You know all about the Power 6 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 31 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness.
It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Big West.
The Big West name works in a couple of different ways. For one, most of it is located in California, which is about as big and west as you can get — for the purposes of this wordplay, Alaska is more like the big northwest. Hawaii is there, too, and while that isn’t big, it’s more west than the rest. While there have been plenty of other non-California schools in the Big West over the years and decades, in the present, it’s all California besides Hawaii. And next year, it will be all California besides Utah Valley, but that’s a 2026-2027 discussion.
As of now, there are 11 teams in the conference, and the top eight will qualify for the Big West conference tournament in March. The top two seeds receive byes straight to the semifinals, awaiting whichever teams come out of the battles of the first two rounds, while seeds three and four get a pass to the quarterfinals.
In both men’s and women’s basketball, the automatic bid has been the only way into March Madness over the last three years. Given the makeup of the conference in 2025-2026, that is unlikely to change, either, but that isn’t the same thing as saying that we already know who is going to represent the conference in March. That is an open question for both the men and women.
Leaders:
- Points Per Game: Hamad Mousa, Cal Poly, 20.0
- Rebounds Per Game: Joshua O’Garro, Cal State Northridge, 9.6
- Assists Per Game: Josiah Davis, Cal State Northridge, 7.2 (5th in D-I)
- Steals Per Game: Brayden Fagbemi, UC Davis, 2.0
- Blocks Per Game: Kyle Evans, UC Irvine, 3.3 (1st in D-I)
Hawaii and UC Irvine are tied at 10-4 atop the Huge West, and have already performed one another twice: the Rainbow Warriors gained the primary matchup by the slender rating of 67-66, and the Anteaters took the second in additional time, 87-76. Behind these two within the standings is UC Santa Barbara, at 10-5, Cal State Northridge (9-5), UC Davis (9-6), Cal State Fullerton (8-7), UC San Diego (8-7) and Cal Poly (7-8). The opposite groups — all under the Huge West match qualification as of now — are Lengthy Seashore State (4-10), UC Riverside (3-12) and Cal State Bakersfield (2-12).
The lone top-100 crew within the NCAA Analysis Instrument is Hawaii, simply sneaking in at 99th. UC Irvine is 119th, UC San Diego 126th, UC Santa Barbara one hundred and thirty fifth, rounding out the top-150 groups. Hawaii has 4 of the convention’s top-20 gamers in Participant Effectivity Ranking (PER), with senior heart and seven-footer Isaac Johnson second at 25.6, senior guard Quandre Bullock (18.2), senior ahead Harry Rouhliadeff (18.1) and senior ahead Gytis Nemeiksa (17.0) fifteenth, seventeenth and 18th in PER — nobody else within the convention has greater than three (UC San Diego has the 4th, 14th and twentieth gamers), whereas UC Irvine has two. Prime-rated senior ahead Kyle Evans (26.5) sophomore guard Jurian Dixon, at nineteenth (16.5).
Kyle Evans has been the Anteaters – and the Huge West’s – greatest participant in 2025-2026. (Photograph by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos)
Hawaii, UC Irvine and UC San Diego are a lot nearer collectively in KenPom, at 103, 115 and 118, respectively, with Hawaii’s protection being the rationale the Rainbow Warriors are first up. Whereas adjusted for energy of schedule Hawaii doesn’t stack up towards the competitors, on the season it has allowed 99.9 factors per 100 possessions, the Thirty sixth-best Defensive Ranking in Division I. The offense, nevertheless, is available in at 216th. UC Santa Barbara is greatest in school there, at seventieth with 116.3 factors per 100 possessions, principally making it the alternative of Hawaii due to its personal defensive points.
Given the stacking on the high and the relative closeness of those groups in NET and KenPom, simply who will emerge from the Huge West match is unclear. Hawaii and UC Irvine have the perfect likelihood by means of Feb. 17, nevertheless, virtually fully due to seeding: getting a move proper to the semifinals as one of many high two seeds is the trail of least resistance, and that’s going to matter in a convention the place so many groups stack up nicely towards one another.
Leaders:
- Points Per Game: Hannah Wickstrom, UC Riverside, 23.2 (6th in D-I)
- Rebounds Per Game: Megan Norris, UC Davis, 13.1 (3rd in D-I)
- Assists Per Game: Dymonique Maxie, UC San Diego, 4.4
- Steals Per Game: Cristina Jones, Cal State Fullerton, 4.0 (4th in D-I)
- Blocks Per Game: Imani Perez, Hawaii, 1.8
Issues are rather less clustered, although not fully so, on the ladies’s facet of the Huge West. UC San Diego is in first at 13-2, with 12-2 UC Irvine holding the second seed. UC Davis is half-a-game again at 12-3, with Cal State Fullerton 11-4. Some house begins to open up for the groups taking a look at byes, nevertheless, as UC Santa Barbara is 2 video games again at 9-6 and Hawaii 8-6. Then the final two groups at present qualifying for the Huge West match are the under-.500 UC Riverside (6-9) and Cal State Northridge (4-10). Cal State Bakersfield and Lengthy Seashore State are each 2-12, whereas Cal Poly is 1-14.
UC Irvine is in bubble territory, at 71st in NET: it’s the lone faculty within the convention with that designation. UC San Diego could be first within the convention, however NET has it 132nd total. UC Santa Barbara (143), UC Davis (159), Hawaii (166) and Cal State Fullerton (198) are all inside the top-200 within the NCAA Analysis Instrument. After that, the remainder of the groups are in or close to the bottom-100 in Division I. So, loads of competitors on the high, even when UC Irvine stands out greater than the remaining as a probably real tourney-caliber crew, however it will get skinny.
The Anteaters are the lone crew within the Huge West with an Offensive Ranking placing them at over 100 factors per 100 possessions (100.34). UC Davis is subsequent up, at 93.33, and once more, it thins out in a rush. Hawaii has the 91st-best Defensive Ranking, nevertheless, greatest within the convention, at 87.91 factors per 100 possessions. UC Irvine is true behind it, then UC San Diego, so it’s not a lot of a bonus — there’s a purpose the Anteaters are on high in additional methods than one, principally.
Megan Norris has been among the finest rebounders within the nation, not simply the Huge West. (Photograph by Ian Maule/Getty Photos)
UC Irvine is twenty second in made 3-pointers per recreation in D-I girls’s basketball, with 8.76, and twenty sixth in 3-point capturing proportion at 35.8%. It’s a top-100 rebounding faculty, too, and whereas it doesn’t stack up fantastically defensively towards the bigger Division I panorama, inside the Huge West its 53.1 factors per recreation allowed is the perfect mark within the convention.
UC Riverside’s Hannah Wickstrom is a respectable scoring menace, at present sixth in D-I at 23.2 factors per recreation. She’s additionally first in PER, and it isn’t shut — 35.2 to Cal State Fullerton’s Cristina Jones, at 28.4. (Jones, along with being one in all D-I’s greatest thieves, is scoring 16.5 factors per recreation as a freshman guard whereas flattening 9.4 rebounds). It hasn’t helped UC Riverside to an incredible document, however the presence of the star sophomore guard and a possible huge scoring recreation does make the Highlanders a possible menace in each convention tourney recreation regardless. Then there’s Megan Norris, out of UC Davis: the 6-foot-3 senior heart is third in all of Division I in rebounds per recreation, however she’s additionally managed 12.6 factors, 2.6 assists, over a steal and 1.5 blocks per recreation, and is seventh within the Huge West in PER, as nicely.
