The 2012 Big West Tournament gets underway on Thursday afternoon at the Honda Center in Anaheim. The top seeded Long Beach St. 49ers won their first 15 conference games before falling in their road finale at the Cal State Fullerton Titans on Saturday. Was that a wake up call for Long Beach State? Or are they destined to lose the tournament final to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, as they have the last two years?
The first round gets underway on Thursday, with four games between the top eight teams in the nine-team conference. Here is the full schedule for Thursday's college basketball action:
12:00 p.m. - No. 3 UCSB vs. No. 6 Pacific
30 minutes after - No. 2 Cal State Fullerton vs. No. 7 UC Irvine
6 p.m. - No. 1 Long Beach State vs. No. 8 UC Davis
30 minutes after - No. 4 Cal Poly vs. No. 5 UC Riverside
All four games on Thursday will be streamed online at BigWest.TV. After Thursday, the bracket is reset, with the highest remaining seed playing the lowest remaining seed in one semifinal. Here is Friday's schedule.
6:30 p.m. - Highest remaining seed vs. Lowest remaining seed (ESPN3 live, ESPNU on tape delay after the second semifinal)
9 p.m. - Two other quarterfinal winners (ESPNU, ESPN3)
The championship game will be held Saturday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.