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.
Great read Brian. That’s some great work figuring out all that cause I can’t grasp the whole scenario reading it. hahaha
Great job by the ‘Bows tonight! They controlled the game from start to finish…as they should have. Hope they bring the same energy to the Big West Tourney!
Great Job Coach Ben Taylor!. Good luck in the Big West Conference Tournament Go Warriors!