Current standings after the 2/5 games:

I didn't realize that we were the 2nd best 3 point shooting team in the conference at 36.2%. Guess who #1 is? Yep, UCSB at 38.7%. The Gauchos also lead the conference overall in shooting at 48.1% compared to the Ags at 45.9%. Generally speaking, neither team dominates statistically on paper comparatively. This could be a nail biter with a close finish if the Ags can keep the game within reach late in the second half.

6:00 PM: UC Santa Barbara at UC Davis — GAME OF THE NIGHT. The Gauchos (15-7, 8-3) have the 17th longest winning streak in the nation at 6 games. Santa Barbara’s last loss was to UC Davis on Jan. 8, blowing a 33-15 lead. UCSB is averaging a 15.4-point margin of victory and conceding just 64.3 points per game since that first Davis game. Aidan Mahaney (14.3 points per game) has made 13 of his last 24 three-point attempts (.542) and has made multiple 3’s in 5 straight games. The Aggies (13-9, 6-5) have just 4 home games remaining in the season, with 2 of them coming this week. UC Davis is a solid 5-7 vs. non-Quad 4 opponents but a disappointing 7-6 vs. teams outside the NET top 150. The Aggies are 2nd in the conference in 3-point shooting percentage (.362) and force an average of 14.55 turnovers per game, which ranks 39th in the NCAA and 2nd in the Big West.

https://bigwesthoops.substack.com/p/streaking?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2973109&post_id=186949139&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

55 yard range for FG's would be awesome as well!

I'm a bit of an eternal optimist and, consequently, I generally believe that our best game is yet to come. We seem to play to the level of our competition with the exception of a couple of games this season. We've only been "blown out" a couple of times: at Oregon and, most recently, at CSUN. We lost at Colorado by double digits too but we actually led in that one with 9 minutes to go before we faded down the stretch.

We're a young team and I feel like we are still learning game by game and there are some important stats that indicate that we are trending in the right direction:

- We force 14.55 TO's per game, 40th in the nation and 2nd in the Big West
- We share the ball: 16.3 assists per game, 63rd in the nation with an assist-to-field-goal-made-ratio of
61.3% which is 23rd in the nation
- We are a very unselfish team: we have 6 players averaging 9.5 ppg or more

Like Mike said, we have to be disruptive on defense and and "muck" things up a bit and, to be able to do that, we'll need some good minutes from the bench so that we can keep up the defensive intensity. Good offense can sometimes simply be better than good defense and, when that happens, you just have to tip your hat to the opponent. However, we can't have numerous defensive breakdowns against a team playing as well as the Gauchos are playing right now; we have to make them "earn their points" in order to have a chance to win this one.

Your annual football recruiting topic is one of the most popular threads on our forum. The suspense of who the coaches are trying to get and who we lose is always fun to follow. Thanks for keeping us thoroughly informed each year. Go Ags!

Thanks for the write up about the Gauchos. No doubt we'll be definite underdogs going into this one even though it's in Davis given the way the Gauchos have been playing of late. I wasn't aware that the Aggies had beaten SB 5 straight but we'll be hard pressed to make it 6 in a row. It seems that just about every team has an opponent that consistently gives them trouble year in and year out. Our nemesis, embarrassingly, has been Bakersfield who had beaten us 4 straight until we finally broke the streak at Bake last week.

I'll miss playing the top teams in the Big West like UCSB each year. Playing in the Mountain West will bring in some exciting new opponents for us but I hope we continue to play the best teams in the Big West like Santa Barbara, Irvine and San Diego in our pre-conference schedule.

Five-Star Kicker Robert Meyer Enters Transfer Portal After Freshman Struggles at Missouri
Meyer arrived at Missouri as a highly-touted five-star prospect with 55+ yard range and strong kickoff ability, but his 2025 freshman season proved challenging. He converted 10 of 14 field goals (71%) and 36 of 38 extra points while splitting duties with walk-on Oliver Robbins on longer attempts. After inconsistency in practice and competition, Meyer was benched mid-season. His competitive fire and work ethic remain evident, but he needs a fresh start to prove his elite high school pedigree translates to college success. Best fit: Program seeking a developmental kicker with proven leg talent and resilience to bounce back from adversity.
JAN 21, 2026

https://fanstake.com/athletes/53508/s/robert-meyer

More from the NY Times article:

Many people around college sports have questioned why the Mountain West and the Pac-12 leftovers didn’t simply merge amid the wave of conference realignment that caused four Pac-12 schools to leave for the Big Ten, four more to join the Big 12 and two to join the ACC. Ultimately, after scheduling negotiations between the Mountain West and Oregon State/Washington State broke down, some of the highest-resourced MW schools preferred to join the Pac-12 remnants, believing they could build a better league with leaner numbers. As a result, the set of FBS conferences outside the Power 4 previously known as the Group of 5 will grow to a Group of 6 in 2026.

“I think one league in the west would be stronger, make more sense,” Nevarez said. “But competition can also make folks stronger and lead to more. It is what it is, and we’re ready for it.”

In the YouTube video, Wood says that Sac "will be playing an FBS schedule in 2026" and the reporter says that apparently another big announcement about football is coming soon.

I like Stokes a lot as well for all the reasons you mentioned and, as a true freshman, he's going to get better and better for a long time ahead. I hated seeing him get a T after he made a tough shot in the paint with 2:30 to go that put us up by 6. Les gave him an earful but left him in the game and he continued to play well all the way to the end of the game.

At this point, I'll take it!

The Ags finally beat Bake 80-72 after 4 straight loses to them. Man, did we ever need this one!

We seem to play to the level of or opponents no matter how good or bad they are. We just don't pull away from teams when we have a chance and a 8 or more point lead often evaporates quickly.

I’m ready for a coaching change. — Jdur

I don't know if that's the answer. It is frustrating, however, how the program seems to be stuck in neutral and, with the move to the Mountain West next year, we could be in for a rough go.

We shot 55% overall in the first half including 56% from 3 but couldn't stop the Matadors and build a lead. Then we went cold and only shot 29% overall including just 10% from 3 in the second half. We faded big time in the second half just like we did against UCSD.

We struggle to defend in the paint since Niko is our only big who is a consistently strong defender down low. Cooper is a good defender but he's undersized going up against bigger players in the paint. Chapelle and Suljanovic are both more comfortable on the perimeter and Noudjihidi appears to be red-shirting so defending in the paint is pretty much entirely on Niko.

Like DrMike noted, we got outscored 52-26 in the paint and 26 of those points were off of fast breaks. The Matadors had 30 assists!

Post-game comments from Les:

“You score 78 points on the road, that ought to be enough to win,” said Aggie head coach Jim Les.

“I didn’t think our resistance or our competitiveness was very good in the second half. The hungrier, more aggressive team won that game. We should have had a 10 or 15 point lead in the first half, but we let them back into the game.”

We've lost 4 straight to Bake and, if we play the way we did at CSUN, it will be 5 straight.

CSUN simply beat the pants of us tonight. This team is going to have to battle very hard in order to even finish in the middle of the pack in the Big West.