Gauchos visit UCI tonight

Barry Faulkner

Personnel issues have left defending Big West Conference

regular-season champion UC Santa Barbara struggling to find itself,

despite fashioning a 6-3 preconference men’s basketball record that

included the program’s first victory at UCLA.

Tonight at 7, when it visits UC Irvine for an early Big West

crucial at the Bren Events Center, UCSB, the preseason conference

favorite, finds itself tied for last in the Big West standings. The

Gauchos blew an 18-point lead with 10:36 left and were stunned at

Long Beach State, 63-62, in Saturday’s conference opener.

UC Irvine (6-4, 1-0 in conference), victorious Saturday against

visiting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, shares the Big West lead with four

other teams. And Coach Pat Douglass hopes his Anteaters can reverse a

trend of recent struggles against UCSB.

“They spanked us pretty good last year,” Douglass said of a pair

of 16-point Gaucho triumphs. Including a UCSB victory in the

semifinals of the conference tournament in 2002, Coach Bob Williams’

squad has won three straight over UCI.

UCI senior 7-foot center Adam Parada said his team may have a few

surprises.

“I don’t want to give away our game plan, but we have to change

our game, because [UCSB] plays a different kind of game than us,”

Parada said, after recording his first double-double of the season

(17 points and 10 rebounds) in Saturday’s 74-69 win.

Parada’s heroics, along with 33 combined points from sophomore

guards Jeff Gloger and Mike Efevberha, helped UCI hold off the

Mustangs.

Senior Stanislav Zuzak is also a key performer for UCI, which

comes in with four scorers averaging double figures.

Efevberha, shooting nearly 41% from three-point range, tops the

list at 12.5 points per game, followed by Zuzak (12.1), Parada (11.7)

and Gloger (10.8).

Parada leads the team in rebounding (7.3 per game), while Gloger

averages 6.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.4 steals.

UCSB’s leading scorer is 6-8 junior forward Casey Cook (11.9 ppg).

But the Gauchos have seven players averaging between 6.4 and 9 ppg,

including returning conference Player of the Year Branduinn Fullove.

Fullove (9 ppg), a 6-4 senior, missed the first five games with an

ankle injury, while senior four-year starter Nick Jones (9 ppg)

missed the first eight while serving an NCAA suspension.

Other Gaucho standouts include 6-1 senior akoby Atako (6.7 ppg),

last year’s Big West Defensive Player of the Year, as well as

sophomores Cecil Brown (9 ppg), 6-9 Cameron Goettsche (7.2 ppg), 6-0

Joe See (7.1 ppg) and 6-5 Josh Davis (6.4 ppg).