#728 ASA PLAY ON UC Santa Barbara -13 over Northern Arizona, Wednesday at 10 PM ET - UCSB is an unassuming 3-2 on the season but they are better than that. Their 2 losses vs UTEP & Portland State came with starting PG Mitchell on the bench with an injury. Mitchell was the Big West Player of the Year last season and is considered a potential 1st round NBA draft pick. Since Mitchell returned to the lineup, the Gauchos are 3-0 including a win on Monday @ Fresno State as an underdog. The Big West reigning champs (27-8 record last year) have one of the top backcourts on the West Coast with Mitchell, Pierre-Louis, and Anderson, all averaging double digits and combining to put up almost 50 PPG. They are a high scoring team averaging 82 PPG on the season and ranking 11th nationally in eFG%. UCSB ranks in the top 30 in both 2 point % and 3 point % making them really tough to guard. They also make 77% of their FT’s. Northern Arizona will have a tough time keeping up in this game. The Lumberjacks struggle to score (62 PPG), they are poor shooting team making only 41% of their shots (288th), and they are terrible at the FT line making only 55% as a team. NAU can’t score from deep hitting just 25% of their 3’s on the season (344th). They have only 2 wins vs Seattle & VMI and all 4 of their losses have come by at least 9 points vs Hawaii, IPFW, Grand Canyon, and UConn. NAU is small team that struggles on the boards facing a solid rebounding UCSB team. We don’t see how Northern Arizona can keep up here so we’ll lay the points with Santa Barbara at home.