An infusion of seasoned talent and a solid core of battle-hardened returners gives the UC Santa Men’s basketball program reasons for optimism going into the 2024-25 season.
A preseason poll of the Big West Conference’s 11 head coaches slated the Gauchos to finish second in the conference standings behind UC Irvine with two first place votes.
“What we learned from last year is you have to get old and stay old,” said UC Santa Barbara coach Joe Pasternak. “We were very inexperienced last year and it really hurt us. That was our main priority in recruiting in the spring is to get old and stay old and have guys that we can recruit that had production at other college basketball programs.”