Big West Conference Tournament

Some Thoughts About The Big West Conference
Men's Tournament Bracket--(Mar. 2, 2003)

The Big West Conference is scheduled to start next week, March 12 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and unlike the WCC Tournament which gets underway this week, the regular conference season doesn't end for the Big West until next Saturday, March 8, so there's still plenty of basketball left to be played before the seeds are decided.

We decided to take a look at the bracket if it were seeded today, based on the standings as of the finish of yesterday's games and frankly, while there might be some movement among the No. 6, 7 and 8 seeds, we don't expect it to look much different than what we've got below, no matter what happens in the next week....Of course, if USCB loses both remaining games, it could look a lot different, but we don't expect that to happen.

Mens' Big West Conference Tournament Bracket Anaheim Convention Center March 13-15, 2003
	First Round Quarterfinals Thurs. March 13	Second Round Semifinals Friday March 14	Championship Final Saturday March 15 9:00 p.m. PST (ESPN)
	Seed No. 1 [UCSB] Game 5 12:00 p.m.PST [CSUN, UOP or CSUF] Seed No. 8	Winner Game 5 Game 11 6:00 p.m. PST Winner Game 6	Winner Game 11 Game 14 Winner Game 12
	Seed No. 4 [Cal Poly] Game 6 30 min after Gm 5 [Idaho] Seed No. 5
	Seed No. 3 [Utah State] Game 7 6:00 p.m. PST [CSUN, UOP or CSUF] Seed No. 6	Winner Game 7 Game 12 30 min after Game 11 Winner Game 8
	Seed No. 7 [CSUN, UOP or CSUF] Game 8 30 min after Gm 7 [UC Irvine] Seed No. 2

So who is likely to be positioned in which seed spot by the end of the conference a week from Saturday? Here are the standings as of yesterday's games (note, you can get each team's full schedule by clicking on the links):

2002-2003 STANDINGS (through games of Mar. 1, 2003)
	Conference			Overall
	W	L	Pct.	W	L	Pct.
*UC Santa Barbara	12	4	.750	15	12	.556
*UC Irvine	12	5	.706	18	8	.692
*Utah State	10	6	.625	19	8	.704
*Cal Poly	9	7	.563	13	12	.520
*Idaho	8	8	.500	12	13	.480
*Cal State Northridge	7	9	.438	13	13	.500
*Pacific	7	9	.438	12	13	.480
*Cal State Fullerton	7	9	.438	9	17	.346
UC Riverside	5	11	.313	6	16	.273
Long Beach State	4	13	.235	5	21	.192

Unless something drastic occurs, look for Santa Barbara to get the No. 1 seed. With two games remaining, against Fullerton and UC Riverside, the Gauchos should take them both and pull into sole possession of first place. Irvine will likely finish in the No. 2 spot, with one game remaining against Long Beach State, the Anteaters should win as well.

The No. 3 seed should belong to Utah State if they can win both of their remaining games against CSUN and Pacific, both at home. The Aggies beat CSUN at Northridge, but lost to Pacific earlier in conference play. Cal Poly has Riverside and Fullerton left on the schedule, both games we expect the Mustangs to win, so we expect them to keep the No. 4 seed. Idaho has Pacific and CSUN, and while they could drop one of those games, it's not going to affect the top seeds at all, nor the bottom three teams very much except as between the No. 6, 7 and 8 seeds. We expect those three, CSUN, Pacific and Fullerton to all make the tournament and be seeded somewhere among the last three. Riverside is not yet tournament eligible, and finally Long Beach State won't make it this year and will rebuild for next season.

That's it for now....check back in a week to see what it's really going to look like.