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There was no official Big West Media Day, but there were preseason polls, awards, and honors
BIG WEST PRESEASON POLL:
- UC Santa Barbara
- Long Beach State
- Hawaii
- UC Irvine
- UC Davis
- Call State Fullerton
- UC Riverside
- Cal State Bakersfield
- UC San Diego
- Cal State Northridge
- Cal Poly
PRESEASON ALL BIG WEST TEAM:
-JoVon McClanahan – SR, G – Hawaii
-Ajay Mitchell – JR, G – UC Santa Barbara
-Elijah Pepper – SR, G UC Davis
-Bryce Pope – SR, G – UC San Diego
-Aboubacar Traore – JR, F – Long Beach State
-Lassina Traore – JR, F – Long Beach State
COMMENTS FROM DAVID GRIGGS:
I love this conference except for one thing: it causes me to lose quite a bit of sleep!!! This year it appears to be very wide open. I think there are as many as six different teams that have a chance to win it.
-UC Santa Barbara tied for first place last year, won 27 total games, and won the conference tournament. They are the preseason favorites to repeat as league champions this year, but they are losing three key starters including Miles Norris, who was their best player. Ajay Mitchell is back, who averaged over 16ppg last year and is one of the best guards in the conference. They do return a lot of their bench but do not look quite as strong as they were a year ago. I do think they will be at or near the top of the standings…but repeating the 27 total wins is a tall order.
-Long Beach State is getting a lot of preseason love. They had a rather ‘meh’ season a year ago, but with four starters back including Marcus Tsohonis (who averaged over 14ppg last year) and Lassina/Aboubacar Traore (who both received preseason all-conference honors), this is a team that is both talented/experienced. I also really like Dan Monson as a coach. Having said that, while they should be really good this year, I felt they should have been really good last year and…well…they were not. They have the pieces of a team that should win a lot but…will they?
-Hawaii has a solid backcourt with Noel Coleman/JoVon McClanahan. They are not quite as strong in the frontcourt but they are not bad either. Three starters are back from a team that won 21 D1 games last season, and while they did not look particularly strong at home in their exhibition game against Saint Mary’s a few days ago, it was just an exhibition game. I like this Rainbows team. I like how they finished the season last year, I like their guard play, and I like what they have coming back. I think they can actually win the Big West.
-I am a little surprised that UC Irvine was picked this low…but only a little. They did lose their top-two scorers from last year and the teams that are picked to finish ahead of them are good. Still, three starters are back from a team that won 23 games and made the NIT a year ago, and the Eaters are a team that typically goes deep into their bench so they have guys that can step up. They also added some pretty solid looking freshmen and transfers so I expect that the Eaters will be in the mix like they usually are.
-UC Davis is coming off their best season in a while and with three starters back it will be interesting to see if they can continue that momentum into this year. Elijah Pepper is an outstanding guard and one of the best players in the conference and Ty Johnson gives them a big presence underneath. They did kind of slump off in the second half of conference play last year and I can see why that would give some people some pause, but this is a talented team with a quality coach in Jim Les. I think they can make a lot more noise this year than what we are used to seeing them make.
-Cal State Fullerton has had back-to-back 20+win seasons and with three starters back from a year ago including Max Jones (who was a double-digit scorer), they may be poised for another big season. I am a little surprised they are not picked a little higher than this. They finished 4th last year, made it to the championship game of the conference tournament, won 20 games, have some good experience coming back, and appear to be adding some nice pieces to their roster.
-Coach Mike Magpayo has done a truly amazing job at UC Riverside. For a program that had not had much success at any point in their history before he arrived, they won 22 games last year and the expectations are now higher. They will be rebuilding somewhat this year with just two starters back and hoping some guys can step up and play bigger roles this year. I do not see them winning 20 games again this season, but I do think their program is heading in the right direction.
-Cal State Bakersfield has struggled the last two years and won just 11 games a season ago. Part of the reason they struggled was due to injuries, but even when they were healthy they struggled. Kaleb Higgins is a quality player and if he can stay healthy this year we should see some improvement, but I still think they will end up in the bottom half of the standings.
-UC San Diego is struggling as a transitional team and will likely struggle even more this year. I do think the long-term prognosis is pretty good but I also think they are entering the hardest period of their transitional phase.
-Andy Newman takes over as head coach at CSUN and he has his work cut out for him. This team has won fewer than ten games for the last three years and could be in for another long/frustrating year this year.
-It has been a while since Cal Poly won as many as ten games. They were the last place team a year ago, and while their roster is being overhauled the overall outlook for them this season is…well…not good.