UC Santa Barbara’s Pimm Is Left Rooting for Nevada Las Vegas

Jerry Pimm watched the Big West Conference tournament final on television Sunday afternoon, knowing that his UC Santa Barbara team would make the NCAA tournament only if Nevada Las Vegas held off Cal State Long Beach.

At halftime, Long Beach trailed UNLV by two points and found out it needed to win to make the NCAA tournament.

“It was a grind,” Pimm said. “You couldn’t make a basket or draw up a special play. It was gut-wrenching, sitting there and watching and rooting for UNLV hard, knowing that one team was already a No. 1 seed and playing for pride and the championship, and the other guy was not going to get to go. That was tough, and it was tough on our conference.”

Santa Barbara (20-8) lost to Pacific in the conference tournament quarterfinals. It plays plays Houston (25-7) Thursday at Knoxville.