Two Big West men’s basketball teams in seemingly different races meet tonight in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

UC Irvine, 21-4 overall and 11-2 in the 11-team Big West, enters in a first-place tie with UC San Diego. Both have clinched berths in the eight-team Big West Tournament, whose winner earns the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

There is a slight possibility that two Big West teams will earn NCAA Tournament berths. The Big West has been a one-bid league since 1991, when UNLV and New Mexico State both qualified. Both teams departed the Big West long ago. In that 1991 NCAA Tournament, UNLV had the No. 1 overall seed and advanced to the Final Four, where it was upset by Duke in the semifinal round.

Of the possibility of more than one Big West bid, UCI coach Russell Turner said, “I try not to think about that too much.”

Turner said he is focused on “playing meaningful games, chasing for a championship. That is fun. We don’t take that for granted. We’ve had a lot of (past UCI) teams that have been fortunate enough to play in meaningful games this time of year. That is what every kid who’s here came to do. We’re excited to compete coming down the stretch in February and March. That’s when we have to be at our best. We know that.”

The Anteaters tonight face a Hawaii team in a race just to qualify for the Big West Tournament. The Rainbow Warriors helped their chances Thursday by defeating Long Beach State 62-60. At 6-8 in the Big West (14-11 overall), the ’Bows are in sole possession of seventh place with six regular-season games remaining.

The ’Bows are 1.5 games ahead of eighth-place Cal Poly (4-9) and two games in front of ninth-place Cal State Bakersfield (4-10), which, along with Long Beach State (3-11) and Cal State Fullerton (1-13), would be left out if the season ended today.

Against LBSU, the ’Bows nearly squandered an 11-point lead with 3:43 to play. Drawing a foul on what appeared to be a flop outside the arc, TJ Wainwright hit three free throws to spark a surge in which the Beach closed to 60-58 with 11 seconds to play.

On the inbounds pass, UH’s Ryan Rapp was caught in a two-defender trap. The ball was knocked free. But UH guard Marcus Greene grabbed the loose ball, was fouled with five seconds to play, and buried two free throws to ice the outcome.

On the same night, by the same 62-60 final score, UCI defeated UC Santa Barbara when Devin Tillis caught a pass from Myles Che and then buried the buzzer beater. In four seasons since transferring from UNLV in 2020, Tillis’ scoring and minutes have increased each year. Center Bent Leuchten and guard Justin Hohn also have improved in UCI’s development program.

“The last play (Thursday) night was the perfect example of that,” Turner said. “We’ve had different guys (produce) on different nights … and that’s some of what makes us dangerous. We’ve got a lot of weapons who play well together. We’ve got the ability to pass in a lot of positions. That’s probably our greatest offensive strength. When a play comes together, it’s good, it’s fun.”

In the last meeting between the teams, the Anteaters stormed to a double-digit lead in the first half. They held the ’Bows to 31.1% shooting, including 27.8% on 3-point attempts. The ’Bows missed 25 of 36 shots in the lane, including 18 of 25 layups, tips or putbacks.

“Hawaii’s a capable team,” Turner said. “I don’t think they played their best game against us when they played in the Bren (Events Center). I think we jumped on them a little bit, controlled that game. But there are no games like that for opponents playing in the Stan Sheriff. We know it’s a hard game. We know they have some emotional edge because of the last game they played against us and because they’re playing at home and because they’re playing for a lot, too, for the positioning they need to fight for the conference tournament. We’re realistic about this game. They cause us some problems, we cause them some problems. We’ve got to come fight it out for 40 minutes in a hot, humid environment in front of great fans who always give the home team an edge.”