Men's Basketball

Big West Basketball on the Rise: A Landmark 2024-25 Season

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The 2024-25 Big West basketball season showcased unprecedented success and growth, solidifying the conference as a rising force on the national stage. The year was one for the record books, as both the men’s and women’s sides reached new competitive heights with new faces making waves. From unprecedented win totals to national rankings and postseason success, The Big West continues to demonstrate the competitive depth of the conference and establish itself in the national college basketball landscape.

Welcome to the National Stage, UC San Diego!
  • Winning both trophies in Henderson, UC San Diego the first school to ever qualify for the NCAA Tournament in their first year of eligibility in both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments.
  • The men took the title as the No. 1 seed in The Big West bracket with the women advancing through the brackets to keep dancing in March as the No. 4 seed.
Men’s Basketball: A Banner Year for the Conference
  • The Big West was home to two 30-win teams, UC San Diego and UC Irvine, marking an unprecedented feat in conference history. Nationally, only the SEC also had two programs reach the 30-win mark this season.
  • The conference closed the year ranked a collective 12th in the NET, its highest standing since 2000, and cracked the Top 10 in NET rankings during the season. The Big West also ranked 12th in KenPom—a significant leap from 24th in 2019-20 in both listings to highlight the growing competitive depth across the membership.
  • A record five teams finished in the NET top 150: UC San Diego (#35), UC Irvine (#62), CSUN (#104), UC Santa Barbara (#140), and UC Riverside (#142) all finished in the top 150, the most in Big West history.
  • Most NIT appearances in Big West history with three teams – UC Irvine, CSUN, and UC Riverside – earning postseason bids. UC Irvine reached the NIT championship game, falling by just one point, and serving as the league's first postseason tournament finalist since Fresno State won the event back in 1983.
  • Major non-conference road wins in the last two seasons include victories over Colorado State, Northern Iowa, Grand Canyon, Stanford, Utah State, USC, UCLA, and Michigan.
  • Big West men's basketball posted their best non-conference record since at least 2010-11 to further showcase the league’s rise in national prominence.
Women’s Basketball: Rising National Profile
  • Hawai‘i claimed the Big West regular-season title, for the sixth time in program history and the third time in the last four seasons  (1993, ’94, ’15, ’22, ’24, ’25). The Rainbow Wahine played in the WBIT brackets for a second-straight postseason, falling at UNLV in their first round game.
  • UC San Diego secured their first-ever Division I postseason bid, after a trio of wins at Lee's Family Forum coming against Cal Poly, Hawai'i and UC Davis. With Heidi VanDerveer at the helm of the squad and joining recently-retired sister Tara in distinction, a VanDerveer has coached in the NCAA Tournament for the last 28 seasons, dating back to 1996-97. Tara and Heidi have combined for 39 appearances at three institutions.
  • Notable non-conference victories came against Arizona State and NCAA participants Oregon State and William & Mary demonstrating the league’s growing strength against Power Five and top mid-major programs.
  • The league's defense was on lockdown in 2024-25, with Hawai'i, Cal Poly and UC Davis occupying the top three spots in three-point percentage defense in all of NCAA Division I. Another national leader with UC Santa Barbara's 80.8 percent free throw percentage to top the country.
Big West Basketball Championships See Unprecedented Growth
The 2025 Big West Basketball Championships presented by Credit Union 1 in the Las Vegas Valley experienced a 31% increase in overall attendance, with the championship game seeing a 62% increase in fan turnout. The Championship continues to grow as a marquee event, solidifying The Big West’s footprint in the national college basketball landscape.
As The Big West continues to elevate its profile, the 2024-25 season served as a milestone moment, reinforcing the league’s standing as one of the premier mid-major basketball conferences in the country.