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here's the current Massey rankings.

https://masseyratings.com/cb2024/10695

it's hard to say the Big West is better than last year overall. still so many teams below 200 (6 out of 11, yikes).

the top appears better. Irvine & Long Beach have made a jump up, Irvine more surprising with losing their two leading scorers.

Irvine, both results and to the eye, looks deep and physical. Playing more uptempo, they'll be a team that can stress in the half court on both ends for 40 minutes. The guy from Turkey is a gamer. Unlike other more plodding IRvine teams, they can play physical and push the ball as well.

Northridge definitely is a team that's vastly improved. look at this stat, PLUS 14 in rebounding margin. they get after it.

Davis has not been as good as I thought might be, they have Pepper and Ty Johnson in that backcourt, so dangerous, I do think they may move up some in conference.

Hawaii looked solid vs. Nevada yesterday, physical, De Silva is very good. there was a lot of penetration by both teams, drawing fouls, in that game. I think with the rule changes on fouls last 2 years, players are going to get rewarded driving for fouls. which makes AJ's defense in the USC game and our frustrating (or maybe just an off game) of Collier pretty good. Our 1-3-1 will help offset that a bit, but maybe at the expense of rebounding.

still the bottom 6, despite some close calls for wins, aren't very good. if they were they'd have won more.

the top 4 (Beach, SB, Irvine, Hawaii) are definitely a cut above, but no guarantee to get a gaudy (like 18-2) BW record, maybe Irvine, but even then I question that with 10 road games.

the bottom 6 have only lost 3 games total at home, one of which was the 1 pt loss by UCSD to SDSU.

Beach's nice rating (well relatively) is offset by a poor Massey Power Rating, influenced by the 3 bad losses, especially Portland & Ill State. one can say glass half empty (we really had a chance to have a top 100 rating, but for some horrific inconsistant play), or glass half full (the USC, Mich wins, and so far undfeated in the state of California!).

How well Beach does on the road will go long way to getting a high seed, which is paramount.

main message from watching SB, Haw, Irvine is they are good physical teams, which backcourts that are solid. Unless Beach improves on multiple 'small things', we'll lose too many games. Namely at one pont last year, Beach had a +10 rebounding marging, it's liek +2 or so.

these higher teams can play physical, SB can control with that backcourt and AJ. to me and harping on it, if our guards/littles, namely Silva, Thompson, Lewis, Hart don't start blocking out on the exterior and even AJ/Tsohonis, we will be plagued by giving up 2nd chance points. Jones has boarded well last couple games and it's made a big difference. LT & AT can't get every board, they need help. Add Stroud who has reach but needs to find guys to seal and not leave his feet defensively, even in that 1-3-1

the 1-3-1 is really what sets this Beach team off from the rest of conference. it's a unique look teams have to face.

basically conference starts tommorrow with a Dom HIlls team, that is maybe a bit like a last place Big West team.

first five games before 3 straight vs. Haw/SB/Irvine, is extremely important to not dig a hole, with 3 road games. no game is totally a 'must win', just in getting a high seed, those first five are important to make a statement for the team itself, especially fundamentally in boards, and FTs.