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March 17, 2005

2005 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship • Tempe Regional
- Fresno, Calif. • Save Mart Center (15,621) -

First Round • Saturday, March 19, 2005
#5 Arizona State (22-9) vs. #12 Eastern Kentucky (23-7) • 11:00 a.m. PST
#4 Notre Dame (26-5) vs. #13 UCSB (21-8) • 30 minutes after conclusion of first game
Second Round • Monday, March 21, 2005
Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 • 6:00 or 8:30 p.m. PST

2004-05 Gaucho Record
21-8 overall/16-2 Big West Conference
10-4 home/9-4 away/2-0 neutral

Gauchos Have Won 16 of Last 17 Games Entering NCAA Tourney
For the ninth consecutive year and 11th time in program history, UC Santa Barbara will participate in the 64-team NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship. This season the Big West Conference champion Gauchos have garnered a No. 13 seed in the Tempe Regional by the NCAA Selection Committee and will open tourney play on Saturday, March 21 against fourth-seeded Notre Dame in Fresno, Calif. The UCSB-UND showdown is scheduled to tip-off 30 minutes after the conclusion of another first round contest in Fresno State's Save Mart Center pitting No. 5 Arizona State vs. 12th-seeded Eastern Kentucky at 11:00 a.m. PST. The winner of each opening round contest will then meet on Monday, March 21 at either 6:00 or 8:30 p.m. with a berth in the NCAA Sweet 16 at stake; the exact second round start time will be determined on Sunday.

Gauchos on the Air
All of UCSB's NCAA Tournament games will be broadcast live on KIST 1340 AM with "Showtime" Steve Wendt handling play-by-play duties and Kristen Koch serving as color commentator. Kelly Hayes, Chris Hoffman and Anna Oleson-Wheeler are making the trip to Fresno as well, and will call all the action on KCSB 91.9 FM. All of Santa Barbara's games in 2004-05 can also be heard live via the internet by pointing your browser to www.ucsbgauchos.com and purchasing the "College Sports Pass". In addition, ESPN2 - Channel 35 in Santa Barbara - will televise both the first and second rounds live. Dave O'Brien (play-by-play) and former Tennessee standout Kara Lawson (color commentary) are the announcers on "The Deuce".

UCSB Cruises Over Cal State Northridge, Rallies Past Idaho for Big West Crown
The Gauchos ran their unprecedented streak of consecutive Big West Conference Tournament titles to nine last week - earning the league's automatic NCAA berth - but it was no easy task. Following a 79-67 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Cal State Northridge on Friday, March 11 in which UCSB never trailed, the top seed then found itself in a dog fight the following day against Idaho. The third-seeded Vandals - the first Big West team to sweep its regular season series with Santa Barbara since 1993-94 - lead by six points at intermission and then went ahead 57-46 with just over 12 minutes remaining thanks to some sharp outside shooting. At that point the Gauchos reeled off an incredible 19-0 run spanning nearly eight minutes - with seniors Mia Fisher and Kristen Mann combining for 15 of those points - to build a 65-57 advantage they would never relinquish in the Anaheim Convention Center. UCSB shot a combined 54.5% (60-of-110) in the pair of victories while running its winning streak in the league tourney to 25 games dating back to 1997.

Francophile
UC Santa Barbara alumnus Mark French is in his 18th season as head coach of the Gauchos and the 26th year of his immensely successful career. He currently owns a UCSB record of 380-163 (.700) and an overall mark of 478-277 (.633). Since the 1991-92 campaign, a period spanning 14 years, French's Gauchos have won 11 Big West Conference titles and advanced to 11 NCAA Tournaments - including five second rounds and a Sweet 16 appearance - as well as one Postseason WNIT. Individually, French has earned an unmatched seven Big West Coach of the Year honors, while in 2002-03 he was named WBCA District 8 Coach of the Year and a finalist for the Naismith National Coach of the Year award. He is the dean of Big West coaches, with nine more years of experience in the league than any of his current counterparts.

