CSUN vs UCSB Game Preview, by gauchodan

Game 18 (BW Game 7)
CSUN at UCSB
Thursday, January 19, 2023, 7:00 pm PST
Santa Barbara, Calif.
 
Quick Bite
All is right in the world again.  If you had told me the Gauchos (14-3, 5-1) would split with Riverside and Irvine last week, I would have been disappointed that we can't seem to ever win down in Irvine.  Of course, the Gauchos took the most improbable route to 1-1...losing at home to UCR and winning at Bren with essentially 7 players (Kipruto made the floor for, like, one possession).  UCSB played its best game of the season, with a resurgent Andre Kelly keeping 'em close with 11-of-14 shooting from the field and then Ajay, Miles, Cole and Sanni hitting clutch shot after clutch shot down the stretch to incredibly pull away from the Anteaters.  It helped that UCI was missing two of its bigs, but they have a big man factory down there so they just crank out a few more.  Importantly, UCSB won a rebounding battle after losing a lot of those in Big West play.  Even with this result, UCSB has a -1.5 rebound margin in conference play.

The Matadors (3-15, 0-7) are on their way to a 14th consecutive losing season and have not won since before Christmas.  However, they tend to stick around in games.  They were losing badly at Hawai'i last Saturday and rallied to within 3 points in the last 30 seconds.  Dionte Bostick and Atin Wright are their scoring guards and De'Sean Allen-Eikens has some skills inside, but they are otherwise devoid of scoring ability.  CSUN is getting its defensive chops back and has allowed just 65 points per game in the last two weeks.

CSUN-UCSB History
UCSB leads the series 45-21.
Recent games
March 1, 2022: W 70-61 at Santa Barbara
January 25, 2022: W 72-45 at Northridge
January 23, 2021: W 80-66 at Northridge
January 22, 2021: W 105-58 at Northridge
January 30, 2020: L 67-79 at Northridge
January 22, 2020: L 75-83 at Santa Barbara
March 14, 2019: W 71-68 at BWT, Anaheim
March 7, 2019: W 76-74 at Northridge
February 6, 2019: W 70-64 at Santa Barbara
February 24, 2018: W 82-73 at Northridge
February 3, 2018: W 75-51 at Santa Barbara 

The Arena
The Thunderdome
Capacity: 5,000
Tonight is High School Night.  All high schools students get into the game free by showing their student ID.

Head Coach
Trent Johnson
overall: 286-303 (.486)
CSUN: 10-38 (.208)
Johnson came out of retirement July, 2021 to lead CSUN as interim coach for the 2021-22 season in the wake of the Mark Gottfried fiasco.  CSUN removed the interim tag prior to this season.  Johnson, 68, has been named conference coach of the year in 3 different circuits: with Nevada (WAC), Pac-12 (Stanford) and SEC (LSU).  He took both the Wolfpack and the Cardinal to the Sweet 16 in his final season at each school.  Johnson has not had a winning season since his final season at LSU in 2011-12.

CSUN Roster
Atin Wright #5 SO G, 6-1 160, Lakewood, CA -- 13.7 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 2.0 Ast
Dionte Bostick #0 SO G, 6-2 190, Clearwater, FL -- 13.6 Pts, 3.8 Reb, 2.7 Ast
De'Sean Allen-Eikens #25 JR G, 6-6 219, Williston, ND -- 10.1 Pts, 5.8 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Dearon Tucker #35 JR F, 6-10 240, Dallas, TX -- 5.3 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Ethan Igbanugo #21 SR G, 6-3 191, Lakeville, MN -- 5.2 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 1.9 Ast
Fidelis Okereke #24 SO F, 6-6 240, Carson, CA -- 4.4 Pts, 4.6 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Marcel Stevens #12 SO G, 6-2 175, Beverly Hills, CA -- 3.8 Pts, 1.1 Reb, 0.6 Ast
Onyi Eyisi #13 SR F, 6-9 225, Napa Valley, CA -- 4.1 Pts, 4.5 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Adam Afifi #23 JR F, 6-9 235, San Jose, CA -- 4.0 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Cam Slaymaker #3 FR G, 6-4 180, Coquitlam, Canada -- 1.6 Pts, 0.6 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Arman Pezeshkian #22 JR G, 5-10 170, Glendale, CA -- 3.0 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.7 Ast
John Wade #1 JR G, 6-5 175, Oakland, CA -- 1.5 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Lamine Niang #34 FR F, 6-10 225, Thies, Senegal -- 1.7 Pts, 1.3 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Johnnie Walter #4 FR F, 6-9 210, Westlake Village, CA -- 0.8 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 0.2 Ast
Ben Starks #45 FR C, 7-0 235, San Clemente, CA -- 0.0 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.5 Ast

