UCI men’s basketball team picked by media to capture Big West Conference regular season title

Coach Russell Turner’s UC Irvine team is the favorite to win the Big West. (Photo courtesy UCI Athletics)

UC Irvine is the media favorite to capture the 2018 Big West men’s basketball regular season championship.

The 24-member panel predicted a tightly bunched race with the Anteaters collecting 10 first-place votes and 192 points. Cal State Fullerton gathered four first-place tallies and 183 points for second place. UC Davis was third with 180 points and six first-place votes.

Four media members tabbed UC Santa Barbara in the favorite’s role, as the Gauchos finished fourth overall in the poll with 149 points. The remainder of the poll included Long Beach State in fifth (116 points), followed by Hawaii (110), UC Riverside (61), Cal Poly (47) and CSUN (42).

UC Irvine returns all five starters and 12 letter winners from last year’s 18-17 club, which represented the sixth straight winning season for head coach Russell Turner’s program.

A deep, veteran laden lineup includes All-Big West First Team standout Tommy Rutherford (10.1 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and two-time Big West Defensive Player of the Year Jonathan Galloway (3.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 1.3 bpg) on the frontline. The returning backcourt includes second team all-conference returnee Evan Leonard, the team’s top scorer at 13.6 points per game, and Eyassu Worku (11.3 ppg) as the squad’s leader in assists (130). The ‘Eaters have unfinished business after losing in the 2018 Big West Tournament finals.

Cal State Fullerton won last year’s Big West Tournament to advance to the NCAA’s for the first time in 10 seasons. The Titans were also the eighth different team in eight years to hoist the tournament championship trophy, compiling their first 20-win season under head coach Dedrique Taylor. CSF returns four starters and 12 letterwinners in hopes of an encore performance. A pair of career 1,000-point scorers in senior guards Kyle Allman and Khalil Ahmad ead the charge.

Allman earned All-Big West First Team accolades after leading the conference in scoring (19.5 ppg), while Ahmad was fifth at 15.1 points per game and an all-conference second team selection. The tandem has combined to score 2,251 points over three seasons. CSF also welcomes back honorable mention all-league performer Jackson Rowe (12.1 ppg, 6.7 rpg).

UC Davis is another loaded Big West squad with championship aspirations. In fact, the Aggies are the reigning Big West regular season champions after finishing 12-4 in league play and going 22-11 overall – the third 20-win campaign in the last four seasons under head coach Jim Les. Four starters return from a squad which played in the National Invitation Tournament, led by senior guard TJ Shorts II (Tustin High).

The conference’s first dual recipient of Big West Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year honors, Shorts II averaged 21.0 points over the final eight games to spearhead the program’s run to the title. He hit two game-winning shots during that stretch and also led the circuit in assists and steals during conference play. Fellow senior guard Siler Schneider(13.9 ppg) has scored 1,119 career points and claimed All-Big West Second Team honors last season.

Under first-year coach Joe Pasternack, UC Santa Barbara tied the school’s single-season record for wins (23) and engineered the greatest turnaround in Big West history, a 17-win improvement from the previous campaign. Explosive scorer Max Heidegger averaged 19.1 points per game and broke the single-season school record for made three-pointers (95). The junior guard, a returning first team all-league choice and an NABC All-District 9 Second Team selection, is surrounded by an influx of highly touted Division I transfers.

Sophomore guard Ja’Quori McLaughlin (Oregon State), sophomore guard Devearl Ramsey (Nevada), graduate transfer guard Armond Davis (Alabama) and junior guard Zack Moore (Seattle) are all expected to make immediate impacts.

Long Beach State returns a pair of All-Big West Honorable Mention recipients in seniors Deishaun Booker and Temidayo Yussuf. Hawaii welcomes back all key members of its backcourt, including Big West Best Hustle Player Sheriff Drahmmeh. The Rainbow Warriors also are bolstered by the return of Big West Best Sixth Man Jack Purchase as one of the team’s top perimeter threats.

Cal Poly is led by an all-conference candidate in senior guard Donovan Fields, who posted the second-best single-season free throw shooting mark in Big West history last year. Fields hit 75 of 81 free throw attempts for 92.6 percent efficiency. UC Riverside and CSUN are guided by new leadership as head coaches David Patrick and Mark Gottfried begin tenures with their programs. Patrick comes to the Inland Empire via TCU, inheriting a top caliber guard in junior Dikymbe Martin

Having served high profile head coaching stints at Murray State, Alabama and NC State, Gottfried looks to turnaround the Matador program with 2017-18 Big West Freshman of the Year Terrell Gomez as a key returning piece.