For yesterday’s Under The Radar video podcast – CLICK HERE
UC-Irvine (17-5, 5-1 Big West) at UC-Santa Barbara (15-4, 4-1 Big West) – 11:00 PM (ESPNU)
Tonight’s UTR Game of the Day takes us to the West Coast where the Gauchos of UCSB will host the UC-Irvine Anteaters in a battle for first place for the Big West conference. The Gauchos have feasted on the bottom half of the conference so far with wins against the bottom four teams and their sole loss coming at Cal State-Fullerton last week. They do have a respectable four-point loss at Washington during nonconference play, but they also have a nice win at home against San Francisco on their profile as well. Armond Davis had 24 points and 11 rebounds in the Gauchos’ most recent outing – a win at Long Beach State.
UC-Irvine is a half game ahead in the standings, but the Anteaters already have three conference wins against Cal State-Fullerton, Cal State-Northridge and Hawaii; these are all teams in the upper half of the Big West at the moment. They also have a win at Saint Mary’s on their profile, and wins against Montana and even Texas-San Antonio are starting to look more and more solid by the day. Max Hazzard leads the Anteaters with 11.8 PPG; Evan Leonard also averages 10.8 PPG as well.