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BlueGoldAg
1.1kEveryone knew that the out of conference schedule was loaded with tough challenges but I don't think anyone thought we'd be 1-6 at this point though. The Ags were ragged and discombobulated in the first few games. Then they squeaked out an OT win at Texas A&M Corpus Christi but followed that with a another subpar loss at Texas - Arlington.
Last Friday, the Aggies traveled to Bloomington, Indiana, for a game with the Hoosiers in storied Assembly Hall and, given how the season had gone so far, a blowout by IU was generally expected. However, the Ags led the game for the first 33 minutes and were up as much as 14 points in the first half before the Hoosiers caught fire from 3 late in the game and the Ags hit a scoring drought.
IU fans would say that the Hoosiers were flat and had overlooked the Aggies but I disagree. The Aggies played their best ball the year: solid defense, excellent ball movement, and a good shooting percentage. It was the first time this season that I saw that this team does have the ability to be a good basketball team. Les has been saying that he likes the talent on this team but we had not seen that talent in rhythm together as a team until the game with the Hoosiers.
TJ controlled the pace for the Aggies like we saw from him last year. His quickness and penetration was giving IU fits. Siler took better care of the ball and his 3 point shot began to fall as did Joe Mooney's long range ball. Caleb Fuller looked like he was settling into the speed and physicality of the American D1 game and AJ"s shot finally looked like AJ's shot and he was draining beautiful baskets from long range with his quick release.
The big question now is which Aggie team will show up tonight in the Pavilion? Will it be the team that played like they belonged on the floor with Indiana or will will it be the team that turns the ball over with regularity and shoots like there's a lid on the basket? I'm hoping we've turned the corner and the team we will see from now on is a team that is finally finding itself as a cohesive unit and has been toughened up and battle tested.
We need to continue to get better because the schedule ahead does not ease up with the likes of road games at USC, Arizona, Northern Illinois and undefeated Loyola Marymount. Let's hope that iron sharpens iron and the Ags are developing a toughness and resilience that will pay off when conferencve play begins.
Live tv stream from Big West TV at 7 pm: http://www.bigwest.org/tv/
Go Ags! -
BlueGoldAg
1.1kGood points. Siler is a streaky shooter and Les gives him the green light to continue gunning even when his shot is not falling. He has struggled to score at a good percentage this year. We need him to come around offensively and we haven't seen much of that at all so far this year. Les keeps him on the floor even when he's cold because he's such a hard-nosed competitor and is fearless regardless of the situation in the game.
I think we need to get significant contributions from Caleb Fuller and Matt Neufeld for this team to become a contender in the conference. We need some offfensive firepower and everyone has struggled to put the ball in the hoop with any consistency this season. The first half of the Indiana game showed me that the team can play well offensively and the reemergence of AJ was encouraging. -
DrMike
649I thought the reemergence of AJ last game was a great site. Takes pressure off Silar, opens up the middle for TJ (he can kick out). Fuller and Gonsalez are both starting to look like contributors. If we can get solid minutes from Mooney and Neufield, good defense and rebounding from Goode, we should be able to win our fair share. Let's hope they put a complete game together tonight. -
BlueGoldAg
1.1kI forgot about Gonzalez. He's a solid competitor and we need him to be able to shoot from the outside. It seems like we have enough players who are able to knock down perimeter shots so, to be shooting so poorly, was surprising.
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BlueGoldAg
1.1kNice to see the Ags shooting 56%. TJ doing his thing and Fuller getting better all the time. AJ missing badly though. Need to come out strong and stretch the lead in the second half. Small crowd.
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Oldbanduhalum
590Nice half. A lot more energy on defense than what I’ve seen. And more confidence on offense. Let’s finish strong Ags!! -
Oldbanduhalum
590Interesting that Siler started the second half on the bench. Mooney started instead. I think les was a little POd with some of Silers defense.
Overall it was how the Ags are going to win this year. Active defense and tj leading the way on offense. Also saw a little glimpse of what we can expect from Fuller -
BlueGoldAg
1.1kLes played a lot of combinations tonight and most everyone contributed. TJ is so much fun to watch. He's so quick and really controls the floor when he has the ball. Fuller continues to get better and I thought Siler played pretty well for the minutes he got. Neufeld had some nice moves in the paint but isn't as agile a defender as Goode. Gonzalez had an off night and AJ's shot was not dropping again and we missed an awful lot of wide open 3's tonight.
Our ball movement on offense was really good and I thought our defense was pretty consistent and we forced 19 TO's. One thing for sure with Les is that if you make a defensive mistake or two, you are most likely coming out of the game.
Up next is a tough road game at Northern Illinois. I hope we can finally get a road W but we'll need to play even better than we did tonight for that to happen agains the Huskies. -
BlueGoldAg
1.1kI think we still have to wait and see how good this team might become. The loss to Sac State was the low point of the season so far. Then they showed they can be pretty good in the loss to Indiana and the team seems to be playing better as a cohesive unit on both ends of the floor since then. We shot the ball much better last night but we also missed way too many wide open 3's.
The next few games are going to be very telling as to whether or not this upswing is here to stay or not. With road games at Northern Illinois, USC, Arizona and undefeated Loyola Marymount coming up it's not going to be easy to get many wins and we could easily be 4-10 entering conference play. I hope that won't be the case and they'll surprise a few of these good teams.
Then we open conference play at Irvine and the Anteaters are the cream of the crop in the Big West. We'll be thoroughly battle tested by then and we won't be intimidated by anyone in the conference after all the tough teams we've already played. Irvine and Santa Barbara are clearly the top teams in the Big West so far but, as usual in this conference, I expect it will be a dogfight for the title and we might just surprise folks if we continue to get better. -
Oldbanduhalum
590I would say yes, although I'm not sure we'll see the results in the win/loss record as BGA said. But from a pure basketball standpoint, we are playing a lot better than we did at the start of the season. Most importantly, TJ is back to his POY level, and some of the key pieces seem to have found a better rhythm. John is still way off on his 3 pt shots, and there is certainly room to get better all around, but I'm much more encouraged by the last two outings.
One thing to note, here are the records of the teams we've played so far. It's been a really tough OOC already, and we still have @USC, @Arizona, @LMU, and @NIU left to go.
USF 7-0
USD 5-2
Arkansas 4-1
TAM-CC 4-3
UT Arlington 3-4
Suc St 3-1 (including a win against Fullerton)
Indiana 5-2
NAU 2-3 -
BlueGoldAg
1.1kThe West Coast Conference may be as good as a whole in a long time. They are 50-24 so far including #1 Gonzaga 7-0, Loyola Marymount 8-0 and USF 7-0. Sometimes I envy Pacific having left the Big West to play in the WCC...
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Oldbanduhalum
590WCC is "usually" top heavy with Gonzaga, St. Mary's and sometimes BYU. They appear to be a lot deeper this year. UCI took care of St. Mary's (to drop them to 3-4) the other night.
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