Under the Radar Game of the Day – Thursday, February 11 – UC-Irvine at Hawai’i

Under the Radar Game of the Day: UC-Irvine at Hawai’i, 1:00 AM Eastern (Friday morning), OC Sports/bigwest.tv

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By this time of year, it is rare to find teams that are scheduled to play each other twice in conference regular season play that have not already had one of their two games.  It is even rarer to find a situation where those two teams also happen to be the top two teams in the conference.  But that is exactly what we have had happen so far this season in the Big West, where UC-Irvine and Hawai’i have clearly pulled away from the rest of the pack and established themselves as the top teams in the conference.  And tonight, with a 1:00 AM Friday morning tipoff on the East Coast (8:00 PM tonight on the islands), the two teams finally meet for the first time as both try to make a case for themselves as the potential regular season champions and top seed in the Big West Tournament (they will meet again in Irvine on Saturday the 20th).

The host Rainbow Warriors of Hawai’i enter play tonight at 7-1 in conference play and 18-3 overall.  Their RPI is 92, BPI is 71 and KenPom rating is 60.  Although they failed to pick up any top 100 wins on the season so far, they looked solid hosting the Diamond Head Classic in December where they defeated Northern Iowa and Auburn and lost by only 3 points to Oklahoma.  Their other two losses (at Texas Tech and at home to Long Beach State) were by no means awful.  The lack of top wins, however, will probably keep this team out of the at-large bid conversation.  If they can sweep both games from Irvine, win the balance of their regular season games and make it to the Big West Tournament finals, there may be a case to be made though.  The ‘bows are led by Stefan Jankovic who has had four double-doubles on the season.  If he has that type of performance tonight, Hawai’i has a great shot to be sitting alone in first place tomorrow morning.

The Anteaters of UC-Irvine are 7-1 in conference play and 18-6 overall.  They have the best RPI in the league at 60, but lower BPI (102) and KenPom (99) numbers than their rival.  None of their losses have been awful, all coming against top 100 competition other than a loss at UCSB, who is ranked 101 in the RPI.  The Anteaters’ RPI number is actually helped up by two of their losses — at Oregon and at Kansas.  As with Hawai’i, they lack in quality wins and if they want to make an at-large bid case they will probably need to win every game from now until the Big West finals.  The Anteaters have a solid roster, including guys that can shoot from long range such as Luke Nelson, but when you talk about preparing for this team, you have to talk about Mamadou Ndiaye.  The 7-6 300 pound beast down low is a true force capable of altering a team’s gameplan — because if you don’t he could easily be posting triple-double quality numbers with points, rebounds and blocked shots.  On top of that, it is no longer a guarantee that you can just foul him and have him miss from the line as Ndiaye has improved his free throw shooting from 43% two years ago as a freshman to 64% this year.  Hawai’i needs to be ready to deal with him tonight, or it will be the Anteaters celebrating sole possession of first place.