3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: JaQuori McLaughlin, Sr., UC Santa Barbara
Coach of the Year: Mike Magpayo, UC Riverside
Newcomer of the Year: Tray Maddox, Jr., Cal St. Fullerton
Freshman of the Year: Dawson Baker, UC Irvine
Season Storylines:
UC Santa Barbara spoiled UC Irvine’s quest for a 3-peat, usurping the Anteaters’ multi-year stranglehold on the Big West title belt. Ironically, it was the Eaters who may be responsible for igniting the Gauchos’ torrent run in January. The flame was lit after UCI swept UCSB in Santa Barbara at the onset of league play just before New Year’s Eve. At the time, the Anteaters’ back-to-back sweep promptly hushed all preseason murmurs that this would be the year Russell Turner relinquished his crown. Then, the calendar flipped to 2021…
To dig out of an early 0-2 hole, the Gauchos went full blown Hulk mode. Joe Pasternack’s roster houses more talent horsepower than a Ferrari dealership, led by the formidable 1-2 punch of JaQuori McLaughlin and Amadou Sow. Once unleashed, the Gauchos were off to the races.
Right behind the Gauchos and Eaters all year long, despite being slowed by a COVID governor, was UC Riverside. This year’s ‘surprise contender’ hardware goes to the Mike Magpayo-managed Highlanders, who nearly parlayed Brian Patrick’s momentum (now an assistant at Arkansas) from a year ago into the program’s first ever Division I conference championship. The Highlanders crossed the finished line just one game back of UCSB in the loss column but the .667 winning percentage fell a few ticks below UCI and UCSB.
The league set the table for two more members this season, Cal State Bakersfield and UC San Diego, upping the tally from an odd 9 to an… well, still odd, 11-team league. The Tritons had two of their legs chopped off late in the summer when Tyrell Roberts and Marek Sullivan opted out for the season, leaving Eric Olen’s roster depth on empty.
Rod Barnes’ bunch, on the other hand, was unfazed by a journey into a foreign conference land. The elder Roadrunners embraced change in stride, notching a spot on the top-5 leaderboard with a 9-7 record.
UC Davis slithered their way into that same pantheon, despite playing only 10 league games (6-4), five of which came against bottom feeders Long Beach State, Cal Poly and Cal State Northridge. All forward progress should be commended, though, so cheers to Jim Les for surpassing the .500 watermark for the first time since 2018.
Tournament Preview
Tournament Predictions
(7) Cal St. Fullerton over (10) Cal Poly
(8) CSUN over (9) Long Beach St.
(1) UC Santa Barbara over (8) CSUN
(5) Cal St. Bakersfield over (4) UC Davis
(3) UC Riverside over (6) Hawaii
(2) UC Irvine over (7) Cal St. Fullerton
(5) Cal St. Bakersfield over (1) UC Santa Barbara
(3) UC Riverside over (2) UC Irvine
(5) Cal St. Bakersfield over (3) UC Riverside