17 points, a block, and a steal from PotG
Truman Crain carries us to a win over UC-Davis. Guess he read the press blasting him and decided to step up.
This gives us our fifth straight season of 10+ wins. In real-life, the Matadors had that streak from 1996-97 to 2010-11 - including two first round NCAA tournament appearances (one with the Big Sky and one with the Big West), so it's not like it was a huge accomplishment or anything.
Beating Hawaii would get us back to .500 overall on the year and
Butterfly Man's 23 points and a steal in a comeback victory gets us exactly that. 8 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks for
Frank Gilmore and 10 points, 2 steals from
Dennis Luther help carry us in the 3 point victory.
With a shot at .500 in the Big West at home against Long Beach State, we fall flat on our faces and lose in OT in a game we led most of the way. A couple injuries happen which are annoying, but not ones that prevent anyone missing any time at least.
Fullerton reminds us we still suck in a blowout loss and a barnburner finish goes the Anteaters' way to put us on the brink of being unable to reach even .500 in the Big West for the season.
We may be bad but we're not Pacific bad as
Dennis Luther scores 24 with 3 steals as PotG,
Butterfly Man has 16-5-5, and
Geoffrey Blodgett scores 12 with a pair of steals in a comfortable Tigers taming.
But then the Gauchos beat us by 32 to end our faint even steven dreams.
With nothing left to play for in the regular season, we drop our last two - including blowing a lead to UC-Riverside late. Why was there nothing left to play for?
Code:
2020 Big West Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
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UC Riverside Highlanders 12 6 .667 16 12 .571 106 52
Cal State Fullerton Titans 11 7 .611 16 13 .552 120 35
UC Irvine Anteaters 10 8 .556 15 14 .517 176 30
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 10 8 .556 12 17 .414 203 44
UC Davis Aggies 10 8 .556 19 10 .655 73 47
Long Beach State 49ers 9 9 .500 12 17 .414 194 23
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 9 9 .500 17 12 .586 142 24
Cal Poly Mustangs 9 9 .500 14 15 .483 233 39
Cal State Northridge Matadors 6 12 .333 12 17 .414 269 27
Pacific Tigers 4 14 .222 5 24 .172 315 20
Yeah. We were shut out of the conference tournament no matter what.
So the postseason involves us sitting at home and ignoring everything.
Cal Poly upsets by winning the whole Big West tournament and bows out as a 16 seed.
UC-Riverside is a 7 seed in the NIT and makes the deepest NIT run by a Big West team in a long time, maybe ever. They make it to the NIT Final Four,
where it's a Highlanders vs Aggies matchup. Yep,
UC-Davis drew a 2 seed due to their RPI and embarrass the Highlanders on national TV, 70-36, before they play UCLA in the championship.
Only Xavier was not from California of the NIT Final Four.
UC-Davis brings home an NIT championship to the Big West, routing the Bruins 82-60 despite UCLA having 3 Blue and 2 Green starters while the Aggies have not a single Green player on their roster. Yeah, basketball is DUMB sometimes. No injuries either.
Conversely the NCAA Final Four was an All-Big 10 in one half - Ohio State and Iowa - and All-Big 12 in the other - Oklahoma and Baylor. 3 seed Buckeyes vs 2 seed Bears in a national championship that was clearly in the key of B. Bears 89, Buckeyes 65 in a matching rout. Congratulations to Baylor on their second championship - the first since Year 1.
And they're 2-1 in national title games.
Code:
2020 BIG WEST AWARDS
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Player of the Year:
SR PF Hoyt Belisle UC Riverside 15.6 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 1.2 APG 0.4 SPG, 3.8 BPG
Freshman of the Year:
FR C Pascal Segard Hawaii 4.9 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.2 APG 0.6 SPG, 0.4 BPG
Coach of the Year:
Joseph Cogswell Hawaii 17 - 13 (9 - 9)
All-league 1st Team:
C JR Asdrubal Moya Cal State Fullerton 9.5 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 1.6 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.8 BPG
PF SR Hoyt Belisle UC Riverside 15.6 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.4 SPG, 3.8 BPG
SF SR Trent Smythe Cal State Fullerton 12.6 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.3 BPG
SG SR Nazario Moreno Cal Poly 20.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.2 BPG
PG SR Terry Miskin Hawaii 17.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.3 BPG
All-league 2nd Team:
C SR Kenneth Wallace UC Irvine 13.6 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.3 SPG, 0.4 BPG
PF JR Douglas Gebhardt Cal State Fullerton 10.5 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.4 BPG
SF SR Nathaniel Sullivan Hawaii 13.8 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 2.0 APG, 0.4 SPG, 0.2 BPG
SG JR Tyler Whitfield Cal State Fullerton 15.5 PPG, 4.9 RPG, 2.2 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.2 BPG
PG SR Willy Hung Cal Poly 12.9 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 2.2 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.2 BPG
All-freshman Team:
C FR Pascal Segard Hawaii 4.9 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.4 BPG
PF FR Albert Ragsdale Cal State Northridge 1.7 PPG, 1.0 RPG, 0.2 APG, 0.4 SPG, 0.3 BPG
SF FR Kenneth Kohl Long Beach State 8.1 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 0.8 APG, 0.3 SPG, 0.0 BPG
SG FR Kevin Christensen UC Irvine 5.1 PPG, 1.5 RPG, 0.8 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.2 BPG
PG FR Edward Davis UC Riverside 3.4 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 1.0 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.0 BPG
One of our scrub bigs gets an All-Freshman award despite not averaging 2 in any category that often has double digits, or 0.5 in any category that usually has at least one whole number. Laugh. What a weird flipping year.
Seniors up next.