Articles

The Kohl Center should be rocking for the Big Ten opener between Wisconsin (10-2) and border rival Minnesota (11-1), a game that could hold even more importance come March for resume reasons. Tubby Smith's Golden Gophers have an in-season tournament title (Puerto Rico Tipoff) to their credit already, a run that includes likely valuable wins over North Carolina and West Virginia.

In what's traditionally the "dead week" for college basketball as many schools are in the midst of finals, we've had a far more eventful beginning of the week than many anticipated. The fun started on Tuesday with Oakland winning at Tennessee and Drexel handing Louisville their first loss of the season. In the 89-82 win in Knoxville, Greg Kampe's Golden Grizzlies went on a 13-0 second half run to take the lead for good.

Of all the teams you could guess that would hand UNLV their only loss in a 55-game stretch that included the 1990 national title, UCSB likely wouldn't be at the top of the list. But the Gauchos were a more than worthy competitor thanks in large part to Carrick Dehart, who to this day remains one of the best players in school history. During DeHart's time at UCSB the Gauchos made two NCAA Tournament appearances (beating Houston in 1990) and an NIT appearance in between.

Overall Rank: #101

As part of his 2010 NCAA Tournament Q&A series, Jon Teitel chats with Bob Williams, the coach of the Big West champion UCSB Gauchos. Williams discusses being named Coach of the Year in the Big West and their chances against Ohio St:

 

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos

Big West Conference (20-9, 12-4)

Seed: #15

Betting odds are a great guide to college basketball entertainment. Unlike fans, who often ride the wave of media predictions, betting lines tend to be a bit more focused and can give you an objective picture of how teams matchup (though lines too can get caught up in the wave of human emotion).

 

Cal Poly

Cal State Fullerton

Cal State Northridge

Long Beach State

Pacific

UC Davis

UC Irvine

UC Riverside

UCSB

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos

 

Overall Rank: #136