WELCOME BACK: The Seattle University men's basketball team has not played on its home court in 23 days, a span that will end Tuesday night as UC Irvine comes to town. The team faces a UC Irvine squad that brings a three-game winning streak into KeyArena. However, Seattle University has a 13-game home winning streak to defend and will look to defeat the Anteaters for the second time in as many meetings.
THE EASTERN WASHINGTON GAME: Eastern Washington jumped out to an early lead in overtime and held on to defeat SeattleU, 100-97, Saturday afternoon. Seattle University was down by five (78-73) with 2:44 remaining in regulation when Garrett Lever hit his second three-pointer of the season to cut the deficit to two. Following a Charles Garcia steal, Mike Boxley converted on a three-point play to give the Redhawks their first lead in 15 minutes, and another three-point play from Lever extended the SeattleU lead to 82-80 with 1:35 left. After exchanging single free throws, Eastern Washington's Mark Dunn hit a jumper to tie the game with 10 seconds remaining, and a Boxley jumper as time expired was no good, forcing overtime. The two teams exchanged baskets for the first two minutes of overtime before Eastern Washington scored seven unanswered points to go on top, 94-87, with 1:09 left in the extra period. A four-point play by Taylor Olson with 14 seconds left brought the Redhawks within one. After Kevin Winford made two free throws, Olson missed a three-point shot as time ran out that would have tied the game. Six players scored in double figures for Seattle University, led by Chris Gweth, who scored a season-high 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field, including four three-pointers. Cervante Burrell finished with 14 points and nine assists, Aaron Broussard picked up a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds along with three steals, and Lever contributed 13 points and six rebounds off the bench.
SCOUTING UC IRVINE: The Anteaters come into Tuesday's game with a 5-3 record, having won three straight games with victories over Fairleigh Dickinson, Hawai'i, and Vanguard University. UC Irvine is scoring 69.6 points per game and giving up 68.9 points per contest. As a team, the Anteaters are shooting 44.2 percent from the field, including 38.6 percent from the three-point line, and 77.0 percent from the free throw line. Michael Hunter leads the way for UC Irvine with 13.6 points per game. Eric Wise is averaging 13.3 points and a team-high 5.6 rebounds per contest.
LAST MEETING: Mike Boxley made a critical steal and layup in the final minute, and then pulled down a key rebound and hit two free throws to seal the deal, as Seattle University defeated UC Irvine, 55-52, on Dec. 16, 2008 at the Bren Events Center. Back-to-back three-pointers by Patrick Rembert and Michael Hunter brought UC Irvine within one at 51-50 with one minute remaining in regulation. After Derrick Strings earned a steal to give the Anteaters a chance to take the lead, Boxley anticipated a pass from Hunter and picked it off, driving in for a layup with 22 seconds left. Hunter came down and attempted a three-pointer, but it missed and Boxley pulled down his seventh rebound of the night while being fouled, hitting two free throw attempts to ice the game for SeattleU. Shaun Burl led a balanced scoring attack with ten points, with Leigh Swanson scoring nine points and pulling down two rebounds off the bench. Boxley finished with eight points to go along with his team-high seven boards, and Austen Powers contributed seven points and six rebounds in a night when all nine players who saw action for SeattleU scored at least two points.
THE KEY TO FUTURE SUCCESS: The Seattle University men's basketball team returns to downtown Seattle this season, playing all regular season home games at KeyArena at Seattle Center. The team will play eight of its last 13 games at home after starting the season with just five of the first 18 games at KeyArena. Back when it was known as the Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle University used the downtown arena as its home court from 1964 to 1980. SeattleU closed out its stay at the Connolly Center in style last season, winning all nine regular season games in the North Court as well as the Janaury 1 game at KeyArena against Loyola Marymount, 49-39. Overall, SeattleU has won 13 straight home games, tied for the seventh-longest home winning streak in program history.
JEFF SAGARIN SAYS: The Sagarin ratings is one of the most popular tools for comparing two teams and attempting to predict the result. As of Dec. 14, UC Irvine is 158th in the Sagarin ratings at 73.21 and Seattle University is 191st with a rating of 71.32. Taking into account a 4.01 home advantage, the Sagarin ratings would predict that SeattleU would squeak by UC Irvine by two points.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING: As part of the reclassification process, Seattle University is not eligible to officially win any statistical awards. However, if SeattleU was eligible, Charles Garcia would be tied for fifth in scoring at 24.6 points per game, tied for 28th in rebounding with 10.2 boards per contest, and tied for 13th in double-doubles with five so far this season. As a team, Seattle University would be tied for 30th in scoring offense, averaging 80.7 points per game.
THE RIGHT LOOK IS IMPORTANT: This season Seattle University has gone with three different uniforms with varied results. So far the team is a perfect 3-0 in the grey uniforms, 2-3 in the black uniforms, and 0-2 in the red uniforms. The team wore grey in both previous games at KeyArena, so it is a safe bet that they will look to keep the positive mojo going by putting on the grey unis this week against UC Irvine and Oakland.
SPREADING THE WORD: Seattle University men's basketball games will be broadcast all season long on 710 ESPN Seattle, the sports station that also carries Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks broadcasts as well as local shows featuring Brock Huard, Kevin Calabro, and John Clayton. Long-time Seattle sports talk radio personality Dave "The Groz" Grosby will handle the play-by-play duties with Gary Hill alongside. Gary Hill also posts on his blog, www.seattleufan.com, during the broadcasts as well as during the week.