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Storylines
· UC Irvine continues its 27-day stretch away from the Bren Events Center with a trip to No. 10 USC for a second straight season. The 'Eaters look to begin a new win streak after a loss to snap five games in a row while USC is one of the few remaining unbeatens at 10-0
· UCI's win streak stopped at five with a 63-55 loss at Fresno State Saturday. A battle of two stout defenses fell to the home side as the Bulldogs kept their unbeaten mark at Save Mart Center, now 6-0. Key Bulldog Orlando Robinson was held to just seven points after averaging 19.4 this season and putting up no fewer than 15 in any contest.
· The Anteaters were led by
DJ Davis scoring 16 points off the bench making all eight shots free throws and joined by one of
JC Butler's best games as an Anteater as noted by head coach
Russell Turner with 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting making both threes with five rebounds in 32 minutes
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Justin Hohn made his first career start in career game 27 with a career high 32 minutes posting 10 points, three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. He got an opportunity after
Dawson Baker was unavailable with a hand injury. Baker may miss several weeks recovering.
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Collin Welp failed to reach double figures for the first time in 2021 and snapping a nine-game streak of double-digit scoring efforts. He pulled down six rebounds with his next to be the 600th of his career, and he surpassed his coach,
Michael Wilder, in the process at Fresno State to jump into 16th in UCI history. He stands 13 points and rebounds from the next spot on each list. Welp is top 10 in the Big West scoring (9th - 12.6) and rebounding (9th - 6.9).
· Nationally, the Anteater defense is among the nation's best. UCI allowed the least amount of points in the nation last week, and are up to third now allowing 54.6 points per game. The defense stands in the top 10 nationally allowing the second-lowest field goal percentage allowed (34.5%) and fourth-lowest three-point percentage allowed (25.0%). The 'Eaters continue to crash the boards grabbing the 11th-most defensive rebounds per game (30.29), 21st-most total rebounds per game (42.14), and grab 10.6 more rebounds than their opponents ranking 11th nationally.
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Austin Johnson led the team in rebounding with eight against Fresno State as the 'Eaters still outrebounded FS in the loss, 36-30. He averages 7.6 per game, sixth in the conference.
· The 'Eaters have had multiple players in double-figures every game this season.
Collin Welp has reached double digits in six of seven games. UCI has had three with double digits in each of the last three against Santa Clara, Bethesda, and Fresno State, and four in double digits vs. La Verne.
· The Anteaters regularly run out their depth with 11 players appearing in at least six games. Thirteen Anteaters have over 10 minutes per game and eight with over 15 minutes a game. No Anteater shows up in the top 15 in the conference in minutes per game.
· The 'Eaters do lead the Big West in three-point percentage hitting 38.7% of shots among qualifying Big West squads. They defense the arc just as well allowing 25% to opponents, fourth in NCAA.
· From the charity stripe, UCI shoots 68.9% from the line including 19 makes last game on 23 attempts, a season-best, and
DJ Davis good on all eight attempts.
Collin Welp stands third in the conference shooting 80.6%. When it comes down to it, three Anteaters in Davis (82.9%),
Isaiah Lee (82%), and Welp (80.8%) have a career shooting percentage over 80%..
· UCI's 8.29 steals per game lead the Big West. They're second in blocks with 3.14 per game, but have the blocks leader in
Austin Johnson with 15 this season, and 42nd nationally with 2.14/gm.
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230 -Â Head Coach
Russell Turner won career game
230 vs. Pepperdine. That mark is 5th all-time for wins as a Big West coach
13 -Â
Collin Welp joined the UCI all-time top 20 in points and rebounds during the win vs. Bethesda. Last game at Fresno State, he surpassed coach
Michael Wilder on the rebounding list and stands 1 rebound from 600. He will jump another spot in each list with
13 points and
13 rebounds
4th -Â The Anteaters enter the week
4th in the NCAA in scoring defense allowing 54.6 points per game a week after they led the NCAA. They're also top 10 defensively in FG % and 3FG %, and just outside at 11th in defensive rebounds per game and rebound margin leading the Big West in each stat
#10 -Â UCI takes on a top-10 opponent for the 27th time in program history when it travels to #10 USC Wednesday. UCI has 9 wins in 73 matchups against a ranked opponent with 4 wins over top-10 teams with USC among seven programs in the nation that have yet to lose
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Get To Know the 2021-22 Anteaters
· The Big West announced the Big West Game of the Week that will be televised on Spectrum SportsNet. One matchup will be broadcasted each Saturday at 1:00 p.m. during conference season with UCI featured twice: February 19 vs. Hawai'i and March 5 at CSU Bakersfield
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Collin Welp continues to climb the Anteater record books. He entered the top-20 on the all-time UCI scoring list surpassing Jeff Herdman at 1,222 from his 10-point night vs. Bethesda. He also made a significant leap in the rebounding rankings in that game going from 21st to 18th in UCI history vaulting over Mark Nelson, Nick Sanden, and Jeff Cunningham with 593 rebounds. At Fresno State, he made another leap into 16th in rebounding over his coach,
Michael Wilder.