UCSB Roster
Ajay Mitchell #13 SO G, 6-4 180, Sainte Marie Namur (Belgium) -- 15.8 Pts, 2.8 Reb, 4.6 Ast
Miles Norris #5 SR F, 6-10 220, San Diego, CA -- 13.1 Pts, 6.4 Reb, 1.5 Ast
Andre Kelly #2 SR F, 6-8 255, Stockton, CA -- 9.7 Pts, 6.7 Reb, 0.9 Ast
Josh Pierre-Louis #1 SR G, 6-4 185, Plainfield, NJ -- 10.1 Pts, 3.7 Reb, 2.2 Ast
Calvin Wishart #10 SR G, 6-1 180, Delano, MN -- 6.5 Pts, 3.0 Reb, 2.6 Ast
Cole Anderson #4 SO G, 6-4 185, Fresno, CA -- 6.5 Pts, 1.2 Reb, 0.8 Ast
Ajare Sanni #3 SR G, 6-3 170, Houston, TX -- 6.9 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 1.1 Ast
Koat Keat Tong #00 FR F, 6-9 215, Bentiu, South Sudan -- 1.5 Pts, 3.3 Reb, 0.3 Ast
Jakov Kukic #14 JR F, 6-10 230, Split, Croatia -- 1.8 Pts, 2.6 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Matija Belic #32 FR G, 6-7 205, Belgrade, Serbia -- 0.4 Pts, 0.8 Reb, 0.1 Ast
Evans Kipruto #12 JR F, 6-8 250, Nairobi, Kenya -- 0.7 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 0.0 Ast
Gage Gomez #50 JR G, 6-3 190, Arroyo Grande, CA -- 0.7 Pts, 0.0 Reb, 0.7 Ast
David Pickles #40 SO F, 6-10 235, Seattle, WA -- 1.0 Pts, 1.0 Reb, 0.0 Ast
Ariel Bland #23 SO F, 6-7 215, Eden Prairie, MN -- 0.0 Pts, 1.5 Reb, 0.0 Ast
Henry Hartwell #51 FR G, 6-5 180, Oceanside, CA -- 0.0 Pts, 0.5 Reb, 0.0 Ast
Max Sheldon #53 SO G, 5-11 180, Santa Barbara, CA -- 0.0 Pts, 0.0 Reb, 0.0 Ast
 
CSUN National Ranking Outliers
Team

• Assist/Turnover Ratio: 290 (0.88)
• Assists per game: 343 (10.1)
• Effective Field Goal percentage: 338 (.455)
• Field Goal percentage: 331 (.404)
• Fouls per game: 323 (19.3)
• Scoring Offense: 330 (64.4)
• Three Point Attempts per game: 312 (18.1)
• Three Point percentage: 286 (.316)
• Three Pointers per game: 318 (5.7)
• Turnovers per game: 55 (11.5)
• Winning percentage: 341 (.167)

Players

• Dionte Bostick -- Field Goal Attempts: 210 (218), Free Throw Attempts: 199 (79), Free Throws: 253 (55)
• Atin Wright -- Field Goal Attempts: 282 (203), Free Throw percentage: 15 (.905), Free Throws: 228 (57), Minutes per game: 317 (31:48), Steals: 331 (24), Steals per game: 345 (1.33), Three Point Attempts: 205 (105)
• De'Sean Allen-Eikens -- Rebounds (Offensive) per game: 250 (2.11)

UCSB National Ranking Outliers
Team

• Bench Points per game: 290 (15.47)
• Effective FG percentage: 63 (.537)
• Field Goal percentage: 17 (.488)
• Rebound Margin: 60 (+4.8)
• Scoring Defense: 30 (62.6)
• Three Point Attempts per game: 345 (15.5)
• Three Pointers per game: 334 (5.2)
• Winning percentage: 18 (.824)

Players

• Ajay Mitchell -- Assist/Turnover ratio: 112 (1.98), Assists: 97 (79), Assists per game: 62 (4.6), Field Goal percentage: 106 (.500), Field Goals: 313 (91), Free Throw attempts: 120 (90), Free Throw percentage: 137 (.822), Free Throws: 77 (74), Minutes per game: 239 (32:35), Points: 248 (268), Points per game: 170 (15.8), Steals: 132 (30), Steals per game: 105 (1.76)
• Andre Kelly -- Blocks: 259 (16), Blocks per game: 248 (0.94), Double Doubles: 144 (3), Rebounds: 274 (114), Rebounds (defensive) per game: 125 (5.29), Rebounds per game: 215 (6.7)
• Miles Norris -- Blocks: 259 (16), Blocks per game: 248 (0.94), Double Doubles: 144 (3), Minutes per game: 234 (32:37), Rebounds: 332 (109), Rebounds (offensive) per game: 224 (2.18), Rebounds per game: 253 (6.4)
• Josh Pierre-Louis -- Steals: 287 (25), Steals per game: 135 (1.67)

Prediction
The Gauchos are in the midst of a gauntlet of games necessitated by the Big West squeezing 22 game dates onto the calendar from just before New Year's to the first weekend in March.  UCSB is playing its 4th game in 9 days and has CSUB coming in on Saturday for its 5th game in 11 days.  Hopefully the flu bug has moved on and the Gauchos can go deeper into their bench.  UCSB 74, CSUN 50

Official Site:  https://gomatadors.com/sports/mens-basketball
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How to Watch:  https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/ ... 07bf7e7776
Live stats:  http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=428858