After a 10-1 start to the season — its best since transitioning to Division I in 2020 — UC San Diego men’s basketball has struggled to string together wins in the new year. The Tritons have only won five of their last nine games, hobbling through the opening stretch of Big West play.
Despite his team’s recent struggles, first-year head coach Clint Allard remains confident that the Tritons can shake off their malaise.
“Credit to the guys that they’ve set the expectations so high that we can go .500 over a stretch and it’s deemed a disappointment,” Allard said to The UCSD Guardian on Tuesday. “A couple of teams that have been able to play with a lot of pace and isolation have hurt us, and we’re working on some things to try to shore that part up and hopefully get back to playing our best basketball.”
The Tritons’ recent defeats include losses to San Diego, Cal Poly, Cal State Fullerton, and Cal State Northridge — all Quad 4 teams, the lowest-ranked category of the NCAA’s NET rankings. Against some of the weakest squads it will face this season, UCSD struggled to shoot the ball from deep while also failing to force turnovers — two factors that were instrumental in the Tritons’ hot start.
Redshirt junior forward Leo Beath’s struggles have compounded UCSD’s issues. After averaging 18 points in his first 13 games of the season, Beath’s shooting touch has disappeared. In the Tritons’ conference losses, Beath has shot a combined 1 for 22 from beyond the arc.
Despite its poor performances, UCSD’s defeats mostly came in close games. Besides an 88-71 blowout to Fullerton, the Tritons were only a shot or two away from turning their other three losses into wins.
“Even in the ones we’ve lost, we’re on the edge [of winning],” Allard said. “We’re just learning how to win those close games, and we’ll be prepared for the rest of conference play.”
Against Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday, Jan. 17, the Tritons played their best game in weeks, securing their first 20-point win since a 93-67 victory over Tulane on Dec. 13. The Tritons made 41% of their threes and won the turnover battle by a significant margin. They followed that up with a close win on the road against a competitive UC Davis team.
“That was encouraging to see,” Allard said. “That was our formula that’s been successful — letting our defense lead to some of our offense, creating turnovers, and getting stops.”
Next, the Tritons will play UC Irvine on Saturday, Jan. 24, at LionTree Arena. The Anteaters pose a formidable challenge for the Tritons, with one of the top mid-major defenses in the country.
