(Conference season recap upcoming…)

CHAMPIONSHIP (March 16th – 30 points)

#2 Pacific vs #4 UC-Irvine
Bob Thomason is one of the biggest legends of West Coast basketball.  He has been the Pacific head coach for 25 years – and this is his last run.  A Travis Fulton last-second tip-in against Cal Poly in the semis on Friday forced Coach Thomason to make at least one more gameplan.  But, Pacific fans are hoping that his last gameplan will be for an NCAA Tournament game.  But, first, they will have to get past a confident and talented Anteater team that eliminated top-seeded Long Beach St. on

Alex, Dave, GrossJr, Lazarow, and Scoot all have UCI in a nice championship pick here.  Alexi, Bry, Caleb, Cheryl, Lohse, and Primm have Pacific here.  The other 13 people have already lost this one.  An Anteater win would give Scoot the 2013 BW title.  Alexi would win it with a Pacific win here.

SEMIFINALS (March 15th – 20 points each)

#1 Long Beach St. vs #4 UC-Irvine
Long Beach St. graduated the best class in school history, came back and won the league anyway.  Now, they are trying to win the tournament anyway.  And, this is no small task, as the Big West is MUCH improved from any time that their predecessors won it.  They opened Thursday night with a business-like win over a tough 8-seed in CS-Fullerton and will face an even tougher 4-seed in the semis, UC-Irvine, who eliminated Hawaii on Thursday.  A great Big West semifinal double-header kicks off with a good one in Anaheim.

15 people (Caleb, Cheryl, Gersh, GrossJr, GrossSr, J, Lazarow, LohseJr, Lynch, Mac, PapaCim, Primm, Rikey, RDoc, Stumpf, and Waters) have The Beach in this one – nine of whom have them winning it all.  Nine others (Alex, Alexi, Bry, Dave, GrossJr, Lazarow, Scoot, Teddy, and Waters) have UC-Irvine here.  Because of the quirkiness of reseeding, GrossJr, Lazarow, and Waters all have both of these teams going to the finals, so they will have one finalist right and one wrong.  GrossJr and Lazarow are better off if Irvine wins because of the upset points and they have them winning this title.  Waters would like the upset points, but he may also like to keep The Beach alive, as he has them winning this tournament.  Alex and Dave are joining GrossJr and Lazarow as taking the Anteaters for their BW champ.

#2 Pacific vs #3 Cal Poly
Of the four winners on Thursday night, 3rd-seeded Cal Poly was the most impressive – and it wasn’t really close.  They took #6 UC-Davis to the woodshed in a 25-point cruise control victory.  Pacific, on the other hand, got all they could bargain for with #7 UCSB, though they finally came through with a tough win over the Gouchos.  Now, the two will face off for a date with ESPN late Saturday night in the title game.

Ten people have Pacific here (Alexi, Bry, Caleb, Cheryl, Doogan, Gersh, Lohse, Primm, Rikey, and RDoc), while 7 others (Doogan, Lohse, LohseJr, Lynch, Mac, Scoot, and Stumpf) have Poly.  Like the three people in the early game, because of the quirkiness of reseeding, Doogan has both of these teams going to the finals, so he’s guaranteed to get one right and one wrong and will be rooting for Poly for the exra upset point – and because he has them taking the title.  Along with Doogan, only Lynch and Stumpf have Poly as their champs.  Six people have Pacific winning this whole tournament (Alexi, Bry, Caleb, Cheryl, Lohse, and Primm).

QUARTERFINALS (March 14th – 10 points each)

#2 Pacific vs #7 UC-Santa Barbara
Pacific was supposed to be the team to beat with all of the Long Beach guys graduated, but The Beach regrouped and won the league going away.  But, it isn’t like the past couple seasons, when there were wasn’t really any competition for the Beach (except maybe UCSB), as this tournament is wide open and the Tigers can certainly get this one done.  Speaking of UCSB, it was a disappointing way to send out a legendary coach, as the Gouchos struggled and barely even made this tournament.  But, the slate is clean and they’re ready for one last run.

