The 1989–90 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball team represented the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

during the 1989–90

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

season. They were led by head coach

Jerry Pimm Jerry Pimm is an American former basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Utah from 1974 to 1983 and the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1983 to 1998, compiling career college basketball c ...

in his 7th season at UCSB. The Gauchos were members of the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

and played their home games at the

UC Santa Barbara Events Center UC Santa Barbara Events Center, previously known as the Campus Events Center, also known as The Thunderdome, is a 5,000-seat, indoor multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California. ...

, also known as ''The Thunderdome''. UCSB finished the season 21–9, 13–5 in Big West play to finish third in the conference regular season standings. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. As the No. 9 seed in the Southeast Region, they beat Houston in the first round before losing to No. 1 seed

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

in the second round. The season was a memorable one for UCSB fans. The 1989–90 team beat eventual National champion

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

in front of a raucous crown at The Thunderdome on February 26, 1990. It would end up being UNLV's only loss over a stretch of 55 games between the 1989–90 and 1990–91 seasons. The Gauchos also won the first NCAA Tournament game in school history.

Roster

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=9 style=, Regular season , - !colspan=9 style=, Big West tournament , - !colspan=9 style=, NCAA tournament

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1989-90 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball team

Uc Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball seasons