‘Perfect Storm’ may signal a return to glory days

It was the perfect storm for Big West volleyball last season.

The final week of play not only kept Hawaii’s quest for a 19th consecutive conference title — outright or shared — from sinking, it also floated the postseason boats of UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge.

A three-way tie meant having three teams in the NCAA tournament, a first since 2006 for what was once among the premier conferences in the country.

The Rainbow Wahine got what they needed when Long Beach State outlasted UC Santa Barbara in five sets on Nov. 30. Coupled with sweeps of UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton on the final two nights of the regular season, Hawaii breathed a collective sigh of relief, finishing 13-3 in the BWC standings along with UCSB and CSUN.

Long Beach State, UH’s longtime nemesis-turned-unlikely-savior, limped to an 11-5, injury-plagued finish.

The question for 2014 is will it again take another "perfect storm" to get multiple teams into the postseason game or has the Big West re-established itself?

The national perception appears to be a little bit of both. Hawaii is the only conference member ranked in the AVCA preseason Top 25, coming in at a program-low 17th. However, the three teams behind the Wahine in the Big West poll all received votes in the national rankings.

"No question, a lot of people got a taste of victory and of success last season," said Brian Gimmillaro, whose Long Beach State team was picked second behind UH. "Those coaches and players mostly are back.

"I have no doubt that it’s going to again be a strong conference. Certainly the teams that are picked high in the upper half are all good, with the bulk of their strength back.

"I don’t think we’re anywhere as good of a conference as it once was. But we are getting better, and we’re closer to it."

The conference members — future and current — dominated the early days of the NCAA tournament, with Hawaii (two of its three as an independent), Long Beach State and Pacific winning a combined six of the first 10 championships, and the 49ers another two in 1993 and 1998. As late as 2004, the Big West had six teams selected for the NCAA tournament but dropped to a one-bid league in 2011 (Long Beach State) and 2012 (Hawaii, returning after 16 seasons in the Western Athletic Conference).

The national perception battle begins long before the first whistle of Sept. 26, the opening night of conference play. It starts this Friday with preseason tournaments that lay the basis for the RPI that is used in seeding the top 16 teams in the NCAA tournament.

Hawaii’s schedule is not as ambitious as last season, when opening with defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Texas. But it will be challenging for the young Wahine, with four starters among the eight gone from the 25-5 squad. They host three solid teams that went to the NCAA tournament in Ohio (defending Mid-American champion), San Diego State (Mountain West preseason fourth) and No. 25 Arizona State (Pac-12 preseason fourth).

Of the remaining eight Big West teams (Pacific left for the West Coast Conference), Long Beach State looks to have the toughest opening weekend. The 49ers, receiving one first-place vote in the Big West poll, are at No. 11 Illinois on Friday and face No. 20 North Carolina and Southern Illinois on Saturday in the Illini Invitational.

UCSB and CSUN also received first-place votes in the conference poll. The Gauchos open at the Colorado State Invitational, which features the host Rams, Marquette and Virginia Commonwealth; the Matadors are at the UNLV Invitational, playing the host Rebels twice (avoiding conference foe UC Riverside) and Western Kentucky.

The hope around the league is for the Big West to do well as a whole during the preseason so that an in-conference loss doesn’t drag down the RPI. Hawaii’s RPI remained high enough to be seeded 11th despite a "bad loss" at UC Davis last October..

CSUN advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history, upsetting Colorado State. UCSB fell to No. 9 San Diego, one of two nonconference teams to defeat Hawaii last season.

Each coach understands that a strong schedule not only helps their team but, because of the RPI formula, that of the conference as a whole. The schedule is heavy with Pac-12 and West Coast Conference matchups, particularly by the "Big Four" at the top of the Big West poll.

Hawaii also has Oregon and UCLA coming in, while Long Beach State hosts Oregon State, Saint Mary’s and San Francisco. Cal State Northridge travels to tournaments hosted by Arizona, Oklahoma and San Diego, the latter where the Matadors also play Stanford. UC Santa Barbara sees Loyola Marymount at the Sac State Invitational and host Cal at the Golden Bears’ tournament.

The scheduling game is tricky. Tough but not too tough, beat opponents instead of getting beaten up.

Has the Big West done enough to get three or four teams into the NCAA tournament this season? Tune in Nov. 30 for the selection show.