Final Big West seeding scenarios

It’s all pretty straightforward at this point.

Hawaii can enter the Big West tournament as either the No. 5 or 6 seed, and has direct control over which slot it will be based on the outcome of Saturday’s regular-season finale at last-place Cal State Fullerton.

Things came into further focus because of happened around the conference on Thursday. UC Davis came back to beat UC Riverside and clinch the outright regular-season title, while Riverside’s bid for the 5 seed took a hit; UH still has the tiebreaker over the Highlanders because UH beat Davis once and UCR got swept by the first-place team. Also, Long Beach State won at home over Cal State Northridge, securing their hold on the 4-spot (there was an outside chance UH could have snuck up to 4).

Here’s the remaining possibilities:

>> UH is the 5 seed if it wins at Fullerton on Saturday.
>> UH is the 5 seed if it loses at Fullerton and UC Riverside loses at home to Long Beach State.
>> UH is the 6 seed if it loses at Fullerton and UC Riverside wins over Long Beach State.

Even in a scenario in which UH, Riverside and Cal Poly all finish at 7-9, UH has the three-way tiebreaker, again because of its golden win over UC Davis.

UH’s possible first-round opponents are, in order of probability, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine.

The 5 seed is probably the most advantageous for UH because it means a first-round matchup with Long Beach in the quarterfinals. The 6 seed means either Irvine or Santa Barbara, which both swept UH home-and-home.

Teams with locked in seeds are:

1) UC Davis
4) Long Beach State
7) Cal Poly
8) Cal State Northridge

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All-conference awards for both men’s and women’s basketball will be announced on Monday, along with specialty awards like defensive player of the year and newcomer of the year.