UC-Santa Barbara at Hawai’i, Midnight Eastern, OC Sports/bigwest.tv
The SCGD heads west tonight…as far west as we can go. The Big Island of Hawai’i is the sight for tonight’s featured game as two of the top teams in the Big West square off. The Rainbow Warriors enter tonight’s game at 4-3 in conference, one game behind the first place tie of UCSB, UC-Irvine and Long Beach State. However, their 15-6 overall record is the best in the conference and their ratings, especially their BPI, are among the conference’s leaders as well.
Hawai’i is welcoming in the team that looked, at one point, like it had a chance to completely dominate the big West this season. Bob Williams’ UCSB Gauchos made a huge non-conference statement early this season with a dominating road win at UNLV — a win that had them on our at-large radar for a while. Unfortunately, the Gauchos suffered some bad losses as well, including conference losses to Cal Poly and CS-Fullerton. A 20 point win over UC-Irvine last week, however, seems to have them back on track. Being able to win tonight’s game on the island would be an even bigger statement, and would set the Gauchos up as the team to beat, once again, as we move through February and into March.