ABOUT THE WOLVERINES
Roster | Schedule | Stats
Overall: 25-9
Big Ten: 14-5
Home: 13-3
Away: 7-3
Neutral: 5-3
vs. Ranked Opponents: 7-5
Streak: W3

FIRST TIMERS
UC San Diego is making its first Division I NCAA postseason appearance in its first season of eligibility. The Triton women are doing the same, also having won the Big West Championship. UC San Diego is the first program in NCAA history to qualify both its men's and women's teams for the NCAA Tournament in its first season of postseason eligibility.
 
AWARD-WINNERS
After posting an 18-2 conference record on the way to its first regular season men's basketball title, UC San Diego earned five of the conference's seven major awards. Senior guard/forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones is The Big West Player of the Year, Triton head coach Eric Olen is Coach of the Year for the second straight season, senior point guard Hayden Gray captured Best Defensive player, junior Chris Howell is the Best Hustle Player, and junior Justin Rochelin garnered the conference's Best Sixth Player award.
 
In addition, Tait-Jones and senior Tyler McGhie were named All-Big West First Team and Gray garnered All-Big West Second Team accolades. For the second season in a row, the Tritons are the only Big West program to win multiple major awards.
 
HAYDEN'S GRAY-TNESS
UC San Diego senior point guard Hayden Gray has been named one of ten finalists for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. The award will be presented at this year's Final Four in Glendale, Ariz. Gray became the first Triton to be named The Big West's Best Defensive Player. He leads the nation in steals (109) and steals per game (3.21). Gray has amassed 109 steals this season while committing just 47 turnovers. Gray was also named to the All-Big West Second Team, and he's registered two games this season with seven steals.
 
GOING STREAKING
UC San Diego enters the tournament riding a 15-game win streak – the longest active in the nation. 13 of the 15 wins have come by double digits, with five victories of 20 points or more.
 
POLL POSITION
UC San Diego is ranked No. 1 in this week's Mid-Major Top 25® college basketball poll for the first time. UC San Diego also received votes in the Associated Press Top 25 (57) and USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll (37).
 
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
The Tritons are second nationally in wins away from home (road + neutral). UC San Diego is 17-2 in games outside of LionTree Arena: 12-2 on the road and 5-0 at neutral sites.
 
TIME TRAVELERS
UC San Diego has played games in four time zones this season. In addition to the Boardwalk Battle in Florida (Eastern Time) and home games in the Pacific Time Zone, the Tritons played at Utah State (Mountain Time) and Hawai'i (Hawai'i-Aleutian Time). All told, UC San Diego will play games in at least seven states this season. The Tritons are 8-0 in games played outside of the Golden State.
 
BIG BARN
With a listed basketball capacity of 19,099, Denver's Ball Arena will be the largest venue in which a Triton team has ever competed. Previously, the biggest building in which the program played was Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle (18,300). The largest venue in The Big West is SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on the Hawai'i campus (10,300). UC San Diego's LionTree Arena holds 4,000 spectators.

LAST TIME VS. THE WOLVERINES
UC San Diego and Michigan have never met in most sports, including basketball. The two top 20 programs met last week in women's water polo, a 13-12 UC San Diego win in La Jolla. The first and only time the institutions met in baseball resulted in an 11-2 Tritons victory during the MLB Desert Invitational in 2023.
 
NOTHIN' BUT NET
UC San Diego has a NET Ranking of 35 and the Tritons are No. 36 in KenPom – both highest in The Big West.
 
MARGIN OF VICTORY
UC San Diego leads NCAA Division I with a turnover margin of +7.24. The Tritons have won the turnover battle in 32 of their 34 games – and UC San Diego is 2-0 in the two games in which it committed more turnovers.
 
MARGIN OF VICTORY II
The Tritons are tops in The Big West with a scoring margin of 18.1. Nationally, UC San Diego's margin of victory sits second behind Duke.
 
STINGY ON D
UC San Diego leads The Big West in scoring defense, allowing just 61.6 points per game. Nationally, that mark is sixth best.
 
SHARING THE ROCK
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones leas UC San Diego with 127 assists this season, followed closely by Hayden Gray (113) and Chris Howell (104). All three rank top ten in The Big West in assists per game.
 
TAIT-JONES TAKES CHARGE
Big West Player of the Year Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scored his 2,000th career point in a win at Cal State Bakersfield (Feb. 13) and his 1,000th as a Triton in a win over Hawai'i (Feb. 22). He was named Big West Player of the Week twice, and he earned Lou Henson National Player of the Week honors on Jan. 27. Tait-Jones leads the nation in made free throws (222) and free throw attempts (293). Last year, the New Zealand native captured Big West Newcomer of the Year honors – the first Triton to win this award – and he was also named Honorable Mention All-Big West.
 
UC SAN DIEGO 30-POINT GAMES, DIVISION I

Name	Date	Opponent	Points	Game Score
Toni Rocak	Dec. 30, 2021	vs. UC Santa Barbara	34	W, 85-83 (OT)
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones	Jan. 25, 2025	vs. CSUN	32	W, 79-54
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones	Jan. 18, 2025	at UC Riverside	32	L, 85-81
Bryce Pope	Feb. 24, 2024	vs. UC Irvine	32	W, 92-88 (OT)
Bryce Pope	Nov. 22, 2022	at George Washington	31	W, 75-70

 
WHOLE LOTTA POINTS
UC San Diego is one of 7 Division I institutions with six or more active 1,000-point scorers on its roster. Here are the team's current leading scorers (includes games played at other institutions):
 

Name	Games Played	Points
Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones	129	2,180
Tyler McGhie	127	1,798
Nordin Kapic	85	1,352
Milos Vicentic	74	1,229
Hayden Gray	128	1,258
Maximo Milovich	133	1,001

 
TY'S THE GUY
All-Big West First Team selection Tyler McGhie established a new UC San Diego single season record with 114 three-pointers this season – fourth-most in Division I. His 3.35 threes per game is tops in The Big West and ranks eighth nationally. McGhie captured conference Player of the Week honors twice. Last year, McGhie was named the conference's Best Sixth Player and captured Honorable Mention All-Big West recognition.
 
THIEVERY!
UC San Diego is one of two Division I programs to have two players averaging 2.0+ steals per game (also: UTEP). Hayden Gray (3.2) and Chris Howell (2.1) lead the way for the Tritons.
 
HEAD COACH ERIC OLEN
Now in his 12th season as head coach, UC San Diego head coach Eric Olen has transformed the program. The Big West Coach of the Year in each of the last two seasons, he is the NABC Pacific District Coach of the Year and a finalist for the Hugh Durham Award for the second season in a row. Olen is the program's all-time leader in victories.

In Division II, Olen led the Tritons to three California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) regular season titles, four consecutive CCAA tournament crowns over seven seasons. In Division II, he posted a .740 winning percentage, and he was named NABC West Region Coach of the Year for the first time in 2019-20 after leading the Tritons to a 30-1 record and the top seed in the NCAA West Region.
 
Olen's career coaching record stands at 240-118 (.670).
   
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 24-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Divisions I and II.