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UCSB-Montana preview

Hey Grizzzlies,
I put together a preview of the Grizzlies & game prediction for the benefit of my fellow Gaucho fans and you are welcome to check it out on our board. Other fans have posted some statistical break-downs as well: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/ucsbgauchos/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21568&p=99818#p99818

And for your benefit, here is the UCSB Overview:
The 2017-18 season is the start of the Joe Pasternack era for UCSB after Bob Williams was fired after 19 seasons as the Gaucho head coach. Last year was the worst season in UCSB history as the team suffered from a combination of injuries, academic ineligibility and being very young.

Pasternack, the former Associate Head Coach at the University of Arizona, immediately brought in two impact graduate school transfers in combo guard Marcus Jackson from Rice and Leland King of Nevada.
He's also already signed the best recruiting class at UCSB since Ben Howland was our lead recruiter under Jerry Pimm in the late 80s/early 90s.

UCSB started off their season with a bang with a 19 pt win over North Dakota State. Expected to contend for the Summit Conference title, the Bison drove south to take on the #10 USC Trojans in Los Angeles. The Bison led by as many as 10 and were ahead with 6 minutes left in the game before two of their starters fouled out and the Trojans pulled away late.
At shared foe Pittsburgh, UCSB again started off strong, leading the young Panthers (picked last in the ACC) by as many as 10. Pitt extended their defense in the second half, caught up about 5min into the second half the game was a back & forth battle until about 2m left and the Panthers pulled away on end-of-game fts to win by an 8pt margin. Extremely frustrating was the Gauchos leading for the majority of the game but going only 10-22 from the FT line which killed an opportunity to get a rare win on the floor of an ACC school.
Against #16 Texas A&M who I think are a legit Final 4 contender, the Gauchos were overmatched and trailed by as many as 28 in the game. But they battled throughout, ended up losing by 18 and really did no worse than West Virginia which was ranked #11 at the time nor Oklahoma State which trailed by as many as 24 before the Aggies let their foot off the gas and won by 17.
Last night, UCSB controlled the game for the most part against the youthful Pepperdine Waves. Our defense, a new man-to-man- implemented by our new coach can be porous allowing good guards to penetrate but does come up with turnovers, the Waves had 20 last night which was the difference. We had an extremely balanced scoring effort with all five starters in double figures with Max Heidegger again leading the way with 24.

With a new coach, new system, new players, via transfer plus one new freshman, obviously there's a lot of changes this season making accurate characterization difficult but here's what we've got:
The system: UCSB is playing primarily man-defense and an up-tempo offense. At times the defense has allowed wide open lanes to the hoop, at times it has looked pretty good and has created turnovers. It’s a process.
Starting Lineup
Last night we finally had our starting PG in action as Marcus Jackson, our grad transfer from Rice, played his first game after sitting out the first three with a hip injury. His opening act was good one as he scored 16, including 3-7 from three while adding 5 assists. He did have trouble on defense a bit which may be a lingering effect of his injury or just a weakness. Not sure as this was our first look at him.
Up until last night the offense was being run by sophomore guard Max Heidegger who was playing out of position at the point instead of SG. Max, who is from Malibu, underwent a major transformation from his somewhat disappointing freshman campaign where he really struggled with his shot. In the opener he went for a career high 33 points on 8-14 from three and is leading the team in scoring after 4 games at around 24 ppg while third on the team with assists at 3.5 pg. He can get his points a multitude of ways, exemplified by him scoring 23 against the Aggies while not hitting a single three. He’s turning out to be a pretty special player for UCSB.

Graduate-transfer, forward Leland King from Nevada, was immediately available and is averaging 18 points, 8 rebounds and 2 apg. He can drive to the basket and shoot from beyond the arc, making those at a .435 clip.
Senior wing Gabe Vincent was all-Big West his sophomore season, but tore his ACL and missed much of last season. He is ramping up his minutes game by game and leads the team with 5 assists pg. Being more of a facilitator is a new role as the team relied on him for scoring more the previous seasons. Despite his injury last season he is still the 8th leading three point shooter in school history and is scoring at 11ppg this season.

