With only one game remaining for the Long Beach State men and women’s basketball teams, the time has come to determine where they will finish heading into the Big West Conference Tournament.
By the end of this weekend, the Big West will know its regular-season champions as well as the seeds for next week’s conference tournaments, set to be played at the Anaheim Convention Center from March 10-13.
The top four seeds in the conference tourney earn first round byes, while the top two seeds earn an automatic spot in the semifinals. Eight of the nine Big West teams earn a berth in the tournament.
The men’s road
UC Santa Barbara, Pacific and Cal State Fullerton have already secured the top three seeds in the conference, but the order still needs to be determined. The four-seed remains open and LBSU still has a chance to earn that spot.
The LBSU men currently sit in a tie with Cal Poly for fifth place with a Big West record of 7-8. LBSU hosts UC Riverside Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in its final game of the regular season.
The Highlanders have a current three-game winning streak over the 49ers with the last LBSU victory over UCR occurring on Feb. 13, 2008.
For The Beach to secure the No. 4 seed — and first round bye — in the Big West tournament, the 49ers need to beat the Highlanders tomorrow
night.
However, that isn’t the only thing that needs to happen for the 49ers to earn a day off.
UC Davis, which currently sits in fourth place with a record of 7-7, must lose one more game for an LBSU win to earn it the four-seed. The Aggies have two games remaining this season, with the first coming tonight against Cal State Northridge followed by a road contest with Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.
A win in both of those games would give UCD the No. 4 seed and first round bye with a 9-7 record.
If LBSU, Cal Poly and UCD all finish with 8-8 records, the 49ers would earn the four-seed because they own the tiebreakers over the Aggies and Mustangs. At the same time, if those same teams all lose their remaining games, the 49ers will still earn the four-seed.
The Beach will earn the five-seed if they finish tied with Cal Poly, and UCD finishes the season at 9-7. Meanwhile, the 49ers could drop down to the No. 6 seed if both Cal Poly and UCD win out and the ‘Niners lose to UCR on Friday.
The women’s road
The Big West women’s standings look very similar to the men in that the top three teams have solidified their spots atop the rankings.
UCR (11-4 Big West), UCD (10-4) and Cal Poly (10-5) will all be ranked in the top three in next week’s tournament, with their seeding in the bracket still left to be determined.
The LBSU women currently sit in a tie for fourth with UCSB, as both teams have matching 8-7 records as of Tuesday. The 49ers have one remaining game on Saturday when they face UCR on the road at 5 p.m. The highest the ‘Niners can finish is fourth, while the lowest they can drop is sixth.
If UCSB closes out its season with a win over UCI, coupled with an LBSU win on Saturday, both teams will finish with a 9-7 conference record. However, LBSU owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Gauchos as the 49ers beat them twice this season.
CSUF currently sits at 7-7 and in sixth place in the Big West, but it owns the tiebreaker over LBSU. The Titans’ remaining games are on the road against Pacific tonight and UCD on Saturday.
If the Titans win out or finish tied with LBSU, it will result in CSUF earning the four-seed and first round bye.
Other notes
Friday’s LBSU men’s game will be a white-out night, with the first 4,000 fans receiving free white T-shirts to wear for the FSN West-televised contest.
The Big West is scheduled to announce the men and women’s All-Conference teams on March 8.