CAL POLY
• Cal Poly is coming off a memorable 2013-14 campaign, winning its first Big West Tournament as a No. 7 seed, the lowest overall in history, and notching an NCAA Tournament first round victory over Texas Southern. The Mustangs return three starters and 10 letterwinners to the fold for 2014-15.
• Junior Dave Nwaba returns as the team’s leading scorer (11.7 ppg) and rebounder (4.8 rpg). The 6-foot-4 wing earned a spot on the Big West All-Tournament Team as he averaged 14.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in three victories.
• The Mustangs have led the Big West in scoring defense for four straight seasons. Last year, they also ranked No. 4 nationally in fewest turnovers per game (8.9). They had single-digit miscues in 16 of their final 20 contests.
CAL STATE FULLERTON
• Cal State Fullerton completed year one of the Dedrique Taylor era with a record of 11-20 as well as a 6-10 mark in Big West play. Three starters and five letterwinners return to complement three redshirts and four newcomers for the 2014-15 Titan roster.
• Senior Alex Harris heads up the group of returnees after accumulating 755 points in his two-year Titan career. He’s also the team’s active career leader in assists (145), three-pointers made (109) and steals (89). The 6-foot-1 guard was named All-Big West Honorable Mention in 2013-14.
• The Titans finished at or near the bottom on the Big West leaderboard in field goal percentage, steals, blocks and scoring offense last year. Senior 6-foot-7 forward Steve McClellan looks to help CSF improve in all of the above categories. He led the team with 13 blocks while averaging 6.1 points and a team-best 5.9 rebounds. McClellan also shot an efficient 59.1 percent (75-for-127) for the season.
CSUN
• Head coach Reggie Theus guided CSUN to the Big West Tournament championship game in his first season at the helm of the program. Most of the key components from that team’s nucleus return, including four starters.
• Seniors Stephen Maxwell and Stephan Hicks both scored over 600 points last season. A first-team all-conference selection, the chiseled 6-foot-7, 220-pound Maxwell ranked fourth in the Big West in scoring (17.5 ppg) and second in rebounding (8.8 rpg). Hicks, a 6-foot-6 guard/forward, leads all active Big West players with 1,448 career points, and is on pace to become just the seventh player in league history to reach 2,000.
• Versatile Tre Hale-Edmerson contributed in almost every conceivable way for the Matadors last season. He set the school’s single-season blocked shots record (62) and now owns the career mark as well with 92. The 6-foot-7 forward/center also averaged 6.6 rebounds, eighth-best in the conference, and his 46 steals were second only to teammate Hicks, who had 47.
• An influx of youth fortifies the roster as eight freshmen will grace the updated “Blacktop” Court at the Matadome this year.
LONG BEACH STATE
• Long Beach State returns 79.6 percent (1,779 of 2,236) of its scoring and 58.9 percent (694 of 1,178) of its rebounding to a team that finished strongly last year with wins in 14 of its last 22 games.
• Mike Caffey is a two time first-team All-Big West guard who has racked up 1,114 points and 338 assists during his career. He ranks No. 9 in LBSU history in assists and No. 16 in points. In 2013-14, he averaged 16.2 points per game to rank No. 7 in the Big West. The 6-foot guard also played over 34 minutes per contest on average.
• Joining Caffey and creating perhaps the Big West’s most potent and explosive backcourt is 6-foot-5 senior Tyler Lamb. After the 49ers started the season 1-9 without him, they went 14-8 the rest of the way once he became eligible following his midseason transfer from UCLA. Lamb averaged 15.4 points per game.
• The 49ers beefed up their frontcourt with a 6-9 transfer Eric McKnight from Florida Gulf Coast. He started on the “Dunk City” team that reached the Sweet 16 in 2012-13. He posted averages of 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game last season for the Eagles.
• Dan Monson has 119 victories at LBSU as he enters his eighth season as head coach, in search of the school’s all-time wins record of 122 currently owned by Jerry Tarkanian.
• Known for playing a traditionally ultra tough non-conference schedule, the 49ers have lined up eight teams that reached the NCAA Tournament last season, including a home date with Sweet 16 participant Kansas State. The 49ers will test themselves with road contests against BYU, Xavier, UCLA, San Diego State, Texas, St. John’s, Syracuse and Louisville. They also compete in the eight-team Wooden Legacy.
UC DAVIS
• Injuries stripped UC Davis of any opportunity to compete at full strength last year, but the return of four starters and nine letterwinners gives the team optimism heading into the 2014-15 season.
• Senior Corey Hawkins has scored 1,108 points – an average of 19.1 points per game – in just two seasons. He was the Big West’s third-leading scorer (18.0 ppg) last year after becoming the league’s scoring champion (20.3) as a sophomore. The 6-foot-3 guard boasts other elements of his game – he led the conference in steals at 1.5 per game and ranked No. 9 in assists (3.0 apg).
