What a great half of basketball by the Ags. They're firing on all cylinders!

This sport is perfect for UCD...another great development in Aggie Athletics by Kevin Blue.

The women are rolling!

The Aggie Equestrian Team won by a score of 10-5. The events, of which I have no knowledge whatsoever, were Equitation Over Fences, Equitation On the Flat, Horsemanship and Reining. Google here I come...

Great start for the team and let's hear it for the horse Aggies: Gracie, Eden, Teddy, Cappo, Tom, Van, Casper, Luron, Boomer, Toby, PeeWee, Flash and Donal! I wonder if Donald has a blonde mane?

https://ucdavisaggies.com/documents/2019/1/31//2018_2019_Master_Scoresheet_vs_DSU_Jan_31_.pdf

Great start for a new Aggie sport!

I was about to comment on Siler and Garrison being benched in the second half as well. I agree. It certainly was weird seeing the players Les chose to play for nearly the entirety of the second half.

My guess is that Les was unhappy with what he saw in the first half especially on the defensive end and was sending the team a message essentially saying, "I'm going to see who really wants to play." Hawai'i shot 56% overall for the game and that'll raise Les' blood pressure through the roof.

I listened to the brief post-game interview with Les by Scott Marsh. Les was very brief as usual when he is upset after a poor performance by the Aggies although he has really toned down his rhetoric after he publicly went overboard with his frustrations about the team earlier this year. He just said he was surprised how poorly we played against the zone since they had prepared for it all week. When Marsh commented that Neufeld and John both had nice games he responded, "Well for every plus there's two negatives that cancel out the positives." End of interview.

You could tell that Les was beside himself. Marsh seems almost intimidated anymore to ask Les questions when he's is upset with team's performance after yet another loss. In the post-game interview after a loss a few games ago Les said, "We're all emotional right now so I'm not going to say anything."

It's obvious that the team and the coach are not in a good place at the moment. DrMike is correct that there's still time for this team to finish in the top half of the Big West. I think they have the ability to do that.

Les and the team need to put all these losses behind and take it one game at a time all the way to the end of the season. No one seems to be having fun right now and that's hurting the chemistry of the team. The fun has gone out of the game and that's dragging us down. Carrying these losses around like a dead weight won't help things get any better.

I'm not making any excuses but several things have had a lot to do with so many loses this season. The two biggest factors in my estimation have been the big step up in our preseason schedule, our toughest ever, and injuries that sidelined AJ John and Stefan Gonzalez for much of the season. We needed both of those players to contribute to our perimeter shooting. We have fallen way off in 3 point shooting without them being healthy. Teams are now zoning us and forcing us to try and beat them from distance and we continue to shoot poorly from the perimeter.

Another factor is the we had Chima for most of the season last year and he was a tremendous impact player. Chima and TJ were able to break down defenses one on one. TJ is really the only player with that ability that we have this year. Schneider can do it also but he can be very inconsistent. It's very hard to slash and drive against the zone defenses we are now facing. They clog up the middle and make it very tough to drive the lane. If you can't make teams respect your perimeter shooting they will force you to beat them from the outside.

The best teams in the Big West have several players who are long, athletic and talented. They can create off the dribble and make difficult, contested shots. We are not keeping pace in recruiting those kind of players and, with TJ, Siler and AJ graduating this year, we could be in big trouble again next year.

The trajectory of the program currently is very disappointing after 3 Big West titles in 4 years. I thought we had turned the corner and were on the fast track to becoming a west coast, mid-major power but, instead, we're on a slippery slope back to the bottom half of the Big West.

Unfortunately, I believe we are...

Age lose again 80-60. Neufeld had a very nice game and AJ had his best shooting performance since the Indiana game.

Les likes to say "defense travels" but it missed the plane to Hawai'i.

Whoa...those are scary scores!

Maybe The Grad...?

I missed watching this game. Wow...looks like the Ags were clicking on all cylinders. I've been really impressed with their poise and confidence lately. They seem to have really come together of late and it shows. The Aggie D has been terrific.

I wouldn't worry about McKeown being ice cold on this road trip. She's a pure shooter and she'll get her stroke back.

It's the Wild, Wild, Big West...there's a lot of parity especially at the top. Fullerton has been disappointing this year but they are very talented overall and have the ability to beat anyone when they get their offense rolling. The Titans win at home over the Gauchos is not terribly surprising but the margin of their win is.

She got a defensive rebound and Konrad was closely guarding her from slightly behind her to Fluker's right. Fluker felt her presence and, while holding the ball high, swung to her right and caught Konrad flush on the jaw with her right elbow and Konrad went down hard. There was no egregious intention by Fluker but it did result in an "unsportsmanlike" foul and Kourtney hit two FT's and the Ags got the ball. I guess it's called unsportsmanlike in WBB but a flagrant 1 in MBB.

The wild, wild Big West continues to live up to its reputation as Fullerton routs Santa Barbara 81-60 at Fullerton.

They're playing like a veteran team. Great patience on offense, solid defense and the twins went wild.

I expect that CSUN will play zone like Irvine did and do everything they can to make things tough for Morgan. Irvine played her very physical and I expect Fluker will do the same. Morgan has gotten so much stronger this year. She's able to take hard fouls and still finish with an and one. She can also step out and hit the 3 so we might see may see the Age with both Stobbart and Bertsch on the floor at the same time. It will be important for the Ags to hit some 3's to stretch the zone.

Link for the ESPN3 live stream:

http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3475555/uc-davis-vs--cal-state-northridge

Go Ags!

Irvine beat Hawaii 75-74 in OT in a great basketball game. Both teams looked really good. The Aggies will need to bring their A+ game to have a chance against the Warriors.

In other Big West games Riverside blew out Poly 74-51 and CSUN shellacked Long Beach 86-71.

Thanks for the info. No doubt that this will be a very tough game for the Aggies. Hawaii doesn't lose often at home.

I hope the quality of his education is really important to him because, if it is, UCD has a lot more to offer.