IRVINE, Calif. – Three Big West men’s basketball games have been selected for national broadcast on ESPN Networks. These wildcard selections feature four top teams in hotly-contested league action.   
 

The games set for national broadcast are: 

• Thursday, February 1 | UC Davis at UC Santa Barbara at 8 p.m. PT on ESPNU 
• Thursday, February 22 | UC Santa Barbara at UC Irvine at 8 p.m. PT on ESPNU 
• Saturday, March 2 | Long Beach State at UC Irvine at 7 p.m. PT on ESPN2 

Current league leaders UC Davis (12-7, 7-1 Big West) head to Big West defending champion UC Santa Barbara (11-7, 4-4 Big West) in a showcase of some of the nation’s top talent on Thursday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. PT on ESPNU. Steve Quis will be providing play-by-play with Ben Braun on the call as analyst for the game. 
 

A pair of 2023-24 Lou Henson Mid-Season Watch List honorees in Elijah Pepper of UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara’s Ajay Mitchell are set to square off for the second time this season. The first contest in the regular season series came to open Big West play. In that game on Dec. 28, the Aggies won at home, 76-62, powered by a 27-point performance from Pepper.  
 

Pepper is currently leading the conference in scoring, averaging 21.5 points per game. The senior from Selah, Wash., is eighth in the country and boasts 14 games with 20 or more points thus far this season. Pepper’s 2,010 career points ranks fifth all-time in The Big West, just one point back from UNLV’s Stacey Augmon (1987-91). 
 

The Gauchos again see the airwaves on Thursday, Feb. 22, with a road trip to UC Irvine (13-6, 6-1 Big West) on the slate for an 8 p.m. PT tipoff on ESPNU. The two have yet to meet in 2023-24, with both contests coming two weeks apart from one another, beginning on Feb. 8. The two have split their pair of meetings in the last two seasons of play. 
 

Mitchell, the reigning Big West Player of the Year, leads the UCSB offensive attack by scoring 19.4 points per game on 51.2 percent shooting. As a team, the Gauchos shoot 50.1 percent from the field, fifth in the country, with Yohan Traore’s effective 61.9 percent shooting topping the squad. 

Meanwhile, UCI boasts the best defense in the league, holding opponents to 65.7 points a game, 13 points under the Gauchos’ nightly average.
Anteaters point guard Pierre Crockrell II directs the team’s offense, dishing out a league-best 5.9 assists per game, good for 22nd in NCAA Division I. Justin Hohn scores 13.6 points per game and connects on 40.4 percent of his attempts from distance for UCI. The final wildcard of the regular season will see the Anteaters again as the host team, welcoming Long Beach State (12-7, 4-3 Big West) to the Bren Events Center on Saturday, March 2 for a 7 p.m. PT contest on ESPN2. 
 

Also yet to face off in 2023-24, the Black and Blue Rivalry contests were split 1-1 in the previous two years. The first meeting of the season between the two foes is this Thursday, Jan. 25, where UCI will look to rebound from their first loss in the calendar year. 
 

Rebounding machines Aboubacar and Lassina Traore will anchor the court for the Beach. Narrowly missing the double-double average, Lassina pulls down a Big West-best 9.9 rebounds a night to go with 12.1 points. Aboubacar is second in the conference with 7.9 rebounds a game which is paired with league highs in field goal percentage (62.7) and blocks (1.68). LBSU boasts the top scoring offense in the league, with four double-digit scorers as the Traore’s are joined by team-leader Marcus Tsohonis (17.8 ppg) and Jadon Jones (12.1 ppg) to put up 81.1 points per game as a unit. 

Along with the five total wildcard opportunities throughout the regular season, ESPN Networks will also broadcast both Big West men’s semifinal matchups at the 2024 Hercules Tires Big West Basketball Championships on Friday, March 15 and the men’s championship game on Saturday, March 16. For additional championship information, please visit BigWest.org/2024.  
 

All additional Big West men’s and women’s basketball games throughout the 2023-24 regular season and Big West Championships are slated to air digitally to subscribers on ESPN+. To sign up, please visit espn.com/watch.   

  

ABOUT THE BIG WEST  
The Big West is an NCAA Division I member with 11 members with the shared goal of empowering every student-athlete in competition and in life and uniting its university communities through championship experiences. Formed in 1969, The Big West membership consists of Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, Hawai‘i, Long Beach State, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara. The Big West is united in the pursuit of boundless opportunities, enduring integrity, bold activism, fearless innovation and the pacific spirit of freedom, exploration and progress.  
 
The Big West sponsors 19 sports at the NCAA Division I level: baseball, softball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s volleyball, women’s beach volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field and men’s and women’s water polo, with men’s and women’s swimming and diving upping the number to 21 conference-sponsored sports in 2024-25. For more information, visit BigWest.org or follow The Big West on X @BigWestSports.