Meet the Newbies: Gabriel Aguirre

Mar 21, 2013; Austin, TX, USA; A general view of the Frank Erwin Center during Pacific Tigers practice the day before the second round of the 2013 NCAA tournament. Mandatory Credit: Brendan Maloney-USA TODAY Sports

The Pacific Tigers graduated seven seniors, some of which played significant minutes last season. Losing that many players is never a good thing, especially for a program like Pacific that just can’t reload its roster with talent year after year. The Tigers were a good team last season and made it to the NCAA tournament, but with the likes of Lorenzo McLoud, Colin Beatty, and Travis Fulton gone, they will go through some growing pains. They will need to rely on Samu Taku, Ross Rivera, Tony Gill, and a handful of newcomers to carry the team this season. Among those newcomers is City College of San Francisco transfer Gabriel Aguirre, who we will take a look at in this installment of meet the newbies.

At City College of San Francisco

The Rams had an extremely good season last season, thanks to the play of Gabriel Aguirre. He was an All-Coast conference first-team performer last season, and led the City College of San Francisco to a perfect 28-0 record for the regular season. Unfortunately for Aguirre and the Rams, they fell in the CSCF semi-finals. His efforts in the 2012-2013 season earned him an honorable mention to the all-California state team.

Brazilian National Team

Aguirre played for the 2012 (V16-V19) Brazilian national team, where he won a silver medal.

Impact at Pacific

As I alluded to before, Ron Verlin and the Pacific Tigers graduated seven players, and newcomers will need to step up this season. However, Aguirre might not need to contribute right away. Tony Gill and Ross Rivera will eat up a lot of the minutes at the power forward position, and Aguirre will be eased in to the college game.