Latest Basketball Rankings for the Big West

After playing a few non-conference games, lets check in on the Massey Rankings for all the Big West teams.  The Massey Rankings is made up of many mathematical formulas as well as the USA Today Coaches Poll and the AP Poll (20 different rankings together averaged out).  Here's how our Big West teams stand:

108. Long Beach State (2-3)

133. Fullerton (3-2)

152. Pacific (3-3)

154. Northridge (6-1)

163. UCSB (2-3)

180. Hawaii (4-1)

188. Cal Poly (2-2)

193. UCI (3-4)

241. UCD (1-2)

316. UCR (1-6)

As a conference, the Big West ranks 16th out of 33 conferences.  This seems about right as UCD and UCR are really the only teams that hurt the rankings (without them the average rankings jump to 158.875, which places them in 12th right behind the Conference USA).  Looking at our future members, that average number will jump significantly, as SDSU is ranked No. 32 and Boise State is ranked No. 85.

Obviously the main thing that will change these numbers are wins and strength of schedule.  A lot of this week's non-conference games are coming from the Pac-12 and the MWC which should help the strength of schedule a lot.  Sorry to say for UCR, that realistically until conference play begins, they will only have two chances to win, both at home versus Northern Colorado (Big Sky) and Whittier College (Div III), and winning those games will only bring them slightly out of the 300's.


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Happy Thanksgiving from the Big West Confidential

After a week of indulging ourselves with massive amounts of food with comatose-like symptoms afterwards, we hope to be back to regular posting tonight.  In the meantime, enjoy this moment of Pac-12 schadenfreude as we play you the ESPN recap of last night's Mustang upset over Cal Poly:


Video courtesy of ESPN's Youtube Channel.

Hopefully the trend will continue, as the Bruins play Northridge and future Big West members San Diego State this week, and later next month, LBSU.



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Mountain West Rumors that could affect the Big West

According to Brett McMurphy of ESPN yesterday, BYU, San Diego State and Boise State have reportedly been talking with the Mountain West to go back to the conference.  This morning, however on XX1090 Sports Radio out of San Diego, SDSU AD Jim Sterk has been very firm about moving forward to the Big East despite "important" losses of the conference.  There's a press conference being held this afternoon at SDSU that we can follow to keep up on everything, but here's a breakdown on what's happened the past day:

B1G invites Maryland and Rutgers to the B1G.  They accept.  With Rutgers out of the Big East and the ACC going to an odd number, the ACC will most likely pick up UCONN or Louisville as a 14th member.  With numbers dwindling and the new playoff system grouping the Big East into the rest of the Group of Five (CUSA, MWC, Sun Belt, MAC), BYU, Boise State and San Diego State have all reportedly talked with the MWC with returning to the conference.  If this were to happen (very little chance), the Big West would go back down to 10 teams without BSU and SDSU, which from what i've gathered from reactions on twitter, would be fine with the conference.  How this will affect the FS television deal, I'm not sure, but being that SDSU would have 14 games on their own, this means that the deal would probably not change too much.

Once again, THIS IS ALL SPECULATION.  Most likely nothing will change.  So this is probably all panic for nothing.

Update: Sterk's press conference reassures his radio interview this morning, they're still planning to go Big East/West.


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Big West Basketball: Week 2 Preview

With one week in the books, teams are already starting to take form.  Easily on the men's side, Northridge and UCI look like the strongest teams in the preseason, while LBSU is having problems figuring stuff out.  On the women's side, Pacific, Northridge and UCR are all starting strong.  That being said, lets get to this weekend's slate of games:

Men's Basketball:

At 4:30, Northridge gets to continue their hot start by playing Siena, at 6:00 Fullerton takes on Nevada.  Then later tonight Pacific plays Fresno State, followed by the big game: North Carolina at LBSU and finally Illinois plays Hawaii.

On Saturday, Whitman College takes on UCR, Tulsa plays Northridge, The Master's College goes to UCSB and finally Southern Utah plays Fullerton.  On Sunday, Fullerton finishes their tournament, playing Wisconsin-Green Bay, Northern Arizona plays UC Davis and Northridge finishes the NUCDF Classic by playing Northern Kentucky.

