Titans Picked Third by Media, Coaches

Irvine, Calif. - In a rare consensus opinion, Cal State Fullerton will finish third in the men's basketball standings and the Titans' women will be sixth when the Big West Conference schedule is completed in March.

That was the forecast from the annual Big West Basketball Media Day conducted Wednesday at the Irvine Hilton Hotel. The head coaches and the media agreed on the Titans' finish in both genders in polls remarkably consistent.

Senior point guard Bobby Brown is on the Big West Conference pre-season all-conference team.

On the men's side, where parity was the day's theme, agreement was remarkable between the two groups. The media picked Long Beach first and Pacific second whle the coaches had the two deadlocked for the top spot. Fullerton was third, Cal State Northridge was seventh and UC Riverside eighth on both lists. Ranked fourth through sixth were Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine in the media poll with UCI, UCSB and Cal Poly in that order per the coaches.

The women's polls were equally similar. UC Riverside was a slight favorite for the top spot over UCSB by the coaches with UCSB a narrow choice over UCR by the media. Both groups had Long Beach third, Northridge fourth, Fullerton sixth and Pacific eighth. Cal Poly and UCI were interchanged at fifth and seventh with the coaches favoring UCI and the media leaning toward Cal Poly.

The media also picked pre-season all-conference teams. The Titans' Bobby Brown was among the six on the men's squad which included Chris Devine of USB, Darren Fells of UCI, Kejuan Johnson and Aaron Nixon of Long Beach and Derek Stockalper of Cal Poly.

The Titans were shut out on the women's team which consisted of Jessica Eggleston of Cal Poly, Karina Figueroa of Long Beach, Jenna Green of UCSB, Angie Ned of UCI, Kemie Nkele of UCR and Ofa Tulikihihifo of Northridge.

2006 BIG WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL COACHES POLL RESULTS
1	Pacific (5)	45
	Long Beach State (3)	45
3	Cal State Fullerton	37
4	UC Irvine	28
5	UC Santa Barbara	26
6	Cal Poly	20
7	Cal State Northridge	16
8	UC Riverside	7
( ) First-place votes

 

2006 BIG WEST MEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA POLL RESULTS
1	Long Beach State (18)	157
2	Pacific (2)	124
3	Cal State Fullerton	110
4	Cal Poly	91
5	UC Santa Barbara	87
6	UC Irvine	82
7	Cal State Northridge	46
8	UC Riverside	23
( ) First-place votes

 

2006-07 PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
Bobby Brown, Cal State Fullerton, Sr., G
Chris Devine, UC Santa Barbara, Jr., F
Darren Fells, UC Irvine, Jr., F/C
Kejuan Johnson, Long Beach State, Sr., G
Aaron Nixon, Long Beach State, Sr., G
Derek Stockalper, Cal Poly, Sr., F/G