Aggie-UC San Diego men's basketball showdown selected for national telecast on ESPN2

Regular-season finale March 8 against league-leading Tritons moved back to an 8 p.m. start

It's been a while since UC Davis had to use the bleachers on the upper level of the 6,003-seat University Credit Union Center, but intercollegiate athletic officials on campus hope those bleachers will be packed when UC San Diego comes to town March 8 to battle the Aggies in the final Big West Conference men's basketball game of the regular season.

The reason for the optimism: the Big West announced today that this game has been selected to be televised nationally by ESPN2.

As such, the game has been moved to an 8 p.m. prime time tipoff from what had been a 2 p.m. start.

This marks UC Davis' first home game televised on ESPN2 since the 2015-16 season, when the Aggies attracted a crowd of 4,573 at what was then known as The Pavilion.

UC San Diego is currently riding a nine-game win streak and leads the Big West with a 14-2 mark with four games remaining, while the Aggies have lost three in a row to drop into sixth place at 9-8, with three games left.

As exciting as the March 8 matchup figures to be, Aggie head coach Jim Les has more immediate concerns as UCD heads to seventh-place Hawaii, 6-10, Saturday for a 9 p.m. matchup, then comes home March 6 for a 6 p.m. battle with second-place UC Irvine, 13-3.

The first time around in the Big West's double round-robin format, the Aggies defeated Hawaii, 68-66, in Davis, but suffered road losses of 73-66 at Irvine and 85-60 at San Diego.

Still, UC Davis needs just one more win to punch its ticket to the eight-team Big West Tournament that runs March 12-15 at Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada.

The tournament winner advances as the Big West's representative to the NCAA tournament. However, should UC San Diego not win the Big West championship, there is significant speculation that UCSD might well earn an at-large NCAA bid, a rarity for a Big West school.

UCSD is 24-4 overall and has a NET ranking of No. 37 nationally. The NCAA takes 68 teams to March Madness.

Reach Bob Dunning at bobdunning@thewaryone.com