Women's Basketball:

Tonight, Hawaii begins the Wahine Classic by playing Tennessee-Martin.  Tomorrow, Northridge plays Arizona, San Diego takes on Cal Poly, San Francisco plays Fullerton, Nevada plays UCI and Hawaii continues their classic by playing Stanford.

Finally, on Sunday, Washington plays LBSU, UCR goes to CSU Bakersfield and Hawaii concludes the Wahine Classic by playing Baylor.

Below is where you can follow the games LIVE:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2012

MBB	Cal State Northridge [3]	Siena	4:00 PM	GameTracker
				Radio - CSUN
	Nevada	Cal State Fullerton [5]	6:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				Live Stats
	Fresno State	Pacific	7:00 PM	GameTracker
				Radio - PAC
	Long Beach State	#11 North Carolina	8:00 PM	ESPNU
				GameTracker
				Radio - LBSU
	Hawai'i	Illinois	9:30 PM	Oceanic Sports
	Wig Night [!]			Live Stats
				Radio - UH
				Video (FREE)
WBB	Hawai'i [6]	Tennessee-Martin	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				Live Stats

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2012

MBB	UC Riverside	Whitman College	1:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				Live Stats
				Radio - UCR
	Cal State Northridge [3]	Tulsa	5:00 PM	Live Stats
				Radio - CSUN
	UC Santa Barbara	The Master's College	7:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				Live Stats
				Radio - UCSB
	Cal State Fullerton [5]	Southern Utah	8:30 PM	GameTracker
WBB	Arizona	Cal State Northridge	1:00 PM	GameTracker
	Cal Poly	San Diego	2:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				Live Stats
				Radio - CP
	Cal State Fullerton	San Francisco	2:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				Live Stats
				Radio - CSF
	UC Irvine	Nevada	4:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				Live Stats
				Radio - UCI
	Hawai'i [6]	#4 Stanford	9:00 PM	Live Stats

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2012

MBB	Cal State Fullerton [5]	Wisconsin-Green Bay	1:00 PM	Live Stats
	UC Davis	Northern Arizona	2:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				GameTracker
				Audio - UCD
	Cal State Northridge [3]	Northern Kentucky	3:30 PM	GameTracker
WBB	Long Beach State	Washington	2:00 PM	BigWest.TV
				GameTracker
				Audio - LBSU
	Cal State Bakersfield	UC Riverside	4:00 PM	Live Stats
	Hawai'i [6]	#1 Baylor	4:30 PM	Live Stats

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The Big West is Going to Have a Pretty Damn Good 2014

Hang on to your seats: the Big West and their affiliated schools are going to be hosting 4 rounds of the NCAA tournament in 2014.   It's been announced today, that San Diego State will be hosting the 2nd/3rd round of the NCAA tournament in the Viejas Arena as well as the Big West Conference itself, who will be hosting the West Region of the Big Dance at the Honda Center in Anaheim.  Honestly, the only thing that could have made this news better is if the Walter Pyramid or the Taco Bell Arena also hosted a round in next year's tourney.  Overall though, this is a pretty damn good way to increase the influence and reputation of the conference.

Here's the dates and sites of the first few rounds of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, remember that Cowboys Stadium will be hosting the Final Four that year:

2014 DIVISION I MEN’S BASKETBALL PRELIMINARY ROUND HOSTS

DATE	HOST	ROUND	SITE	FACILITY
March 18-19	Dayton	First Four	Dayton, Ohio	UD Arena
March 20/22	Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference	2nd/3rd Rounds	Buffalo, N.Y.	First Niagara Center
March 20/22	Marquette	2nd/3rd Rounds	Milwaukee, Wis.	Bradley Center
March 20/22	Stetson	2nd/3rd Rounds	Orlando, Fla.	Amway Center
March 20/22	Washington State	2nd/3rd Rounds	Spokane, Wash.	Veterans Memorial Coliseum
March 21/23	NC State	2nd/3rd Rounds	Raleigh, N.C.	PNC Arena
March 21/23	Texas-San Antonio	2nd/3rd Rounds	San Antonio, Texas	AT&T Center
March 21/23	San Diego State	2nd/3rd Rounds	San Diego.	Viejas Arena
March 21/23	Missouri Valley Conference	2nd/3rd Rounds	St. Louis	Scotttrade Center
March 27/29	Big West Conference	West Regional	Anaheim, Calif.	Honda Center
March 27/29	Memphis	South Regional	Memphis, Tenn.	FedEx Forum
March 28/30	Horizon League	Midwest Regional	Indianapolis	Lucas Oil Stadium
March 28/30	St. John’s/Big East Conference	East Regional	New York	Madison Square Garden

via ncaa.com



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A friendly challenge to Big Sky Basketball and Mountain West Connection: BRING IT

