Big West Conference Panty Raid: Screwy Bracket, Screwy Names

The Big West Conference tournament is totally weird. The conference has 8 schools, which is the perfect number for a tournament, right? 8-4-2-Champion! But the Big West has decided to be all “different” and “edgy” and “West Coast.” On day one, they have the #8 seed play the #5 seed and the #7 seed play the #6 seed. On day two, the #3 seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the #4 seed plays the highest remaining seed. On day three, the #1 seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the #2 seed plays the highest remaining seed. Then on Sunday the two remaining teams enter Thunderdome armed only with squirt guns and kumquats. It’s so bizarre. Here’s a link to the bracket, if you’d like to check it out for yourself. For more panty-raidy goodness, follow me…

Also weird about this conference? The names of some of the players. All of the teams had at least one off-the-rails name, except UC Riverside (home of Archie, Jug Head, and Nancy Drew). Long Beach St. has a Simon & Garfunkle fan in Tim Island and CS-Fullerton’s prerogative is a player named Bobby Brown. Cal Poly has two guys named Chaz and Titus, but alas the latter’s surname is not Andronicus. UC-Santa Barbara is fielding the lost Gibb brother, Beau. CS-Northridge has a player named Austen Powers and they have the best drag-queen-without-her-wig player I’ve seen yet in Evan Scott. Finally, UC-Irvine and Pacific BOTH have a player named Wolfgang. Wolfgang! What the hell are they putting in the water in California?

Did you actually want to know about the tournament? Well, Long Beach State is 12-2, with the 3 teams behind them at 9-5. Everyone else is sub-.500. I’m gonna go out on a limb and pick the Long Beach Fightin’ 49ers. And here is your All-Conference Hottie Team for the Big West Conference: