Big West Basketball: 2022 Conference Tournament preview

Big West Basketball looks to have one of the more wide-open conference tournaments this season. Who will be the team to get the autobid for the Big Dance?

Big West Basketball is full of competitive, under-the-radar teams with the ability to make noise in the NCAA tournament. Before we can even get into the big dance, we have to talk about the conference tournament.

When looking at conference records, there are six teams with the ability to get the conference’s automatic bid in the Big West. Long Beach State (12-3), Cal State Fullerton (11-4), Hawaii (10-5), UC Irvine (9-5), UC Santa Barbara (8-5), and UC Riverside (9-6) are in a battle for the prize. It might not seem like the latter three have a chance to sneak into automatic contention but with how tight these conference records are, there’s no way you can count them out.

The Big West tournament will be played Tuesday, March 8-Saturday March 12 at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, NV. Games will be played alongside the Big West women as they are both being played during the same time in the same location. Big West fans have the chance to watch great basketball back-to-back.

In the past few seasons, there hasn’t been a definite powerhouse team who’s won the majority of the conference tournaments. Since 2015, the only team to win the tournament more than once was UC Irvine in 2015 and 2019, respectively. But, Irvine did appear in five of the championships including the two they won. Note: there was no conference tournament in 2020 due to Covid-19.

This year’s tournament is up in the air again which makes it even more exciting. Fans will be on their toes the whole time. No one truly knows who’s going to win. There is no heavy favorite which ups the intensity.

So who is destined to bring it all home? No. 1 Long Beach State? No. 2 Cal State Fullerton or will No. 10 Cal Poly shock the world and win it all? It is March. Anything can happen in just one game.

Key teams to watch

Favorite: Long Beach State
From a seeding standpoint, Long Beach State is the favorite in the tournament. It’s definitely a fair assessment seeing as they hold the No. 1 seed in the Big West. The team is led in scoring by Joel Murray who is also second in the conference with 16.2 points per game as well as second in steals with 1.6.

They also have the conference tying leader in rebounds and second in the conference in Aboubacar Traore with 8.2 and 1.4 per game, respectively. Long Beach State is full of formidable weapons that’ll make it hard for teams to beat.

Top Contender: Cal State Fullerton

If seeding was based on personal choice, I would’ve placed Cal State Fullerton as the No. 1 seed. Unfortunately, that’s not possible because it’s obviously due to results in conference play. The Titans have one of the most talented players in the conference in E.J. Anosike who’s currently leading the conference in scoring with 16.3 points per game and is fourth in rebounds with 7.7 per game.

Anosike is also second in the conference in shooting percentage, converting 51.5% of his shots from the field. Similar to Long Beach State, the Titans have the talent on both ends that can give them the edge and being the top contender despite being ranked No. 2.

Dark Horse: UC-Santa Barbara 

The Gauchos are probably the best No. 5 seed I’ve seen in the Big West in a while. They may be 8-5 but a lot of that is due to game cancellations in January. Regardless, they’re currently the hottest team in the conference winning five in a row. Their most notable wins during this streak were a blowout 84-71 win against Long Beach State and a 67-60 win over Hawai’i.

A crucial part of their streak has been their offense. The Gauchos are currently second in the conference in points per game with 74, the best offense-to-defense margin with 8.4, and the most assists per game with 15.58. Amadou Sow is third in the conference in points per game with 15.8, first in shooting percentage with 56.6% and he’s tied for first in rebounds with LBSU’s Traore with 8.2.

Another weapon UCSB has is Ajay Mitchell who’s averaging 11.8 points and 3.8 assists per game. The Gauchos are an underdog but don’t be surprised if they take a nice long run to the championship game.

Bracketology

As of March 7, Joe Lunardi has Long Beach State as the Big West’s automatic bid as the No. 15 seed. So far, no other team in the conference is considered for an at-large bid or on the bubble. With the way the teams in the Big West are pretty much equally matched, I’d expect there to be a shift in the Big West’s bid once the tournament commences.