teams vying for conference championships and automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships.

The $84 million, 6,000 seat Dollar Loan Center was completed in February. In addition to hosting the Big West’s signature event for the next three years, Dollar Loan Center is home to the Henderson Silver Knights, the American Hockey League affiliate of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, the Vegas Indoor Football League franchise and the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.

The construction of the Dollar Loan Center is adding to the premier lifestyle and entertainment atmosphere our city provides its residents as Henderson builds itself into a professional sports town.

Outside of the Big West, the Henderson team is excitedly planning a bevy of entertainment opportunities for our residents, which will subsequently provide an economic boost and benefit to the various restaurants and retail businesses that surround the Dollar Loan Center. The arena’s impact will strengthen our economy and positively impact small-owned businesses from West Henderson to Lake Las Vegas.

“Our business community is about to see a big boom in business thanks to the Dollar Loan Center,” said Henderson City Manager Richard Derrick. “Our Economic Development team remains steadfast in finding ways to diversify and boost our Henderson economy and is looking forward to seeing the business results of the new arena.”

Visit The Big West Championship Central page for more information at  
bigwest.org/2022.