Code:
2023 Big West Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
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UC Irvine Anteaters 1 0 1.000 9 3 .750 34 33
UC Riverside Highlanders 2 0 1.000 8 4 .667 56 49
UC Davis Aggies 2 0 1.000 7 5 .583 104 53
Cal State Northridge Matadors 2 0 1.000 3 9 .250 323 28
Long Beach State 49ers 1 1 .500 5 8 .385 118 26
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 1 1 .500 5 8 .385 130 35
Cal State Fullerton Titans 0 2 .000 5 7 .417 230 48
Cal Poly Mustangs 0 2 .000 4 7 .364 232 39
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 0 1 .000 4 7 .364 234 35
Pacific Tigers 0 2 .000 1 10 .091 315 22
So we haven't exactly played the cream of the conference crop so far.
UC-Riverside looks like the best squad in my opinion and I think 4th place is probably our best hope. It's kind of a weird year for the conference.
Muhammed Owen turns in a flawless 6/6 shooting night for 12 points and 15 rebounds to take the top player honors in a 72-60 beat of
Long Beach State. 17 points, 11 rebounds for
Kevin McKenzie, and
Jeromy Harrington, who was a surprise All-Freshman Big West selection last year, scores 10 points with 2 steals.
The expected bubble burst happens when we flatline in the second half vs
Hawaii. We then upset
CSU-Fullerton 84-82 as
Eutropio Rey scores 20 with 2 steals,
Kevin McKenzie puts up 18/7/1 steal,
Bogdan Gonchar is 16/9/1/2 steals, and
Muhammed Owen is the best player with 13 points, 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 blocks.
21 points and 2 steals from
Kevin McKenzie (PotG), holding our opponents to 29.6% shooting later, we've upset
UC-Davis 59-44. 14 points, 6 rebounds, and a steal from
Bogdan Gonchar too as we've already equaled our 5 Big West wins from last season.
I'm just gonna post this real quick because we'll probably never see it again:
Code:
2023 Big West Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
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Cal State Northridge Matadors 5 1 .833 6 10 .375 264 28
Long Beach State 49ers 4 2 .667 8 9 .471 125 26
UC Riverside Highlanders 4 2 .667 10 6 .625 70 49
UC Davis Aggies 3 2 .600 8 7 .533 126 53
Cal Poly Mustangs 3 2 .600 8 7 .533 175 39
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 3 3 .500 7 10 .412 191 35
UC Irvine Anteaters 2 3 .400 10 6 .625 104 33
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 2 3 .400 6 9 .400 259 35
Cal State Fullerton Titans 1 4 .200 6 10 .375 211 48
Pacific Tigers 0 5 .000 2 13 .133 293 22
The funniest part? We're
1-6 at home. Yeah, like I said, really, really weird year.
As expected,
UC-Riverside reminds us the Highlanders are the class of the conference, whipping us by 26 points.
We have the single greatest game of my career since the upset of #1 Stanford a few years back when we come back from down 15 to
UC-Irvine to... well...
Code:
Cal State Northridge 91, UC Irvine 69
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UC Irvine (11-8, 3-5):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Cyrus Roy C 28 3-6 2-2 1 3 0 1 8
John Carman PF 29 3-6 1-2 0 4 2 2 8
Flavio Jimenez SF 34 6-12 2-2 3 10 2 2 16
Kevin Christensen SG 30 7-13 0-0 0 1 2 4 16
Ward Sowder PG 28 4-10 2-6 0 1 3 3 10
William Mundy PG 12 1-3 0-0 1 1 2 0 2
Nickolas Mills C 24 1-3 1-1 4 5 0 4 3
Thomas Doucet SG 9 1-2 0-0 0 1 0 0 2
Daniel Shelton SF 3 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 3
Carlos Lear PF 2 0-1 1-2 0 0 0 0 1
Turnovers: 16 (C.Roy 1, F.Jimenez 3, K.Christensen 6,
W.Sowder 3, N.Mills 1, T.Doucet 1, D.Shelton 1)
Blocked Shots: 5 (C.Roy 3, N.Mills 2)
Steals: 8 (F.Jimenez 2, K.Christensen 1, W.Sowder 2,
T.Doucet 2, D.Shelton 1)
3P FGs: 6-18 (J.Carman 1-3, F.Jimenez 2-5,
K.Christensen 2-7, W.Mundy 0-1, D.Shelton 1-1, C.Lear
0-1)
Cal State Northridge (7-11, 6-2):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Tim Grey C 29 3-6 2-2 4 5 1 2 8
Muhammad Owen PF 28 5-7 0-1 3 10 0 3 10
Bogdan Gonchar SF 21 7-12 0-0 1 3 2 3 14
Kevin McKenzie SG 30 10-18 4-5 1 3 4 3 29
Jakub Sedlacek PG 25 5-8 0-0 2 6 5 2 12
Eutropio Rey PG 24 2-6 2-3 0 2 8 1 6
Jeromy Harrington SF 11 2-2 0-0 0 1 0 2 5
Albert Ragsdale PF 18 0-2 2-2 2 4 1 0 2
Austin Soukup PF 6 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0
Denis Smith SF 9 2-3 0-0 0 1 1 0 5
Turnovers: 15 (T.Grey 2, M.Owen 1, K.McKenzie 5,
J.Sedlacek 3, J.Harrington 3, D.Smith 1)
Blocked Shots: 5 (T.Grey 2, M.Owen 1, A.Ragsdale 2)
Steals: 8 (T.Grey 1, M.Owen 1, K.McKenzie 1, J.Sedlacek
2, E.Rey 1, J.Harrington 1, A.Ragsdale 1)
3P FGs: 9-18 (B.Gonchar 0-1, K.McKenzie 5-10,
J.Sedlacek 2-4, J.Harrington 1-1, D.Smith 1-2)
Player of Game: SG Kevin McKenzie (CSNTH)
Absolutely amazing. That's also a school record for single game assists, by the way.
And of course that's followed up by heartbreak when
UC-Santa Barbara hits a 3 point buzzer-beater to steal a win that belonged to us. That means
2-7 home record.
We're in 2nd place, a game behind the Highlanders. We should be tied with them. Ugh. Stupid Gauchos.