Big West

It was a maritime week at the Big West tournament as teams located near salt water created most of the waves. Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara advanced to the finals in both the men's and women's brackets. It's the first time that has happened since 1990, when both programs from Long Beach and Nevada Las Vegas advanced to the finals. It was a good week, in general, for the plucky, cost-conscious Big West, especially when compared with the cross-county carnage at the Pac-12 tournament.

I love the Big West Conference, going back to its days as the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. when Lew Cryer was commissioner and Nevada Las Vegas was a national power. I still drink coffee out of a PCAA mug that was a media gift from the 1985 tournament held at the Fabulous Forum. I was a student at current Big West member Cal State Fullerton in 1978 when the Titans came within a shot of making the Final Four. I traveled the road as UC Irvine's basketball beat writer in the early 1980s with Bill Mulligan, the  school's quote-machine coach.

UC Irvine and Fresno State both have 7-6 Big West Conference records and are coming off come-from-behind overtime victories, but there's little doubt about who is favored in tonight's game. Irvine (10-12 overall) beat Fresno (12-10) a month ago, 64-61, but the Anteaters are 0-9 in Selland Arena.

UC Irvine men's basketball team will not be making its first NCAA tournament appearance. This is not the year to finally fear the Anteater. Top-seeded Pacific jumped to an early lead Saturday night and never lost it on its way to a 64-55 win in the Big West championship game before a crowd of 6,795 at the Honda Center. Pacific (22-12) led by as many as 13 points in the second half when Irvine (20-15) got energized after Will Davis II jammed in a jarring dunk off a lob pass from Michael Wilder.

I love the Big West Conference, going back to its days as the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. when Lew Cryer was commissioner and Nevada Las Vegas was a national power. I still drink coffee out of a PCAA mug that was a media gift from the 1985 tournament held at the Fabulous Forum. I was a student at current Big West member Cal State Fullerton in 1978 when the Titans came within a shot of making the Final Four. I traveled the road as UC Irvine's basketball beat writer in the early 1980s with Bill Mulligan, the  school's quote-machine coach.

at Long Beach State 75, Cal State Northridge 67: Larry Anderson led five 49ers in double figures with 16 points as Long Beach (17-6, 10-0 Big West) pulled away in the second half for its 18th consecutive conference win and 19th in a row at home. The Matadors fell to 6-15, 2-8. at Cal State Fullerton 99, UC Santa Barbara 86: Kwame Vaughn scored 37 points, making five of seven three-pointers, to lead the Titans (15-7, 7-3 Big West) over the Gauchos (12-8, 7-3), who got 28 points from Orlando Johnson.

Cal State Fullerton once came within a basket of reaching the NCAA Final Four ? just ask any aging Titans fan. Long Beach State once scared the bejesus out of UCLA in a regional final ? a John Wooden-coached UCLA team. And Nevada Las Vegas once won a national title ? a generation ago. The Big West Conference's best days are becoming a once-upon-a-time tale, something that UC Santa Barbara players know as they prepare to play 12th-ranked Florida in the second round of the NCAA tournament Thursday in Tampa.

With one improbable, awkward three-point jump shot from one improbable, awkward San Jose State Spartan, a beleaguered basketball conference went from Big West to Big Worst Case Scenario Sunday afternoon.

Fresno State 76, Utah State 72--Forward Jervis Cole scored 27 points and grabbed 9 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs to victory at Logan, Utah. It was the Big West opener for both schools. Fresno improved to 6-4 overall; Utah State is 2-8. Utah State was led by Darrel White with 22 points. The Aggies' leading scorer, Reid Newey, hit only 4 of 17 shots, including 3 3-pointers, but made 9 of 10 free throws and ended the night with 20 points, 19 coming in the first half.

* BOISE STATE (4-5, 0-0) at LONG BEACH STATE (4-5, 0-0) * Time--7:30 p.m. Long Beach State limps into its conference opener confused and shaken by its horrible road play. Undefeated at home, the 49ers will be without starting point guard Tommie Davis, suspended for tonight's game by the conference for elbowing the back of a Montana player's head during an 80-70 loss at Missoula, Mont., on Dec. 21. Boise State is making its Big West debut.

