UC Santa Barbara and Pacific enjoyed 20-win seasons and made postseason appearances to highlight the 2009-10 Big West men's basketball season.

NOTEWORTHY

UCSB’s Dance Ends In First Round
UC Santa Barbara finished its season at 20-10 overall following a 68-51 loss to fifth-ranked Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee, Wis.  The Gauchos made their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance, and first since 2002, coming in as a No. 15 seed against the No. 2 seed Buckeyes.  UCSB held Ohio State star and Wooden Award winner Evan Turner to nine points on 2 of 13 shooting, but the Buckeyes hit 10 three-pointers in the game, including seven by guard Jon Diebler.  Big West Player of the Year Orlando Johnson was the only Gaucho to score in double figures, tallying 20 points in 33 minutes of action.  UCSB was the sixth different Big West school to earn the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament in the last six years.

Gauchos Win Second Big West Tourney Title
The third time was a charm for Bob Williams and Co. at the Big West Tournament as a No. 1 seed.  Coming in as the top-seeded team for the third time since 2003, the Gauchos replaced the bitterness of losing in the 2003 and 2008 semifinals with the joy of winning this year’s tournament.  UCSB collected its second Big West Tournament championship in its second finals appearance, joining the 2002 team atop the podium.

Pacific Falls Just Short Of Making History
Pacific attempted to become the third school in Big West history to win a postseason tournament championship, following in the footsteps of former conference members Fresno State (NIT, 1983) and UNLV (NCAA, 1990).  The Tigers reached the championship game of the second annual CollegeInsider.com Tournament and traveled to Missouri State for the final.  Pacific lost 78-65 to the Bears to finish the season at 23-12.  The Tigers won a Big West-leading 12 games on the road this season.

Johnson Transfers Talents To UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Barbara sophomore guard Orlando Johnson, the 2009-10 Big West Player of the Year, is the third consecutive Division I transfer to lead the league in scoring.  Johnson, who arrived after playing his freshman season at Loyola Marymount in 2008-09, averaged 18.0 points per game this season and became the first Gaucho since 1996-97 to score in double figures every game.  Cal State Fullerton’s Josh Akognon posted 23.9 points per game during the 2008-09 season after transferring from Washington State.  In 2007-08, Donovan Morris topped the Big West in scoring (21.2 ppg) for Long Beach State following two seasons at Fresno State.

Be-Ware Casper
For the first time in 37 seasons, Long Beach State had a player lead the Big West in assists.  Sophomore Casper Ware averaged 4.8 assists per game to become the first 49er since Ed Ratleff during the 1971-72 season to top the circuit.  Ware’s 159 assists ranked him fifth all-time in a single-season at LBSU.  The second team all-conference honoree only needs 19 assists to crack the Long Beach State top 10 career list.

Double-Double Vision
Long Beach State sophomore forward T.J. Robinson led the Big West with 17 double-doubles, outdistancing the next closest contributor by eight.  He tied for 13th in the country with that total.  Robinson also became the first Big West player since Pacific’s Michael Olowokandi in 1997-98 to average double figures in rebounds, pulling down 10.1 per contest this season.

Four Reach Millenium Milestone
Four Big West seniors eclipsed the 1,000 point milestone for their careers over the course of the 2009-10 season - UC Irvine’s Michael Hunter (1,308 points), UC Santa Barbara’s James Powell (1,195), Cal Poly’s Lorenzo Keeler (1,157) and Dominic Calegari (1,106) of UC Davis.  Hunter also polished off his career at UCI in becoming the all-time three-point field goals leader with 236 makes.

Huddleston, Welch Mid-Major Frosh All-Americans
Two Big West players were selected to the 20-member CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Freshman All-American Team as Allen Huddleston of Pacific and Julian Welch of UC Davis received the honor.  Huddleston averaged 5.5 points per game, ranking fourth on the team with 29 three-pointers.  Welch, the 2009-10 Big West Freshman of the Year, ranked fourth on the Aggies in scoring (7.8 ppg).

Johnson, Ford Also Honored By CollegeInsider.com
The hardware kept coming in for UCSB’s Orlando Johnson as the sophomore was one of 30 players named to the CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson Mid-Major All-American Team.  The forward was one of just two underclassmen to appear on the team.  The only other underclassman on the team was Butler guard Shelvin Mack, who played in the NCAA national championship game against Duke.  Additionally, Pacific senior forward Joe Ford was one of 20 players to earn a spot on the Mid-Major Defensive All-American Team by the online publication.  Ford led the Tigers with 33 blocked shots and tied for team-high honors with 37 steals.  He also averaged 5.5 rebounds per game.   In the Big West, Ford ranked No. 4 in blocks and No. 12 in steals.

Johnson, Robinson On NABC All-District 9 Team
Sophomores Orlando Johnson of UC Santa Barbara and T.J. Robinson of Long Beach State were named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-Distict 9 Team.  Johnson joined Gonzaga’s Matt Bouldin and Elias Harris, Saint Mary’s Omar Samhan and San Francisco’s Dior Lowhorn on the first team.  Robinson’s second team honor was shared by Portland’s T.J. Campbell and Robin Smeulders, Pepperdine’s Keion Bell, and Saint Mary’s Mickey McConnell.

Thomason, Williams Among Big West’s Winningest
The two longest current tenured Big West head coaches are also two of the most successful on the all-time victories list.  Bob Thomason ranks second all-time with 387 wins in 22 seasons at the helm of Pacific.  Bob Williams of UC Santa Barbara is fifth on that list with 199 wins.  Both coaches could achieve milestones in 2010-11.  Thomason is 19 wins away from overtaking Jerry Tarkanian as the Big West’s winningest head coach, while Williams is 24 victories shy of surmounting Jerry Pimm to become UCSB’s all-time leader.

ALL-TIME VICTORY LEADERS - BIG WEST TENURE
Rk.    Coach, School                                   No.
1.      Jerry Tarkanian, LBSU & UNLV          405
2.      Bob Thomason, Pacific                    387
3.      Neil McCarthy, New Mexico State      248
4.      Jerry Pimm, UC Santa Barbara          222
5.      Bob Williams, UC Santa Barbara     199

Bold denotes active Big West head coach

Farewell ACC
The Big West finished a 10-year stint at the Anaheim Convention Center to host its postseason basketball tournament as UC Santa Barbara became the fourth No. 1 seed in the last five years to capture the title.  No team won consecutive tournament titles in the last decade, and no seed lower than a No. 3 hoisted the trophy.

Hello Honda Center
The Big West Basketball Tournament will be moving about three miles down the road when it relocates to Honda Center in 2011.  Honda Center announced a five-year partnership with the Big West Conference to host the tournament.  The two have teamed up to host NCAA men’s basketball regionals in 1998, 2001 and 2003, and the men’s first and second rounds in 2008.  The Big West and Honda Center will also host the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Regional.  As a result of the move, the conference will utilize a traditionally seeded format (#1 vs. #8, #2 vs. #7, #3 vs. #6, #4 vs. #5).  The 2011 event will run March 10-12 at Honda Center.