• Three key faces seek to provide additional leadership and production. Junior J.T. Adenrele sat out last season due to a knee injury, and the Aggies missed his 12.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game from 2012-13. Josh Ritchart was on pace for an outstanding senior campaign, averaging 17.3 points through the first nine games when an injury derailed his season. Granted another season of eligibility, the 6-foot-9 forward needs just 33 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone. Tyler Les, son of head coach Jim Les, redshirted last year. The guard has drained 144 three-pointers in his three previous seasons as an Aggie.
UC IRVINE
• Head coach Russell Turner’s Anteaters have compiled 44 victories between the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, representing the second-highest win total in any two-year period at UCI. Four starters return from last season’s team that finished 23-12 overall and 13-3 in the Big West, capturing the program’s first conference regular season title in 12 years. UCI participated in the 2014 NIT, and Turner was named the Big West Coach of the Year as well as NABC District 9 Coach of the Year.
• UCI was 16-0 last year when holding the opponents to less than 60 points. The defensive effort fueled much success for the Anteaters, which finished No. 3 nationally in field goal percentage defense (.374). Mamadou Ndiaye, the 7-foot-6 center who set the UCI and Big West single-season records with 106 blocked shots, including a single-game record 11 in a win over Long Beach State, anchored that effort as the Big West Defensive Player of the Year.
• Senior Will Davis II owned the UCI single-season blocked shots record (88) before Ndiaye came along. Davis II is still the Big West’s active career leader with 174 swats. The 6-foot-8 forward also led UCI in rebounding last season at 6.4 per game.
• UCI’s nucleus of talent also filters to the backcourt where sophomore Luke Nelson and junior Alex Young – teammates on Great Britain’s 2014 U20 team for the European Championship – reside. Nelson earned the 2013-14 Big West Freshman of the Year award after leading the Anteaters in scoring (11.8 ppg), threes (74) and steals (38). Young, a two-year starter at point guard, has 305 career assists to rank No. 7 all-time at UCI.
• The Anteaters return 12 letterwinners who accounted for 83.8 percent (2,068 of 2,468) of their scoring last season.
UC RIVERSIDE
• UC Riverside removed the interim label and assigned the official head coach tag to Dennis Cutts in April. Cutts led the Highlanders to nearly double their win total from the previous year and helped secure the No. 8 seed in the Big West Tournament. Cutts brings back four starters in hopes of climbing the league ladder.
• Close games defined the Highlander experience in 2013-14. More than half of their games – 16 to be exact – were decided by five points or less. Although they finished 5-11 in those games, the Highlanders gave plenty of opponents a glimpse into an even more competitive future.
• Taylor Johns enters his junior season coming off a campaign in which he blocked 72 shots, the second-most in the school’s Division I history. He owns 98 career rejections in just two seasons. Johns also ranked sixth in the Big West in field goal percentage (.534).
UC SANTA BARBARA
• UC Santa Barbara enjoyed the third largest improvement in Division I when it finished 21-9 last season, an increase of 10 wins from the 2012-13 club. The Gauchos had signature victories over UNLV and California en route to their fifth 20-win season during the 16-year tenure of head coach Bob Williams.
• The Gauchos return the reigning Big West Player of the Year in senior Alan Williams. The 6-foot-7 center was the first player to lead the Big West in both scoring (21.3 ppg) and rebounding (11.5 rpg) since the 2005-06 season. He was the first player in program history to lead the nation in rebounding. Williams earned quite the laundry list of accolades, including Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American, NABC First Team All-District, USBWA First Team All-Region and CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major All-American.
• With 817 career rebounds, Williams needs only 64 more to enter the Big West top-10. He also easily could become just the fifth player in conference lore to collect 1,000 career boards.
• UCSB led the Big West in three-point field goal percentage (.385) in 2013-14. The top returning marksman is junior Michael Bryson, an honorable mention all-conference selection who busted 55 threes and ranked third conference-wide in three-point field goal percentage (.417).
• Point guard Zalmico Harmon tallied 153 assists against only 33 turnovers, equating to a 4.64 assist-to-turnover ratio. That placed him No. 2 nationally. Over the last 14 contests, he had 71 assists and seven turnovers.
HAWAI'I
• Hawai‘i returns two starters and eight letterwinners from the 2013-14 squad that notched a record of 20-11 overall and 9-7 in the Big West. The 20-win campaign was the first for UH since 2003-04.
• The Rainbow Warrior roster is once again diverse, featuring players from four states (California, Delaware, Hawai‘i and Texas) and four foreign countries (Canada, Chile, New Zealand and Serbia).
• The New Zealand native is none other than junior forward Isaac Fotu, one of two UH players picked to the All-Big West First Team last year. Fotu started all 31 games for UH and averaged 14.9 points and 6.1 rebounds. He ranked No. 10 in the league in scoring, while his .584 field goal percentage was second in the Big West and No. 17 nationally. He also earned NABC All-District 9 second team recognition.
• Senior guard Garrett Nevels also provides UH another experienced starter and double-digit scorer. He averaged 13.1 points per game and shot 41.3 percent (59-for-143), the fifth-best mark in the Big West.