3.5 point favorites which surprised me a bit. I thought we’d be solid favorites. I’m seeing predictions in the 83-80 range. Big game with league favorite Irvine on deck

makes no sense, i agree. might as well go with the 5/5 idea.

49ers play the late game I believe. 5:00

pretty sure they were all clustered around the kicker.

this is a team that i penciled in for the bottom 3 (the guys that miss the tournament), so this one is critical. The other 2 on my list were Bakersfield (who has a road win over us) and LBSU.

That was with Cherry playing and contributing 20 points, 9 rebounds. That has been a big loss for them.

even when we play fast on offense, we rarely rush up to the line and snap quick. It just never made sense to have the protection rush up there before we set up for the kick. Did it for both FG and PAT, where the play clock shouldn't be an issue. I think it was all strategic - a way to get the opponent off guard in case we run a fake.

in their defense, they’ve not had Cherry for the last 7 games (all loses). He was pretty good vs us.

Well, at least they have a successful basketball season to enjoy....

.....oh, wait..........The Shaq State experiment doesn't seem to be bearing much fruit so far.

this might sound dumb, but i thought that some of his struggles had to do with 'scheme'. I HATED that they field goal team huddled, then sprinted up to the line like they were trying to fool the opponent. Just get the line up there, make sure they are set and ready to cover the pressure, and let your kicker focus on the uprights.

These portal entries reminds me of basketball last year when several guys who had exhausted their eligibility (DeBruhl, Johnson) put their names in hoping that some waiver might be granted.

During one of our Zoom's or at monthly lunches, Plough mentioned that they would start to be charged more for the cost of grad transfers (compared to in-state undergrad). I wonder if we will see less grad transfers (which we seemed to utilize in the portal) since we took a few out-of-state freshmen transfers?

I think he might have outsmarted himself by sitting Niko the whole game. Last year, they strategically put him in when Poly made a substitution with a (relatively) big man, so he played about 6 minutes a half. No big guy for poly this year - no Niko. I’d have like to see him in the last 5-10 minutes when we had all 5 guys around the arc, never challenging the rim (except Sevilla). Maybe that pulls a defender inside and opens the passing lanes? Maybe the pick and roll gets us to the hoop, or opens up a three when they collapse? I can see how he’d struggle with defensive matchups, but their picks isolated Sevilla time and time again in the second half.

They know a ton more basketball than me - I just had to see the other team completely change how we play.

it’s the last line that killed us - the offense was so sluggish late in the half that we never seemed to get a good look.

Disappointing loss

Poly’s defense is much better this half - our rhythm isn’t great, and we’re not getting the open looks we did in the first half

Our offense is tagged coming out of the break. Nobody is trying to get into the paint. Long possessions with not great shots at the end. Up 8 with 16

Up 40-30 at half. Unfortunately, Fagbemi missed two FTs there at the end. Good half on both ends. They can’t possibly shoot this poorly in the second half, so we’ll have to get the offense going again - I’m sure the bench will be shorter

part of that is horrible shot selection by Poly. If it weren’t for Erkel’s 2 3’s, their numbers would really look horrible. I think they are 2-16.

Omar has really regressed on offense. Like to see him get an easy bucket to take some pressure off him.

38-25 just under 2

he played about 15 minutes a game vs poly last year and never started. Offense is playing well. Poly’s offense is so ragged.

he kicked one year at DVC ; must be hoping that year won’t count.

It’ll be an interesting lineup Saturday, I suspect. Niko came off the bench all 3 games last year, playing about 15 minutes per game. I would imagine a combo of Daugherty and Stojes fills those minutes vx the guard-centric Mustangs. We ‘stopped’ them in both regular season wins, but they went off in the second half in Henderson