Last year's UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos reached the Sweet Sixteen, where they fell to UConn in Hartford, playing the Huskies much closer than Penn State did. Towering center Lindsay Taylor now comes off the bench for the Phoenix Mercury and plays in Turkey; April McDivitt is now an assistant coach. Of their key players, only Kristen Mann has returned.

Last night the Gauchos beat Pacific 73-40. They've now won nine of their last ten games, and lead the Big West.

Tournament hopes? Maybe not: this year they played several major-conference teams but lost, not only to LSU but to Arizona, Mississippi State, Purdue, even to Michigan.

They'll probably have to win the Big West tournament. In conference play, they've also lost twice to Idaho. Charlie Creme thinks Idaho will make it instead. The Vandals, however, have now lost two in a row.