GrossJr, Lazarow, and PapaCim all took the big upset of UCSB in this one, though none of them have the Gouchos making the finals.  Six people took the Tigers to win this tournament (Alexi, Bry, Caleb, Cheryl, Lohse, and Primm).

#3 Cal Poly vs #6 UC-Davis
Two more fascinating teams will take the floor in the second game of a great Big West quarterfinal quadruple-header.  Cal Poly finally put together the promise that they have been showing for a couple seasons now.  They are no longer the doormat of the league and might be ready to take the next step.  They actually have looked like the best team in this league for a couple weeks now.  But, they face another former league doormat that had a really good year and peaking at the right time.  UCD was supposed to be at least a year away, but they arrived way ahead of schedule this year and should be a tough out in this tournament.

Only 11 people (Alexi, Doogan, GrossJr, Lazarow, LohseJr, Lynch, Mac, Rikey, RDoc, Scoot, and Stumpf) actually took the favorite here in Cal Poly, though three of them (LohseJr, Mac, and Scoot) have Poly reaching the finals, with another three (Doogan, Lynch, and Stumpf) having them going Dancing for the first time ever.  Teddy puts his champion at risk here with UC-Davis.  Lohse and PapaCim have Davis reaching the finals, but losing.

#1 Long Beach St. vs #8 CS-Fullerton
When you call a tournament “wide open,” it’s really an indictment of the top seed, right?  Well, The Beach isn’t happy about that.  Doesn’t anyone remember Casper Ware and company?  Okay, I know that Casper graduated, but I might name my son Casper Ware Cimorelli, so I have to mention him every CTC.  Anyway, Coach Dan Monson has done a great job retooling after the greatest class in Beach history graduated.  They brought in a bunch of really good transfers and handed the keys of the program to holdovers, James Ennis and Mike Caffey.  A regular season title is a really good achievement for a program that lost so much, but they don’t want to stop here.  Their first opponent is the most disappointing team in the league this year.  But, I guess what can you expect from a team allergic to defense and rebounding.  The Titans have some unbelievably talented scorers (Kwame Vaughn and D.J. Seeley, in particular), but they have such an incredible lack of toughness, it’s scary.  But, honestly, when you have the two best pure scorers in the league on one team, you probably don’t want to face that team in a win-or-go-home situation.

Alex, Bry, Dave, and Doogan took Fullerton in this huge upset pick.  Alex and Dave actually have the Titans going to the finals.  Nine people (Gersh, GrossSr, J, LohseJr, Mac, PapaCim, Rikey, RDoc, and Waters) took The Beach to return to the Dance.

#4 UC-Irvine vs #5 Hawaii
This was Hawaii’s first year in the Big West and, for a while, it looked like they might step right into a conference title.  But, in the end, the roadtrips were just too tough for this team with all the really good teams in the league this year.  One of those really good teams was the Anteaters of UC-Irvine, who pulled off one of the biggest upsets this year when they went into Pauley Pavilion and handled UCLA.  The tempo-free numbers love Irvine, who can score with anyone, but also plays really tough D.

Nine people (Alex, Alexi, Bry, Dave, GrossJr, Lazarow, Scoot, Teddy, and Waters) have UCI reaching the finals, with Alex, Dave, GrossJr, Lazarow, and Scoot taking them to win this tournament.

CTC UPDATE

Championship Picks

• #1 Long Beach St. (9)
• #2 Pacific (6)
• #3 Cal Poly (3)
• #4 UC-Irvine (5)
• #5 Hawaii (-)
• #6 UC-Davis (1)

** – NOTE – for the first time in CTC history, ALL EIGHT TEAMS were picked to reach the finals.  In fact, each team has at least TWO people taking them in the finals.  MADNESS!

Biggest Upsets

• QF – #8 CS-Fullerton (Alex, Bry, Dave & Doogan)
• SF – #8 CS-Fullerton (Alex & Dave)
• Champ – #6 UC-Davis (Teddy)

Previous CTC Champions

• 2008 – Doogan
• 2009 – Bry (perfect)
• 2010 – Stri
• 2011 –  J
• 2012 – Bry & Mac (perfect)

2013 Scores

1).