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Our 165th Year
No more Silent Nights for Gaucho newcomer By MARK PATTON NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER
Ajare Sanni wasn’t home for the holidays this week. No UCSB basketball player can stray from the Gauchos’ orbit during this season of COVID. But their newest shooting star is just glad he’s not staying home from their road trips anymore. Last year’s redshirt basketball season was full of many Silent Nights for the sophomore transfer from the University of Pacific. “The most difficult part, definitely, was staying home alone while everybody else was leaving for the road games,” Sanni said. “It was motivational for me, having to work out alone, but the most difficult time came when they were playing the games. “I’d be wondering, ‘Oh man, what could I have done to help in this game?’” Sanni, a 6-foot-3 guard from Houston, Tex., has done plenty for UCSB so far in this mutated season. He is the Gauchos’ second-leading scorer at 12.8 points per game even while coming off the bench to spell one of the three seniors who start in the backcourt. He will take shooting percentages of 42.3% from threepoint range and nearly 49% overall into Sunday’s 4 p.m., Big West Conference opener at UC Irvine. He is the second of three sons in the tight-knit family of Jarvis and Vanessa Sanni. “Everybody is at home in Texas, watching my games,” he said. Younger brother Jaja followed in Ajare’s footsteps at Houston’s Clear Lake High School, earning District Most Valuable Player honors last year. He’s now a freshman on the team at TexasSan Antonio. “He was supposed to redshirt, but since this year isn’t going to count, he’s playing a little for them,” Ajare said, referring to the waiver that the NCAA has granted to all players because of the coronavirus. “We talk every day, and I ask him how he’s doing at practice. “I’m the older brother. I have to lead the way.” His father set the example. Jarvis Sanni played two seasons at Arizona before transferring to Rice, becoming a star for the Owls with averages of 14.8 points and 9.4 rebounds during his senior year of 1997-98. His teammates voted for him to receive Rice’s Billy Wohn Leadership Award. “Everything I know about basketball, my dad taught me,” Ajare said. “My dad is a big guy — 6-10 and 250. He played with Damon Stoudamire and some top-notch guards at Arizona. He knows the game. Whether it’s about the big man or the guards, it doesn’t matter.” His father also played for the Fort Wayne Fury of the Continental Basketball
Association — precursor of the NBA’s G League — before taking his game overseas to Belgium, Hungary, France and Germany. The Dutch that his son learned in Belgium was actually his first language. “I grew up in Europe, going back and forth to the United States until I was in the fourth grade, so moving around isn’t a challenge for me,” Ajare said. “I loved it over there. It was so much fun and I learned so much, going to school there. “I just lived the life, going to my dad’s games.” When he came of age, Sanni would challenge his dad to their own games of one-on-one. “It never really went my way,” he said with a laugh. “He’s 6-10, 250 pounds, and so it doesn’t really go well for a guard.” It did teach him how to shoot from distance. Sanni won District Newcomer of the Year honors by the time he was a sophomore at Clear Lake High. He averaged 26.9 points as a junior, scoring as many as 44 in one game. He was voted All-State and was the unanimous pick as District MVP after averaging 25 points as a senior. Former UCSB assistant coach Louis Reynaud knew all about him, having previously coached at Rice. The Gauchos recruited him hard. But Stoudamire — his dad’s old Arizona teammate — was the head coach at the Pacific, so he signed with the Tigers. Sanni overcame a foot injury — plantar fasciitis — to become a starter in the last 12 games of his freshman season. He scored as many as 32 points in a game against Fresno State, making 7-of-11 three-pointers. He soon decided, however, that he didn’t belong in Stockton. “I kind of wanted a change of scenery,” he explained. “I just didn’t think it was the right environment for me for four years. “It had nothing to do with anybody — the players and the coaches were great. It was just my own personal choice.” He remembered how much he liked the Gauchos and their coaching staff of Joe Pasternack and John Rillie during the recruiting process. It was an easy choice to pick UCSB as a landing spot. “It just felt like a family atmosphere here,” Sanni said. “I knew that as a place to spend the next three years of school, this marked off all the boxes for me. “It’s been a very smooth transition for me. The guys have been very welcoming.” Star guard Max Heidegger, who’s now playing in Israel, made a point of taking Sanni under his wing. “He taught me a lot about how to carry myself in this program,” he said. “He helped me out a lot. I knew he would be leaving by the Please see sanni on A10
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Neverland Ranch sold to billionaire By MITCHELL WHITE NEWS-PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos has been sold to billionaire businessman Ron Burkle. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday morning that the 2,700-acre property was sold for $22 million to Mr. Burkle, who was an associate of the late pop star and cofounder of the investment firm Yucaipa Companies. A spokesman for Mr. Burkle said he views the property as a “land banking opportunity,” the Associated Press reported. In 2016, the asking price of the property was $100 million. It dropped to $67 million a year later. Included in the property is a 12,500 square-foot main residence, a 3,700 square-foot pool house, as well as a separate building with a 50-seat movie theater and dance studio. The ranch also features a “Disney-style” train station, a fire house and barn. Please see NEVERLAND on A10
UCSB adds COVID-19 lab
COURTESY PHOTO
Ajare Sanni is helped off the court at Loyola Marymount’s Gersten Pavilion by new UCSB teammates Miles Norris (5) and Amadou Sow (12) after making a basket against the Lions earlier this season.
By MITCHELL WHITE NEWS-PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS
Ajare Sanni, a sophomore transfer from the University of Pacific, has made a big impact for the UCSB basketball team this year, ranking second on the team with a scoring average of 12.8 points per game.
As COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the county and around the country, UCSB is taking steps to curb the spread. The university has established its own Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendmentscertified laboratory to enable speedy clinical-level testing and medical diagnosis. “Clinically, time makes a huge difference,” said UCSB biologist Stuart Feinstein, who is one of the leaders behind the university’s COVID-19 testing efforts aimed at the asymptomatic campus community. The lab became fully operational in recent weeks and can turn around tests in a matter of hours to a day — a critical time savings in detecting the virus. “In our population, this virus is mostly transmitted by asymptomatic people — people who don’t know they have it,” said Dr. Laura Polito, who is part of the UCSB COVID-19 Response Team. “And they can be spreading it for days before they even develop any symptoms.” The quick turnaround time allows for the necessary isolation measures to be taken right away, while also assisting in contact tracing should a test result return positive. Located in the BioEngineering building, the facility resembles any other lab, with roughly 700 square feet of laboratory scientific equipment, including hoods, refrigerators, freezers, centrifuges. What makes the lab unique, campus officials say, are the clinical standards to which the equipment is calibrated and maintained. The CLIA lab meets requirements set forth by the Please see ucsb on A10
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