Road Stretch Begins Saturday at Fresno State

Saturday, December 11

Fresno, Calif.

4:00 PM

UC Irvine

Fresno State

Photo by: Matt Brown

Road Stretch Begins Saturday at Fresno State

December 09, 2021 | Men's Basketball

By: Alex Roberts-Croteau

FOLLOW THE ANTEATERS
UC Irvine Anteaters (5-1) at Fresno State Bulldogs (7-2)
Saturday, December 11 - 4:00 p.m.
Save Mart Center (15,596) - Fresno, Calif.

KUCI Radio | Live Stats | Mountain West Network | Notes

The Anteaters have begun a four-week stretch away from the Bren Events Center, and will play a tough Fresno State side that's defended its home turf well in 2021-22.

Storylines
· UC Irvine heads to Fresno State Saturday to begin four straight road games and a 27-day span away from the Bren. Fresno State is 5-0 at home, but coming off a 71-63 loss at San Francisco
· 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
· UCI's last game was an 86-54 victory at home against non-Division I side Bethesda. The 'Eaters started slow shooting 4-of-16 through the first 11 minutes, but finished the first half strong making their final 10-of-14 to go into the half up 20. UCI closed out for the 42-point win led by Andre Henry who made his 2021-22 debut to lead the team in scoring with 15 points along with team highs making six free throws, dishing out three assists, and a career high nine rebounds.
· Nationally, the Anteater defense is among the nation's best. UCI allows 53.2 points per game which enters the week lowest in the NCAA. The defense stands in the top 10 nationally allowing the second-lowest field goal percentage allowed (34.2%) and sixth-lowest three-point percentage allowed (24.8%). The 'Eaters continue to crash the boards grabbing 31.17 defensive rebounds per game, eighth-best in the NCAA, and the 12th-most total rebounds per game at 43.17.
· Austin Johnson dropped his second career double-digit rebound game with 12 against Bethesda. He averages 7.5 per game, sixth in the conference. His specialty is shot blocking averaging 2.33 per game, best in the Big West and 34th in the nation.
· The 'Eaters have had multiple players in double-figures every game this season. Collin Welp has reached double digits in each game and has scored at least 10 points in nine straight games dating back to last season. UCI has had three players with double digits in each of the last two against Santa Clara and Bethesda, and had four in double digits vs. La Verne.
· The Anteaters regularly run out their depth with 12 players appearing in at least five games. Thirteen Anteaters have over 10 minutes per game and nine with over 15 minutes a game. No Anteater shows up in the top 15 in the conference in minutes per game.
· The squad has regularly excelled from inside the arc making 46.4% with nine players hitting at least 10 field goals through six games. The 'Eaters do lead the Big West in three-point percentage hitting 39.4% of shots with Justin Hohn (50%) and DJ Davis (47.1%) within the conference's top 10.
· From the charity stripe, UCI shoots 65.7% from the line. Collin Welp stands in the conference's top 10 shooting 77.8%. When it comes down to it, three Anteaters in Isaiah Lee (82%), DJ Davis (80.6%), and Welp (80.5%) have a career shooting percentage over 80%..
· Other conference leaders includes Ofure Ujadughele with 1.33 steals per game, eighth in the Big West. The team averages 8.5 a game to lead all Big Wets schools.
· UCI ranks second in assists, fewest turnovers, and assist-to-turnover ratio. UCI's 13.83 assists per game are led by Collin Welp with 15 while Isaiah Lee had the most in a game so far with eight. It's also committed just 72 turnovers and an assist/TO ratio at 1.15 led by Justin Hohn at 2.8.

230 - Head Coach Russell Turner won career game 230 Saturday night vs. Pepperdine. That mark is 5th all-time for wins as a Big West coach
20th - Collin Welp joined the UCI all-time top 20 in two different categories Friday night from his 10 pts and 9 rebs. He leapt from 20th to 17th in rebounds now with 573 in his career. He also surpassed Jeff Herdman for 20th all-time in points with 1,224
1st - The Anteaters enter the week 1st in the NCAA in scoring defense allowing 53.2 points per game. They're also top 10 defensively in Defensive FG % and 3FG %, defensive rebounds per game, fewest fouls, and fewest turnovers leading the Big West in each of those stats
#10 - A pair of Mid Major Top 25s made appearances this week with UC Irvine on them. The Field of 68 rankings had UCI at #10. Elsewhere, UCI was #18 on CollegeInsider.com's list, one spot ahead of UC Santa Barbara

Get To Know the 2021-22 Anteaters
· 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. He also made a significant leap in the rebounding rankings going from 21st to 18th in UCI history vaulting over Mark Nelson, Nick Sanden, and Jeff Cunningham with 593 rebounds. Next on the list is his assistant coach, Michael Wilder, next on the list in 17th with 596 career rebounds.
· 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.

Preseason Thoughts from Head Coach Russell Turner
· "We're excited for the opportunity to play this season and especially for the opportunity to play again in front of fans because college basketball is so much about that, being a part of your community. I am hoping we will generate a lot of interest from our campus community to be a part of games because that is such a fun part of college basketball."
· "I think we have a good team, a team that should continue to improve throughout the season, and have a chance to be really good at the end of the year. We have real talent on this team, we have a bunch of guys who care, and we have chance to be good. We have a long way to go but we are excited about the opportunity."
· "We have a young group of talented perimeter players. I am excited about that group and now we have to figure out how that group is going to best fit together. And how that group is going to assert themselves against high quality opposition early in the year. We've got a lot of work to do but I think they are up for the challenge."
· "The front court group we know starts with Collin, since he's such a proven commodity. We know we have to replace Brad Greene, which is no easy replacement. Brad Greene had such an incredible impact during his time at UC Irvine. But we do have depth and talent at the center position. We will have to see how that unfolds because we have a lot of guys who will be competing for a start."

Saturday vs. Fresno State
· The Anteaters and Bulldogs meet up for the 39th time in their histories. The two were Big West Conference mates for 15 years before Fresno State left in 1992. Fresno State joined the Mountain West in 2012 with the only noise made coming in 2016 winning the conference tournament title and reaching their sixth NCAA Tournament.
· Fresno State holds the all-time lead in the series at 28-10. The last meeting came in 2014 with a dramatic opening to the season in the Bren losing on a half-court buzzer-beater in overtime, 98-97. UCI is just 2-16 at Fresno's Save Mart Center against FS losing their last trip in 2014. The Anteaters did win there in 2012, 58-51, in coach Turner's third season at the helm. The Anteaters also played there in a pair of tournaments in 2003 and 2006.
· The 2021 Bulldogs entered the week 7-1 including 5-0 at home so far winning four of those games by at least 18 points. FS has a pair of common wins downing Pepperdine and Santa Clara by seven points each when they met at JSerra High School in the SoCal Challenge. The Bulldogs also most recently downed CSUN and will play Cal Poly after UCI. Wednesday night, Fresno State dropped their second game losing a 10-point second half lead to San Francisco who came from behind outscoring the Bulldogs 14-3 in the final five minutes to earn the victory.
· Fresno State's style mirrors UC Irvine's with a big focus on defense and rebounding. Nationally, the Bulldogs enter the game 12th in scoring defense at 57 points per game. They also lead their conference in committing the fewest fouls per game (13.4) and recording the best rebound margin at 7.0. 7-foot junior Orlando Robinson is the key players leading the Bulldogs in nearly every stat including 19.6 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game, 27 assists, 18 blocks, and shooting above team average from everywhere on the court. He's complimented by Jordan Campbell (9.9 PPG) and Isaiah Hill (9.4 PPG, 23 AST, 11 3FG).