The team that played for the Big West Conference's NCAA Tournament bid a year -- the sames teams picked to finish 1-2 in the conference this season -- will get a "rematch" in Anaheim Saturday night.
Twelve months ago the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos beat the Long Beach State 49ers, 69-64, in the conference final in the Anaheim Convention Center.
The rematch will be played in the same city Saturday evening at 5 but in a larger and slicker venue -- the Honda Center.
With nine of the same starters on the floor -- five of those belonging to UCSB -- will the result be different.
Based upon the results of the regular season, with the Gauchos were a disappointing 8-8 in conference while the 49ers were rolling along to 14-2, one could surmise so.
But -- led by 2010 regular-season and tourney Player of the Year Orlando Johnson (who scored 62 points in the Thursday and Friday blowouts of Pacific and Cal State Northridge -- the results of the first two days say differently.
UCSB has looked like the team that was projected to earn a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
And, despite extending their winning streak to 11, the 49ers haven't strung an extended period of consistently good play in one game since beating Montana in the BracketBuster on Feb. 19.
It should be a heck of a game Saturday night.
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