Perhaps the biggest surprise in all of college hoops has been UC Davis’s rise to the top of the Big West standings. Jim Les’s squad didn’t play the most challenging of non-conference schedules, but nonetheless has lost just five games all season, including a 16-2 record in conference play. (Although one sage observer predicted the Aggies were “primed to improve considerably on a 9-22 mark”.)
One of the reasons for Davis’s success has been incredible three-point shooting. The Aggies have made 44.6 percent of their attempts against D-I teams. This will not be a record because the best seasons for this sort of thing occurred before taking more than three or four 3-pointers in a game became fashionable. But since 2002, it’s second only to 2012 Northern Colorado (45.1%) for the most accurate season. Though I feel obliged to point out that the collective opponents of Utah in 2007 made a whopping 46.5% of their 3’s which is one of those records that may never be broken.
The Big West was supposed to be a race between UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, and Long Beach State, and none of those teams really disappointed. With 7-6 Mamadou NDiaye back in the lineup for Irvine after a long absence and Alan Williams returning to the fold for Santa Barbara, UC Davis will face a lot of competition for the automatic bid.
Big West
All-kenpom.com: Corey Hawkins, UC Davis (kPOY); Alan Williams, UC Santa Barbara; Michael Caffey, Long Beach State; Taylor Johns, UC Riverside; Will Davis, UC Irvine.
March 12-14 at Anaheim.
Semis Final Champ 1 UC Davis 84.4 55.7 32.4 3 UC Irvine 72.1 38.2 19.6 2 UC Santa Barbara 62.0 35.7 19.0 5 Hawaii 51.2 23.9 10.9 4 Long Beach St. 48.8 22.2 9.8 7 Cal Poly 38.0 13.7 5.6 6 UC Riverside 27.9 7.7 2.2 8 Cal St. Northridge 15.6 3.0 0.4