UCI gets No. 1 label in Big West

Defending Big West Conference Tournament champion UC Irvine tops the men’s basketball preseason conference media poll announced Wednesday.

Coach Russell Turner’s Anteaters received 19 of 23 first-place votes to amass 198 points, 37 better than UC Santa Barbara. It’s the third straight season UCI has been the preseason favorite to win the conference title.

UCI juniors Mamadou Ndiaye and Luke Nelson were named to the six-player preseason all-conference team.

The 7-foot-6 Ndiaye averaged 10.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game last season, when he missed 19 games due to injury. In two seasons, he has 131 blocked shots and has shot 67.8% from the field.

Nelson, a 6-3 guard, averaged 10.5 points and four assists per game last season.

Senior guard Alex Young is the third returning starter for the ‘Eaters, who return 10 players who saw action last season during a 21-13 campaign that included the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance.

UCI has won 65 games the last three seasons, including postseason appearances in the CIT in 2013 and the NIT in 2014.

UCI opens the season with an exhibition game against Vanguard University on Nov. 7, then begins the regular season at home against UC San Diego on Nov. 13.

Hawaii was picked to finish third (133 points), followed by Long Beach State (128), UC Riverside (120), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (117), Cal State Northridge (70), UC Davis (70) and Cal State Fullerton (38).

UCSB and Cal Poly received two first-place votes apiece.

Joining Ndiaye and Nelson on the preseason all-conference team were UCSB senior guard Michael Bryson, Hawaii junior guard Aaron Valdes, and UC riverside seniors Taylor Johns and Jaylen Bland.

— From staff reports