The wacky Big West men's basketball race heads toward the home stretch with six teams within two games of leader Long Beach State.  Sitting a mere half-game back is Cal State Northridge, which hosts UC Riverside in the conference's Game of the Week on PRIME TICKET.  
   
The well-rested Matadors first host Cal Poly in a Wednesday night matchup.  CSUN played just once last week, defeating Cal State Bakersfield in a non-conference affair.  The Matadors have won four straight and six of their last eight games, climbing to the .500 mark for the first time this season with the win over CSUB.
   
CSUN ranks seventh in conference scoring defense (71.8 ppg), but has become much more stingy during the win streak.  In the four wins, the Matadors have allowed just 63.8 points per game.
   
Since joining the Big West in 2001-02, the Matadors lead Cal Poly 10-5 and UC Riverside 12-3 in head-to-head matchups.  They have won nine consecutive contests against the Highlanders.
   
All games are crucial in such a tightly contested Big West race, but perhaps extra crucial for UC Riverside.  The Highlanders (13-9, 5-5) are entrenched in a four-way tie for fourth place.  In addition to the road contest at second place CSUN, they also host first place LBSU on Wednesday for an opportunity to establish more solid footing near the top rung of the Big West ladder.
   
UCR won a pair of nailbiters at home last week against Pacific and UC Davis.  The Highlanders drew a Student Recreation Center record crowd of 2,725 to witness a Homecoming victory against the Aggies.  The win was No. 13 on the year, the most of any Big West school currently and also a UCR Division I record.  UCR is a conference-best 9-2 at home and gets the opportunity to sweep the season series from the 49ers for the first time since 2003-04.  UCR won in Long Beach, 64-55, on Jan. 24.
   
No love will be lost when rivals Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara engage in a Valentine's Day encounter at The Thunderdome.  The two teams enter the week tied for eighth in the standings with 3-7 Big West records.  With eight available spots in the Big West Tournament, UC Santa Barbara is in position to secure a huge tiebreaker edge with a victory, which would give the Gauchos the season sweep.  However, the Mustangs have won all three of their Big West games on the road while going 0-4 at home.  UCSB plays five of its final six conference games at home, giving the Gauchos an apparent scheduling edge.
   
Pacific head coach Bob Thomason takes another crack at breaking a long standing Big West record held by former Long Beach State and UNLV mentor Jerry Tarkanian.  Thomason is one win away from tying and two wins shy of breaking Tarkanian's all-time mark of 205 Big West victories.  He is 204-146 (.583) in Big West games.  Thomason can tie and claim the record at home this week, entertaining Cal State Fullerton Thursday and UC Irvine Saturday.  The Titans are an impressive 4-1 in Big West road games.  Eight out of UCI's 10 conference games have been decided by single digits.
   
UC Davis also hosts UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton.  The Aggies are in that four-way clump for fourth place, and hope to improve upon on a 2-3 record in Big West home games.  UCD picked up its 10th win of the season last week, which betters the nine wins the Aggies accumulated last season.