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Collin Welp named the Big West Player of the Week November 29. The honor was Welp's third at UCI and UCI's first in 2021-22 stemming from his performance at Santa Clara where he led with 17 points and 10 rebounds; UCI's first double-double of the year and his 11th career double-double.
· Team captains were selected by the team for the 2021-22 season as fifth-year
Collin Welp and third-year
Ofure Ujadughele. Welp was named a captain for a second straight year while it's a first for Ujadughele.
· The 2021-22 Lou Henson National Player of the Year award presented to the top mid-major player annually featured
Collin Welp. Welp was 1 of 50 players from across 21 mid-major conferences on the list.
· UCI was selected to finish second in the Big West according to the Coaches Poll. The Anteaters earned four of nine first-place votes finishing one vote behind preseason favorite, UC Santa Barbara. The Preseason Media Poll also selected UCI to finish second, three votes behind UCSB, and with two of the 11 first-place votes.
· Preseason All-Big West featured
Collin Welp on both the Coaches' and Media teams. He was 1 of 4 players (Maddox—CSF, Manjon—UCD, Sow—UCSB) to appear on both teams.
Dawson Baker earned honorable mention recognition on the media's team.
· The 2020-21 Anteaters had six players recognized on the Big West Winter All-Academic squad. To be eligible, student-athletes must maintain a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, complete one full year at their member institution, and compete in at least 50% of their team's contests. Four current members of the team were recognized in
Isaiah Lee,
Collin Welp,
Emmanuel Tshimanga, and
Ofure Ujadughele. That quartet was joined by alums
Jeron Artest and
Brad Greene.
· That 2020-21 squad also earned Team Academic Excellence Awards and Honors Court from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). UC Irvine was the only Big West school to earn the distinction.
Brad Greene was recognized on the Honors Court making it for a second consecutive year.
Wednesday at USC
· The Anteaters play their only Pac-12 opponent this week heading to No. 9 USC. The teams played this time last year at USC with the Trojans dropping the Anteaters by 35 points. The meeting prior was a UCI win, 61-54, at USC back in December of 2012. All-time, UCI is 2-7 against the Trojans with one win in seven trips to USC.
· USC enters the top 10 at No. 10 for the first time since opening the 2017-18 season at No. 10. UCI holds a record of 9-64 all-time against ranked foes with the last win coming in the 2019 NCAA Tournament downing No. 18 Kansas State. Against top 10 opponents, UCI is 4-22 winning four times against top-10 UNLV squads in the 80s. Recent top-10 matchups have come at Arizona in 2014 and Kansas in 2015, both ranked No. 2 at the time. The Trojans are 1 of 7 remaining undefeated programs along with Baylor, Arizona, Iowa State, LSU, Colorado State, and San Francisco.
· USC is rolling at 10-0 coming off a nine-point win against Long Beach State. Of their 10 wins, quality results have come from road wins at Temple and the former home of their head coach Andy Enfield, Florida Gulf Coast, winning the Wooden Legacy over Saint Joseph's and San Diego State, and two conference wins already over Utah and at Washington State. They opened the season against another Big West squad downing CSUN by 40 points.
· The Anteater defense will have another defensive test against USC who ranks fourth in the country in FG defense, eighth in defensive rebounds per game, and top 20 in assist-turnover ratio (14th) and total rebounds per game (15th) averaging 61.4 points allowed. Isaiah Mobley averages 9.8 rebounds a game to lead the Pac-12 standing 19th nationally racking up four double-doubles. Offensively, USC shoots 49.6% which is 14th nationally and tops in the Pac-12. Mobley leads the team in scoring with 14.7 per game, and is joined by Chevez Goodwin (12.2) and his 65.1 FG %, Boogie Ellis (12.0), and Drew Peterson (10.9) all averaging double figures. The Trojans spread the wealth with four players with over 20 assists as USC's 16.5 assists per game is 34th nationally.
