HENDERSON, Nev. – The UC San Diego women’s basketball team cut down the net in the Lee’s Family Forum after winning the Big West tournament Saturday to claim an elusive NCAA berth in the university’s first year of full Division I hip.
Workers emerged from the back, climbed up a ladder and replaced the net.
Three hours later, the UCSD men’s team cut it down again.
Snip, snip, snip. It’s a beautiful sound.
The fever dream continues for the Tritons, beating UC Irvine 75-61 to win their 30th game of the season and now go national with what has heretofore been a regional phenomenon.
That makes it a record three San Diego men’s or women’s teams – the UCSD men and women, plus the San Diego State women – to qualify for the Division I Big Dance. A fourth, the SDSU men, will learn if it receives an at-large berth during the Selection Show on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m., CBS).
But the Tritons, the program that was Division II five years ago, that lost its leading scorer and best big to the transfer portal last spring, that has a roster of Division II transfers and guys overlooked by the big boys, are already in. They’re projected as an 11 or 12 seed, which likely pits them against a power conference team of big, long, strong, athletic players who were all celebrated prep recruits and battle-tested by a grueling conference season.
“I don’t think we have to prove anything to them,” senior guard Hayden Gray said. “Teams don’t just win 30 games by accident. We’re going to go out there with confidence and see if they can stop us.”
There was some question whether top-seeded UCSD (30-4), with metrics in the top 40, would receive an at-large berth should it lose in the Big West tournament and need one. We’ll never know because they overcame a nine-point deficit in the first half, then gradually pulled away from the second-seeded Anteaters behind a barrage of 3-pointers from Gray, one deeper than the last.
His stat line: 22 points, 8 of 10 shooting, 6 of 7 from 3). The points and 3s were both career bests for the Santa Fe Christian High alum since transferring to UCSD two seasons ago from Division II Azusa Pacific.
“I just felt like I was in a rhythm out there,” Gray said. “I was stepping into my shots, I was ready to shoot them, and my teammates were looking for me, obviously.”
The other star was their defense, holding the Anteaters to 35.1% shooting and 7-foot-1 German center Bent Leuchten to 10 points (just two in the second half) after he had 23 in each of the two regular-season meetings.
“I give UC San Diego some credit for the physical nature of the defense they played against Bent,” UC Irvine coach Russell Turner said. “I thought they wore him out. There were not a lot of fouls called in the game, and I’m not saying that there should have been, but it was a physical game. We did look like we were tired and wore down.
“That’s a tough one as a coach, when you have a talent like Bent, a difference-maker like Bent, to not be able to better utilize him in the second half. That’s a failure for me and my staff.”
The Tritons built their dream season on a five-out offense predicated on the 3-ball and a matchup zone defense that teams generally don’t see. But their real secret might be something else: turnover margin.
It’s simple mathematics. If you take more shots than your opponent, you have a better chance of winning. And if you turn it over, you’re not taking a shot.
They entered the game ranked fourth nationally with only 13.2% of possessions ending in a miscue, and second nationally with their opponents coughing it up 23.5%. In the semifinals Friday night against UC Santa Barbara, they had a season-low three.
A day later, they had three in the opening 12 minutes, seven by halftime and 14 for the game. It was only the second time in 34 games they had more turnovers than their opponent but, just as they did at Utah State in December, won anyway.
All things considered, the Tritons were fortunate to trail 33-31 at the half, because it could – and probably should – have been far worse. They were down 25-16 before Gray came to the rescue, scoring their next eight points after an Olen timeout.
“He’s played at a really high level and rose to the occasion tonight, made some key, big baskets,” Turner said of Gray. “He kept them afloat in the first half and then made the big plays in the second half, too.”
But Gray needs to produce the way the Anteaters defend the Tritons, putting Leuchten on leading scorer Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones and parking him under the basket (given his hesitancy to shoot 3s) and face-guarding second leading scorer Tyler McGhie to limit his clean looks behind the arc.
The unique defensive scheme worked in the first meeting, a 60-52 Anteaters win at LionTree Arena on Jan. 11. It didn’t work as well in the return game at UC Irvine, an 85-67 Tritons win on Feb. 8. McGhie had five points in each.
And it was more of the latter Saturday night on a neutral floor.
The Tritons got their first lead since 12-9 on a lean-in baseline jumper by McGhie with 17:25 to go and never trailed again.
UC Irvine got within four with four minutes left, but Devin Tillis drove baseline and lost the ball into the basket standard. UCSD went to the other end, and Nordin Kapic splashed a 3 from the right corner.
Next Irvine possession: turnover.
Next UCSD possession: a McGhie 3, his first of the game after being 0 of 5.
Next Irvine possession: turnover.
Next UCSD possession: a free throw by Tait-Jones (14 points) for an 11-point lead with 2:34 to go.
The Tritons were going dancing.
Snip, snip, snip.
“I’m not sure it will all sink in right now, in this moment,” said Olen, who won his fifth conference tournament title, the first four coming in Division II. “It’s been a pretty special season. We won 30 basketball games. We won the regular season, we won the (conference) tournament. I knew we’d have a good team, but this has been beyond my expectations of what was possible.
“We have a smart basketball team that plays really hard all the time. If you play unselfishly and you play the right way and you play as hard as you can the whole time you’re on the floor, sometimes magic happens. And these guys have been creating magic all season long.”
