36-35 Gauchos at the half in a great half of basketball. SB is executing beautifully on offense. They'll be in a position to win this game if they and tighten up the defense and get a few stops. Baylor is very athletic and they're tough to defend.

Definitely similar.

#14 UCSB and #3 Baylor is about to start at 10:30 on TNT. Tough draw for the Gauchos but anything can happen in March Madness.

Another big upset: #15 Princeton 59 #2 Arizona 55. Princeton finishes on a 9-0 run. Arizona averaged over 80 points per game this season. Defense and disciplined basketball wins it for Princeton.

Kihei Clark, the PG for Virginia who originally committed to the Aggies out of HS before switching to Virginia, unfortunately ended his college career on a sour note. #4 Virginia had a 2 point lead over #13 Furman with 12 seconds to go. Clark got trapped in the corner after inbounding the ball and tried to heave a long pass down the floor that was intercepted by a Furman player who passed the ball to JP Pegues who hit a 3 pointer with 2.2 seconds left. Virginia missed a long 3 at the buzzer and Paladins upset the Cavaliers 68-67.

Irvine goes one and done in the NIT losing to Oregon 84-58. The Anteaters had beaten Oregon in Eugene 69-56 way back on November 11th.

Terrible half of basketball by Irvine. Down 35-22 at the half. Oregon is without 3 of their top players but Irvine can't hit a shot. They are shooting 20% overall including 1-12 from 3.

The Irvine at Oregon NIT game is about to start at 8 pm on ESPN2.

So now our next games start conference play with 3 home games vs CSUN. The first game is scheduled for Friday at 2 pm.

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Irvine plays at Oregon on Wednesday, March 15th at 8 pm PT. Live on ESPN2.

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The Aggies got pounded by ASU today 17-4. The Sun Devils had 20 hits and had 10.

I agree with moving the tournament back to SoCal. Playing in an empty arena is not fun for the teams and isn't a good atmosphere for the few fans who attend also. It's not a good look for the Big West on TV either when the place is empty.

Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be invited to any post season tournaments since we finished in 6th place in the BW and then lost big in the BW Tournament.

I don't understand your question, Mike? Can you elaborate?

Thanks for posting all this information. I'd heard that the administration was a nightmare for Les at Bradley but I never knew the details. I also remember reading that he had a tremendous amount of fan support and, like you've noted, the Bradley fans were really sorry to see him get fired.

I don't think there's any other coach in the Big West that gets as much from the talent they are able to get as Les does. He has a knack for developing players into overachievers.

Santa Barbara 72 Fullerton 62.

The Gauchos pulled away in the final 5 minutes. Ajay Mitchell, who was the BW Player of the Year, is a sensational player and he's only a sophomore. The Gauchos are going to the Big Dance for the second time in 3 years.

Hawaii came back from 15 down at the half to beat Santa Barbara 61-59 for their second BW Title in a row. Daejah Phillips hit a layup and got fouled for an and one with 3.4 seconds to go to take the lead and Santa Barbara missed a long 3 at the buzzer.

Thanks for your post, user1. I couldn't agree with you more. We're lucky to have Les here.

We don't often get the most highly touted players coming out of high school or the transfer portal that some of the top teams in the Big West often get but Les does bring in kids with great potential and a hard work ethic. They're also high character kids who do well in the classroom and are highly coachable. The players you named in your post are great examples of this.

You should drop Les and Vogt an email. I'm sure they would love to hear from you. Here are their email addresses:

Jim Les: aggiebasketballatucdavisdotedu
Kyle Vogt: kvogtatucdavisdotedu

It would be great if we could schedule a home and home with Bradley in the near future too.

Good for Ezra! I'm really happy to hear that he continues to grow and is playing at such a high level. I sure wish he hadn't left but it's good to know that he's being successful.

Jim Les certainly has and great eye for recruiting players who are diamonds in the rough. Ezra was completely overlooked by everyone except Les and look at him now.

Santa Barbara 92 Riverside 87

Fullerton and Santa Barbara play for the title at 6:30 pm tomorrow on ESPN2