Reserves	Notes
#15 • Brandy Richardson • Sr. • F	Returned from ankle injury to log 39 minutes in BWT
#34 • Autumn Nichols • Jr. • F	Shooting 60.6% (43-of-71) over last nine games
#44 • Kristen Mann • Sr. • F	19.9 points per game rank her 12th nationally
#21 • Mia Fisher • Sr. • G	Averaged 23 points, 87.5% shooting (21-of-24) in Anaheim
#32 • Karena Bonds • Jr. • G	20 assists, seven turnovers (+2.9) over last six games
Reserves	Notes
#3 • Jessica Wilson • Fr. • G	Pair of late acrobatic layups helped seal win over Idaho
#5 • Kate Bauman • Sr. • C	Quintet of double-digit scoring efforts this season
#22 • Erin O'Bryan • So. • G	Six "treys" vs. LBSU were most by a Gaucho in 2004-05
#11 • Sha'Rae Gibbons • Fr. • G	Four assists at Cal State Fullerton were personal best
#25 • Brittanie Taylor-James • Fr. • G/F	Played just two total minutes during Big West tourney
#42 • Kat Suderman • Fr. • F/C	4.9 points, 3.8 rebounds over her last seven contests
The Bench Bunch	Notes
#12 • Courtney Young • Jr. • G/F	Will miss 2004-05 season due to left knee injury
#23 • Ana Onaindia • Fr. • G	Will miss rest of regular season with lower abdominal strain
#24 • Hillary Jager • Jr. • F/C	Will miss 2004-05 season due to torn left ACL
#33 • Jenna Green • So. • C	Will miss 2004-05 season due to torn left MCL

Player of the Year Kristen Mann Heads List of Four Gaucho All-Big West Honorees
Led by Big West Player of the Year Kristen Mann, four Gauchos garnered postseason awards from the conference on Monday, March 7. The Santa Ana, Calif., native becomes the seventh UCSB player in the last nine years to earn the league's top individual honor and ninth overall, while she and fellow senior Mia Fisher join three former Gauchos as the only players in program history to receive all-conference recognition four straight years. Fisher was joined on the All-Big West Second Team by senior forward Brandy Richardson as both players earned their highest career honors. Finally, guard Jessica Wilson earned a spot on the Big West All-Freshman team; UCSB has placed at least one player on the all-rookie squad in eight of the past nine seasons.

UCSB's NCAA Tournament Histor
The Gauchos own a 7-10 record in 10 previous NCAA Tournament appearances, reaching the second round five times before finally breaking through to the Sweet 16 last season. Seeded 11th in 2004, Santa Barbara hosted early round play in the Thunderdome and scored upsets over No. 6 Colorado (76-49) and third-seeded Houston (56-52) to reach the East Region Semifinals. Sent to Hartford, Conn., UCSB dropped a 63-55 decision to No. 2 seed Connecticut that was the Huskies' slimmest margin of victory during the Big Dance en route to their third straight national title.

Fighting Irish Factoids
Fourth-seeded Notre Dame, an at-large selection from the Big East Conference, enters the Big Dance with a 26-5 overall record and No. 11 national ranking in this week's Associated Press Top-25 Poll. Most recently, the Fighting Irish fell 67-54 to Connecticut in the semifinals of their league tournament on March 7. UND is led by Big East Player of the Year Jacqueline Batteast - a 6'2" senior forward averaging 17.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game - and also features junior forward Courtney LaVere who was a teammate of current Gaucho redshirt Courtney Young at Buena High School in Ventura, Calif. In its only previous meeting with UCSB, Notre Dame invaded the Thunderdome on Nov. 28, 1997 and emerged with an 86-75 victory. Coincidentally, both schools advanced to the NCAA East Region Semifinals last season but did not meet in Hartford. The only common opponent between the Fighting Irish and Gauchos in 2004-05 was Purdue, which fell at UND 86-69 on Jan. 16 but squeaked out a 66-65 overtime victory in Santa Barbara on Dec. 3.

Scouting the Sun Devils and Lady Colonels
Fourth-seeded Arizona State (22-9) advanced to the Pacific 10 Conference Tournament title game on March 7, falling to top-ranked Stanford 56-42 before earning its at-large berth in the Big Dance. UCSB owns a 4-3 all-time record against the Sun Devils, winning the last three meetings including a 76-66 decision in Tempe on Dec. 3, 2001. The Gauchos have never squared off with Eastern Kentucky (23-7), which earned the Ohio Valley Conference's automatic bid after pulling off a thrilling 84-73 victory over Southeast Missouri State in its league tourney championship game on March 5.

Who are We?
Please use "UC Santa Barbara" as a first reference to the school; no hyphens, commas, nor the words "California" or "Cal" are needed. Afterwards, "UCSB", "Gauchos" and "Santa Barbara" are all acceptable references to our campus by the sea and the teams which represent it.

Board Games
Over their last 18 games, UCSB has been downright dominating on the glass. During that span, the Gauchos have posted a double-digit rebounding margin 13 times, including a season-high +23 at Idaho on Feb. 3 where they grabbed 58 total boards, equaling the most by any Big West team in 2004-05. Dating back to a Dec. 28 overtime win to open conference play at Long Beach State, 23 games ago, Santa Barbara has averaged a +10.0 cushion on the glass, only losing the battle of the boards once. On the season, the 10-time defending Big West champs own the nation's sixth-best rebounding margin at +8.7, while their boards per game average of 42.0 also tops the Big West.