We have a full month and a half of non-conference in basketball.  Therefore, I thought it would be fun to do a Western blog challenge. I sent out an email to the managers of Big Sky Basketball and Mountain West Connection and they accepted the game.  Introducing, the inaugural BIG MOUNTAIN SKY CHALLENGE (logo/award pending).  Here's the rules:

1. The teams from the Big Sky, Mountain West and Big West Conferences all have many non-conference matches versus each other.  Therefore the blogs will track wins and losses of the conferences as a whole.

2. The conference blog at the end of non-conference play with the best win percentage gets to post on the loser conferences blogs.  This post can be anything "winner's conference" related and is encouraged to be overly boasting.

3.  There will be a weekly post updating the challenge.

HAVE AT IT YOU RAPSCALLION OTHER CONFERENCE BLOGS!

Big West Women's Basketball Preview

Editor's note: Yes, he does realize he's doing a full preview for all ten women's teams (as opposed to doing an individual videocast for each team).  Please understand that the season starts today.  The Blog thanks you for your forgiveness and cooperation and hopes that you continue visiting and making fun of their writing.

Big West Women's Basketball starts today and we'll look at who will be fighting for that magical spot to the Big Dance.  The women's teams can be separated into three main segments by preseason media voters: The Top, The Fighters, The Dark Horses and.  That being said, let's break down the teams:

The Top:
While the Matadors are picked to win the league, Pacific was only two votes behind in the preseason media poll and received five first place votes (Northridge got six).  The third team at The Top is UCSB, who looks to defend their title.  In terms of media votes, there's only eight total points separating them.  Northridge All-Conference Guards, Sophomores Ashlee Guay and Janae Sharpe look to be the stars of a decently experienced Matador team, while Senior Forward Kendall Rodriguez looks to lead Pacific through their farewell tour.  While the Gauchos don't have an All-Conference player on the roster, they'll look to Nicole Nesbit and Sweets Underwood (fantastic name) to lead the team.

The Fighters:
Only two teams fall in this category: Cal Poly and Long Beach State.  The Lady Mustangs lost Ashlee Burns and Kristina Santiago, however they have All-Conference player Kayla Griffin to lead a fairly experienced team.  LBSU on the other hand has 10 returning players, nine of which were newcomers last year.  Alex Sanchez (who was freshman of the year last season) and Mary Ochiltree will be the go-to girls for the 49ers.

The Dark Horses:
Hawaii, UC Davis and UCR are what I consider true dark horses in the conference this season.   Only seven votes separated all of them in the preseason poll, and remember that last season, the No. 5-7 seeds all made the semifinals of the Big West tournament, with the final ending up as No. 6 vs No. 7.  Hawaii has All-Conference Junior Forward Kamilah Martin leading the team while UCR has Senior Guard Tre' Shonti Nottingham to take the veteran role of a young Highlander team.  In the exhibition game versus Redlands, Sydnee Fipps took charge of a team seemingly missing an identity, thus establishing herself as the leader of this team.  I'm also going to throw UCI's name here, because they have the ability to pull off upset or two throughout the season.  Jasmine Bernard will be the player to look out for offensively, as UCI will play more of a defensive game to stop opponents.  Fullerton was ranked last by many points, however while not looking to be contenders this season, they could be spoilers.  Sophomore Kathleen Iwuoha looks to lead the team through a difficult non-conference slate and then a competitive rest of season.

My Preseason Poll:
1. Pacific
2. Northridge
3. Cal Poly
4. UCSB
5. LBSU
6. UCR
7. Hawaii
8. UC Davis
9. UCI
10. Fullerton

Get ready: season starts in one hour!


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