UCSB Senior F/C Jalen Canty transformed himself over the summer, losing 30 lbs becoming quicker and with more endurance. He is a solid rebounder and has some pretty good post moves. He is averaging 11 ppg and 7 boards. He missed most of last year due to academic issues.



Other players that get major minutes:
Christian Terrell plays because of his defense and ability to board. He is 6'6" and has played the 2 & 3 but has run the point before. He has yet to contribute on offense and shows no confidence in his shot from any distance.
F/C Junior Ami Lakoju who was also an academic casualty last year. He has size, makes a high percentage of his shots but only has a couple attempts per game. He is not yet playing at the level he was at early last season before he became ineligible. He is picking up too many fouls this season.

Also in the rotation:
Junior wing/F Jariesse Blackmon, athletic, rangy and a high motor is good for defense and rebounding but not so offensively skilled. He did not play against Pepperdine which was surprising given he played well against A&M.
Freshman pg Brandon Davis. Solidly built, plays well within himself with few mistakes, is seeing more minutes due to the Jackson injury. With Jackson back, he barely played last night. He is averaging 2 apg and has yet to score this season.
Sophomore wing Clifton Powell. Seeing fewer minutes this season due to more talent on the roster but was our best freshman last year. Has yet to get untracked offensively this season. DNP against Pepperdine.
F/C Senior Alex Hart who is less athletic but put up some solid stats last year when Lakoju and Canty were out.
Junior Forward Maxwell Kupchak. Son of the former Laker GM Mitch Kupchak, plays limited minutes. Works hard but limited by a lack of an outside shot and his size. Played great against Pepperdine with solid D and several rebounds in limited minutes.

UCSB & Montana: We have a shared opponent this year, both on the road at Pitt with the Grizzlies coming out on top in OT and the Gauchos losing by 8. Head-to-head UCSB has a 3-2 advantage including a win in their last match-up which was in 2004 in Santa Barbara.

UCSB Hoops History:
The late 80s/early 90s was the heyday for UCSB hoops. The Big West conference then had a very different make-up of schools and UNLV was at their peak winning the National Championship in 1990 and going undefeated in 1991 up until their major upset loss to Duke in the 1991 Final Four. An answer to a trivia question, UCSB was the last school to defeat UNLV before they went on that run. Back then, the Gaucho home court advantage was considered among the best in the west and the Events Center became known as the Thunderdome. Sadly, it resembles nothing of that now but the die hard fans are hopeful that Pasternack with bring back the crowds and the noise. UCSB went to the NCAAs twice in this era, including winning in the first round over Houston in 1990 before losing by 3 to #1 seed Michigan State.

Since then UCSB has only made the tournament 3 times, 2002, 2010 and 2011, bowing out in the first round each time.

Gauchos in the NBA
Brian Shaw was a first round pick for the Celtics 1988 and went on to a nice NBA career including winning a couple championships with the Lakers in the Shaq-Kobe era. More recently, Orlando Johnson played a couple years after leading the Gauchos to consecutive NCAA births and Alan Williams is currently with the Phoenix Suns but is injured. He led the NCAA in rebounding his junior and senior years (2013-14, 2014-2015)

A little bit about UCSB: the school is one of the top rated public universities in the country with a few Nobel Prize winners on the faculty. It sits right on the Pacific about two hours north of Los Angeles and has multiple surf breaks on campus. It used to be known as a party school but that has pretty much passed, which kinda disappoints to be honest. With the basketball team having middling performance, the students became rabid soccer fans and UCSB has had attendance numbers that sometimes exceeded that for MLS soccer teams. They won the National Championship in 2006 and usually make the tournament but struggled this year. We host the Soccer championship next year and in 2020.
 
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