By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

UC Santa Barbara might have one of the most successful women's basketball programs few fans have heard of.

But the Gauchos, Xavier's NCAA Tournament first-round opponent Sunday in Lubbock, Texas, are 52-8 the past two seasons and have won seven consecutive Big West tournaments.

ABOUT UCSB

• Nickname: Gauchos • Location: Santa Barbara, Calif. • Record: 26-4, 15-1 Big West Conference • Bid: Tournament champion • Coach: Mark French (330-147, 16th year; 428-261, 24th overall) • Key players: Lindsay Taylor (16.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg), Jess Hansen (46 percent 3-FG) • Notable: The Gauchos have won seven consecutive Big West Conference Tournament championships.

UC Santa Barbara is ranked No. 17 in both polls and features one of the game's most dominating centers, 6-foot-8 Lindsay Taylor. She leads the Gauchos in scoring at 16.1 points a game and has 53 blocked shots.

"That will make things interesting," Xavier coach Kevin McGuff said Sunday night. "We haven't played a lot of good big kids. You're going to have to play a good team in the NCAA Tournament and are going to have matchup problems against everybody."

UCSB has played some of the big boys in the women's game. It defeated Purdue, a No. 2 tournament seed, 83-82 in overtime in December. The Gauchos then took a No. 1 tournament seed, LSU, into three overtimes before losing 94-90 in Baton Rouge, La

Santa Barbara has three other players who average double-figure scoring.

Senior guard Jess Hansen averages 10.6 points and made 46 percent of her 3-point attempts (61 of 132).

The second-leading scorer is sophomore forward Kristen Mann, who is 6-2. She averaged 14.6 points in 18 games.

Sophomore guard Mia Fisher is the fourth double-figure scorer at 10.6 points.

Xavier and Santa Barbara played three common foes.

The Gauchos lost at Michigan, a team the Musketeers defeated at home. XU split with Richmond, a team UCSB defeated. The Musketeers defeated Colorado State, which beat Santa Barbara.

The NCAA Tournament berth is Santa Barbara's seventh in a row.

"I have never coached a team that is playing as well at this point in the season before," Gauchos coach Mark French said. "We play as a team and have a lot of talent. We are happy and healthy and looking forward to the challenge of the tournament."

Santa Barbara has won seven in a row since the LSU loss and 15 of its past 16. It defeated Pacific 68-50 Saturday to win the conference tournament.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com