Cal Poly overcame the loss of star forward Kayla Griffin on Saturday to upset top-seeded Pacific, 63-49, in the Big West Conference women's basketball tournament final at Honda Center. The win earned the second-seeded Mustangs their first trip to the NCAA tournament. Griffin tore knee ligaments early in the second half, but Cal Poly was able to maintain the 11-point lead it built in the first half. Griffin had four points in her 24 minutes. "We wouldn't be in this position without Kayla, there's no question," Cal Poly Coach Faith Mimnaugh said.

The school with the funny nickname is 40 minutes from becoming no joke. UC Irvine had a great coach once in Bill Mulligan. The school has produced a roster of star players that includes Kevin Magee, Ben McDonald and Scott Brooks. The mighty Anteaters, however, have never needled their noses into an NCAA field. Irvine is now on that special brink after Friday night's 67-60 win over top-seeded Long Beach State at the Honda Center. The victory put the Anteaters into Saturday's Big West Tournament championship game against Pacific.

Cal State Fullerton's longshot bid to win the Big West Conference women's basketball tournament came up three points short. Erica McKenzie's three-point basket with seven seconds left Friday gave top-seeded Pacific a dramatic 54-51 victory over No. 8 Fullerton at the Honda Center. Pacific (25-6) will play in Saturday's 1 p.m. championship game against No. 2 Cal Poly, a 62-43 winner over UC Santa Barbara. Fullerton, which finished the season 11-22, made it to the semifinals after upset wins over No. 5 Long Beach State and No. 3 Hawaii.

Top-seeded Long Beach State versus injury-ravaged Cal State Fullerton went just as you might expect a game with that billing would go. Fullerton's Titans were tenacious enough in Thursday night's opening round of the Big West Conference tournament. They just weren't deep enough. Long Beach withstood Fullerton's pluckiness and slow-it-down pace to emerge with a 75-66 victory at the Honda Center. "It was grind for us all game," Long Beach Coach Dan Monson said. The 49ers advance to Friday's 6:30 p.m. semifinal game against UC Irvine.

James Ennis was like the fifth Beatle on last season's Long Beach State basketball team, a back-beat junior in a Fab Four senior lineup led by lead slinger Casper Ware. Ennis, they say, was the quiet one as the 49ers swept through the Big West Conference regular season and won the league tournament on their way to the NCAA tournament. "It was fun playing for that group," Ennis said this week. "Everyone had a role. Mine was to be coachable and to be a good teammate. " Those days are over, as Ennis is now Long Beach's give-me-the-rock star.

at Long Beach State 75, UC Riverside 35: The balanced 49ers shot 53% and handed the Highlanders their seventh loss in a row. It was the fewest points Long Beach (16-9, 12-2 Big West) has given up since UC Irvine scored 26 in 1980. Tony Freeland scored 14 points and James Ennis had 12 for the first-place 49ers, who had a 31-19 halftime lead and closed the game with a 28-5 run. Riverside (5-20, 2-11) shot 24%. St. Mary's 61, at Loyola Marymount 50: The Gaels used an early 14-0 run to hand the Lions their 10th consecutive loss.

MEN at San Diego State 75, Fresno State 53: Jamaal Franklin scored 14 points to surpass 1,000 for his three-year career and James Rahon also scored 14 to help the Aztecs (18-5, 6-3 Mountain West) rout the cold-shooting Bulldogs (8-14, 2-7). The Aztecs, who fell out of the AP top 25 last week for the second time this season, used a 13-0 run in the second half to win for the fourth time in five games. Fresno State shot 24% in the first half, 29% for the game. at No. 6 Gonzaga 74, Loyola Marymount 55: Kevin Pangos and Kelly Olynyk each scored 20 points as the Bulldogs (23-2, 10-0 West Coast)

To remind his players that nothing is impossible, Cal State Northridge basketball Coach Bobby Braswell placed photographs of the Matadors' November 2000 upset of UCLA on display in their locker room. "I'm determined not to let that become ancient history," Braswell said of the team's lone victory over UCLA in seven tries. "I believe that in order to know what you can be and who you are, you've got to understand your history. " The question now is whether history will repeat itself Wednesday.