There's No "I" in Team, but a Couple in "Winning Streak"
A balanced offensive attack has been a driving force behind UCSB's current 10-game winning streak, with five different players posting the team's high point total in a contest and six leading the way in assists. In five of those games, every Gaucho in uniform tallied at least a pair of points. Santa Barbara has posted an average victory margin of 19.1 points during its 10-game run, longest by any Big West school this season.

UCSB Team Three-Dot Data...
For the first time since the Gauchos' run of nine straight NCAA appearances began in 1997, they did not defeat a fellow member of the field of 64 during the regular season, going 0-3 with losses to Arizona, LSU and Purdue...Five members of the UCSB program with roots in the San Joaquin Valley will be making a pseudo-homecoming when the Gauchos play in Fresno - Mark French, Autumn Nichols and Ana Onaindia all grew up in Bakersfield, while Sha'Rae Gibbons and Jessica Wilson hail from Sacramento...Prior to their early struggles against Idaho on Saturday, the Gauchos outscored their opponents 158-61 over the opening 10 minutes of their previous seven games combined...After averaging a conference-leading 4.12 blocks per game in 2003-04 with 6'8" senior center Lindsay Taylor patrolling the paint, Santa Barbara is stuffing just 2.3 shots this season, ranking seventh in the Big West.

Conference Dominance
UCSB now owns the nation's second-longest streak of consecutive regular season conference titles, with both Old Dominion (13 years) and Connecticut (12) being knocked off their lofty perches in 2004-05. Louisiana Tech leads the way with 13 straight crowns - split between the Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conferences - however the Lady Techsters have shared top honors three times during their run. All of Santa Barbara's 10 straight Big West championships were won outright; in fact, the Gauchos have finished at least two games ahead of the pack each year over the past decade.

High-Five
The Gauchos' .808 winning percentage since the start of the 1997-98 campaign places them in some rather elite company. Only Connecticut, Tennessee, Louisiana Tech and Duke have won a higher percentage of their games over the past six-plus seasons than UCSB, which owns a 206-49 record during that span.

Home is Where the Wins (Usually) Are
After entering 2004-05 having won 39 of their past 40 games in the Thunderdome, this season was an anomaly as the Gauchos dropped four home contests, the most in a single campaign since 1989-90 when they also fell four times in the Thunderdome. Nonetheless, since its run of nine straight Big West regular season titles began in 1995-96, UCSB can boast a 118-14 (.894) mark while playing in the Thunderdome, with only two of those losses occurring during league play.

The MASH Unit
In 2004-05 that dreaded, mythical "injury bug" has taken a big bite out of the Gauchos, who began the season with a school-record 15-player roster but will suit up just 11 in the Big Dance. Two players have not taken the court at all this season, as junior forward Hillary Jager tore her left anterior cruciate ligament in a Nov. 7 exhibition opener vs. Strakonice BBC - her first competitive basketball game in over two years - while junior guard Courtney Young has been sidelined due to complications resulting from left knee surgery last spring. Sophomore center Jenna Green was off to a fantastic start in 2004-05 - averaging 13.7 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting 65.5% - but was lost for the season late in the second half of a Dec. 3 home game vs. Purdue due to a torn left medial collateral ligament. Meanwhile guard Ana Onaindia was limited to just six games during her rookie campaign due to a strained lower abdominal muscle on her right side, an injury suffered during fall practice. UCSB will petition for medical redshirt seasons from the NCAA on behalf of all four student-athletes. Gaucho players have missed a combined 117 games this season due to injury and illness.

Waiting in the Wings
On Nov. 15, 2004 UCSB announced the signing of three high school seniors to National Letters of Intent. LaShay Fears (Palmdale, Calif.), Shantel Thomas (Sacramento, Calif.) and Whitney Warren (Lawndale, Calif.) will all join the Gauchos as true freshmen for the 2005-06 season. Fears, a 5'7" guard, recently led Sylmar High School to the Los Angeles City Section finals, and was named Mission Valley League MVP in 2003-04 when she averaged 16.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. In her first season at Sacramento High School, the 6'2" Thomas has helped the Dragons qualify for the CIF Division III State Tournament. She averaged a double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds in 2003-04 at Franklin High, earning First Team All-Delta League honors. Meanwhile Warren, a 5'8" guard, won the Division III Sportsmanship Award last year as powerhouse Bishop Montgomery won its second straight state title. Last week the Knights fell in the Southern California Regional Finals.

On the Horizon
Whoever emerges from Fresno will join three other regional semifinalists in Tempe, Ariz. on Saturday, March 26. The Elite Eight is scheduled for March 28, with a berth in the Final Four at stake. North Carolina is the Tempe Regional's top seed, followed by Baylor and Minnesota.