Getting most of the attention at UCSB’s basketball media day, for good reason, were numbers one and two: guards Eric Childress and Gabe Vincent. Both received honorable mention All-Big West honors last season. Childress is the only senior on the men’s squad, which lost four of last season’s top six scorers to graduation. He started all 33 games as point guard and led the team in assists. Vincent, a junior, is an explosive scorer who drained 80 three-point shots last year, the second highest total in school history.
Bob Williams, the dean of Big West coaches entering his 19th season with the Gauchos, said he will be counting on Childress to provide leadership on the floor. “We want ball movement, execution, staying in the offense, making the team effective,” Williams said. “Eric has to be in charge of that.”
Childress has displayed a fearless attitude since his freshman year. “I’ve always been grown up,” he said. He takes pride in coming out of the same high school (Leuzinger High in Hawthorne) as Russell Westbrook, the lightning behind the Oklahoma City Thunder. “We don’t back down from any type of challenges,” Childress said.