On Jan. 24, UC San Diego men’s basketball lost to rival UC Irvine in a tight 61-59 battle. The Tritons failed to score in the final four minutes of play as the Anteaters rallied to take a pivotal win. Following the game, The UCSD Guardian’s men’s basketball beat writers Senior Staff Writer Sam Propst and Sports Co-Editor Alan Zhang sat down with New University’s Associate Sports Editor Jaden Hunter and former Managing Editor Jacob Ramos to discuss the game. The following is a transcript of a recorded interview. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Alan Zhang: How do you feel about the win?
Jacob Ramos: It was a good litmus test. I came into this thinking that if we win, it’s kind of like a party in our city, and if we lose, we put it behind us.
Sam Propst: “Party in our city” in Irvine? “Party in our city” is crazy. In Irvine?
JR: There’s not a single thing going on in Irvine tonight. We’re gonna go get Cane’s or some s—.
Jaden Hunter: [The win] definitely feels good, especially after the heartbreak that we experienced in the Big West Championship game. There was a lot of buildup for this matchup. Jacob and I have been talking about coming here since that loss. We needed a big win against a top-three team in the conference.
AZ: This game specifically is really similar to last year’s January game. It was also low scoring, and it was the same strategy. You limited our top 3-point shooter — last year was McGhie, this year it’s Chaikin — Chaikin didn’t get much going.
JH: Three points, 1 for 4 from the field, four turnovers. Rough game for him on both ends.
JR: Chaikin’s really interesting. His build is very much not Division-I basketball; I noticed that he weighs probably 150 pounds. Very good shooter though, and you can tell he has a good offensive feel.
SP: Alex Chaikin is one of my favorite players. Especially at the beginning of the season, he would consistently be open, and he continues to find ways to stay open. But his issue at the beginning of the season was that he could not shoot to save his life. He would only go for threes, and he would miss every single one. Then, all of a sudden he started making threes, making threes, making threes. He’s leading the team in threes. But yeah, he’s always open, he’s gotten better at shooting threes, and it was kind of disappointing to see him not do that today.
JR: To be the best 3-point shooter on a team and shoot two threes in a game like this is pretty inexcusable.
AZ: One thing I found really interesting is that Russ Turner loves leaving open most of our shooters from three. He guards solely one player — in this case, Chaikin. Everyone else just gets wide-open looks, and they chuck them up like crazy. Like Dengdit and Prospere.
JR: But Dengdit could shoot.
SP: Ehhh.
JH: 1 for 6 from three.
AZ: It’s like Nordin Kapic all over again. Let’s be real: He’s worse than Nordin.
JR: When you’re the guy that’s getting roamed off of, you don’t necessarily have to shoot every single time. In the NIT, we faced a guy like that on Chattanooga. I forget his name, but he burned us a lot because that dude probably shot 13 threes that game after his career-high was like six. Russ likes to pick guys in the low 30s that are willing shooters along with a guy that he’ll roam off of. Who’s your freshman number zero?
SP: Hudson Mayes.
JR: Yeah, Russ did not care if he shot today at all. And he went 2 for 3.
AZ: Honestly, that worked so well specifically with Prospere and Dengdit, both of whom shoot well under 30%. Prospere shot that final shot. He’s shooting 21% on the year, and he took that final three.
JR: Playing two guys like that on the floor at the same time is ridiculous. They weren’t great at anything on offense except for dunking the ball. What does Dengdit do? If he can’t shoot, why is he starting?
SP: That’s the question!
JR: It seems like the offensive system for you is largely the same, and the personnel is very, very different. You can’t just go from Tyler McGhie and Hayden Gray to Dengdit and Prospere — that just doesn’t work. I don’t know how far this could take you if that’s the offense. It wasn’t like our offense was all that much better today, but I think we generated better looks than yours.
AZ: Let’s talk about Huddy Mayes. What are your thoughts on him today?
SP: Loved Mayes.
JH: He was clearly a good player. I’ve never watched him before, but we were daring him to make shots, and there were times where he was making shots. Defensively, if you look at his build, he’s in really good shape and really strong. He’s a physical guard, can get downhill, and he went 2 for 3 from three. In my opinion, he should be starting.
AZ: Who do you think he should be starting over?
SP: Dengdit. Maybe Prospere.
JH: I think Prospere.
AZ: But Prospere’s the only one on our team that can play defense.
JH: I think Mayes is a good defender. He has a good build for it and a good motor.
AZ: Final thoughts?
JH: I’m excited for the next matchup; hopefully our crowd doesn’t get brutally mogged again. It will be interesting to see. If you end up winning that game, it’s like a parallel of last season.
JR: Then, we’ll meet in the Big West title game.
AZ: We’re already one-third of the way through the parallel. This game was very similar to last year’s January game; we’ll have to see how the next two go.
After their loss to the Anteaters, the Tritons continued to struggle with defeats to UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Northridge. UCSD will look to get its revenge against UCI on Feb. 21.
