News: Junior guard Alyssa Marin made four free throws in the last eight seconds to pull UC Santa Barbara ahead of Cal State Bakersfield 63-62 Wed. at the Thunderdome. Marin also completed the Gauchos’ last defensive stop with the rebound.
Opinion: The UC Santa Barbara Thunderdome isn’t my favorite venue. I’ve received four parking tickets in my basketball travels, one at the Thunderdome (media parking should be clearly defined, or the cops informed). Every inch of that building has some donor’s name pasted onto it — you’d think Stanford would lead the nation in that regard, but Maples Pavilion has a few feet of unadorned wallspace.
Their boosters put their names on everything, and undue pressure on coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who was in the unenviable position of following coach Mark French, whose teams were locks to win the Big West every year.
Their students can look like nitwits. One night against UC Davis, the UCSB student section thought to taunt the Aggies with “We live at the beach / You live on a farm”, which is what today’s social media users might call a “self own”. Who contributes more: veterinarians and agriculturists or beach dwellers?
I don’t like the name of their athletics podcast: Talk’n Gauchos. Why is that apostrophe there?
I’d prefer rooting against UCSB, but that’s where Arroyo Grande HS guard Kathleen Hutchens landed. Go Gauchos!