Gauchos Gearing Up for Big West Run in 2025
With the offseason still young, UC Santa Barbara is reloading with top transfers like Aidan Mahaney and Miro Little to contend for the Big West title.
The Big West was a blast to watch last season. UC Irvine made a run in the NIT, UC San Diego nearly took down Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and the conference finished 12th overall in the country according to KenPom.
The offseason hasn’t been too kind as Eric Olen took over at New Mexico and many of the leagues top players hit the portal. However, there’s still some bright spots heading into next year.
Teams are still building out their rosters, but one team is looking like they could be competing at the top of the league already. UC Santa Barbara.
Joe Pasternack is headed into year nine for the Guachos. He’s reached the NCAA Tournament twice, once as a 12 seed and another as a 14 seed. Pasternack has never finished with a sub .500 record and in eight complete seasons, he’s finished with six 20+ win seasons. Needless to say, he’s not shy to winning.
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The last two seasons have produced just mediocre results. In 2023-2024, the Guachos finished 16-15 overall and 9-11 in the Big West. Last year, they bounced back finishing 21-13 overall, but just 11-9 in conference and 5th in the Big West.
Following the season, like many schools outside of the power conferences, the transfer portal hit them hard. The lost the following six players to the portal:
Chris Mitchell
2.4 points, 1.7 rebounds
Cole Anderson
8.9 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1 assist
Ariel Bland
1.9 points, 1.7 rebounds
Ben Shtolzberg (Murray State)
3.8 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists
Kieves (Duece) Turner
9.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists
Bryce Howard
0.5 points, 0.5 rebounds
They also lost leading scorer Stephan Swenson (13.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.8 steals), Kenny Pohto (11.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists), and Max Murell (5.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, and one assist) to ineligibility.
In the grand scheme of things, they lost just two key players in their rotation in Anderson and Turner to the transfer portal. Shtolzberg didn’t see a ton of playing time, but he showed flashes of potential in what opportunities were given, including a 12 point performance against UC San Diego.
In total, the only returning player that finished in the top five of scoring was Jason Fontenet II. Fontenet averaged 9.9 points, six rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game while shooting 41.6% overall and 31.8% from deep. The sophomore is poised to take off in year three with that Guachos.
While the transfer portal takes away players, good coaches don’t rebuild…they reload. That’s exactly what Joe Pasternack is doing. According to Evan Miyakawa, UC Santa Barbara has brought in the third best transfer portal class among non-power conference teams. It’s easy to see why. Here’s who they have added:
Aidan Mahaney (UConn)
4.5 points, 1.3 assists
Hosana Kitenge (Louisiana)
11.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists (2023-2024)
Miro Little (Utah)
5.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists
I absolutely love this class. Miro Little, a 6’3 sophomore guard, shot 33.7% overall and 31% from deep at the power conference level. Against #23 BYU, he finished with 21 points on 6-8 shooting from deep in just 18 minutes. There’s some shooting consistency question marks, however, to be able to do that as just a sophomore and transferring down to the non-power conference ranks…he’s going to thrive.
Aidan Mahaney is no stranger to the west coast. In the first two years of his collegiate career, he dominated at Saint Mary’s. As a freshman in 2022-2023, he finished averaging 13.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, and two assists per game. He followed up to once again average 13.9 points, along with 2.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. He took a step back at UConn as he embraced a bench role and averaged just 12.3 minutes. He still managed to average 4.5 points and 1.3 assists per game. He’s a career 40.3% shooter overall and 37.3% from three point. Now that he’s back home, he’s going to take off from the Guachos.
Hosana Kitenge suffered an injury before the season even began, forcing him out for the year. This came after a dominating first year at Louisiana where he finished averaging 11.9 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.2 steals. Notably, out of the 6.5 rebounds, 2.7 were offensive. He’s not a three point threat as he is just 1-3 in his career, but he is strong inside as he finished shooting 56.2% overall. He needs to control the fouls as he averaged a whopping 3.2 per game, but he provides the Guachos with some much needed height.
The offseason is still young and UC Santa Barbara still has time to build out their full roster. However, this team has the makings to be one of the must-watch teams for next year. I’m excited to continue watching them add players and put together a full in-depth offseason review once the team is complete.