I like to see 90% shooting on the second half... :joke:

Totally agree. One of the nice things about this forum is that it has virtually never slipped into the kind of flaming that you see too often in sports talk forums.

We're skipping the game today also. We're leaving for a week in Bodega Bay tomorrow and need to get things ready to go. We're going to have enough driving in the rain tomorrow too. I'll be following the online stream. Go Ags!

Coast to coast win for the Ags. I watched most of the game but was busy doing things so I didn't post during the game. I thought the Ags played solid for the most part. Defense was good holding the Highlanders to 30.5% and we rebounded well. 23 points from the bench too.

Good start to conference play for the Aggies!

[reply="CK2;201I think if there is any chance at all that Best can put Tiuli on the field he will. His actions in running up scores in the regular season gives us some insight into his "leave no doubt and win big" attitude. When you look at the number of EWU players that have been arrested in the past few years and couple that with his willingness to run up the score, I think it tells you something about the kind of football culture he has cultivated.

How the Ags will fare in conference play will really depend upon which Aggie team shows up. If it is the team that led Indiana by 14 before the Hossiers caught fire in the last 7 minutes or the team that took Arizona to the wire and lost by 2 or the team that went toe to toe with USC for the better part of the game, well that team can compete for the Big West title. Otherwise, if the team that has not played well in most every other loss shows up, well that team could be competing for the cellar.

Another factor for the Aggies will be whether or not AJ John is able to come back from his injuries, a problematic knee and an apparent concussion, and contribute. If he gets healthy and returns to good form, it will be huge for the Ags. We need his size on the boards and we need his perimeter shooting to help us stretch the floor and shoot better from downtown. We also need Stefan Gonzalez to be healthy and shoot a high percentage from the perimeter. We could be a very tough out in the conference if those two players get healthy and are playing well.

Given the injuries we've had and the how inconsistent we've been I'd say we are in the bottom half of the conference teams comparatively going into BW play. Judging from what I've seen in the preseason, I think that UCSB is the top dog to start with Irvine a close second and Long Beach and Fullerton close behind those two.

Santa Barbara is loaded with good D1 talent and Irvine is typically talented and very disciplined. Long Beach is athletic as usual and Fullerton has 3 of the best offensive players in the league but they lack discipline and can play moody. When Fullerton is firing on all cylinders they can light up the nets and be a very tough team.

I like what I've seen from the Ags lately against tough competition and I'm sure they're hungry as hell to start winning. We won't enter conference play as a front runner but I wouldn't count us out by a long shot.

I think Coach Best recruits for athletic ability first and character is an afterthought. I just googled "EWU football player arrested" and quite a few articles came up about players who have been arrested over the last few years. I was just looking for information about Tiuli and was totally surprised to see what showed up.

Not having any serious knock down shooters is the Achilles heel of this team. We graduate what little offense we have after this year and I don't see anyone we have returning that has the kind of consistent offensive ability we need making a big difference for us in scoring. I sure hope Les has some excellent shooters coming into the program. We can't win games consistently with defense alone.

Everything you just said is spot on. We need to get a few players who can create of the dribble. TJ does it the best for the Ags and Siler has his moments but, after that, we fall off completely.

We're staying in contact but poor shooting is plaguing us again: 38% overall and 27% from 3. If we could score with more consistency we'd be a tough out.

The talk about Davis is great but it's like Walton is having a manic episode. He just blabs away like a stream of consciousness about anything that floats through his mind at warp speed...

My God...Bill Walton is driving me nuts...he needs to SHUT UP!

Hahaha...I was going to say the same thing about Walton...sometimes I think he's off his meds! They did say John was out with a concussion. If that's true then he has suffered two injuries: left knee and concussion. Damn...

Tied at 9 at the first break. The Ads are pushing the ball and making nice passes.

Why not? It couldn't hurt. Better recruiting by Les would help immensely too. I watched Santa Barbara beat San Francisco tonight giving the Don's only their third loss of the season. The Dons beat us by 34 on our home court. In just two years UCSB's coach has brought in outstanding talent.

Our program should be rising rapidly after 2 Big West titles and a trip to the NCAA but, instead, we've fallen off. Les likes to say there's a lack of effort problem with the team. I don't agree. I think we play pretty darn hard all the time but we don't have the consistent playmakers we need to compete with the kind of schedule we have.

Look what Hawk has done in just 2 years and what Jen Gross is doing year in and out. Men's basketball should be doing just as well and it isn't happening. Something is missing...

Nice to see the 3 point shooting coming around, 15-27 today for 56% and 54% shooting overall. The Aggie men were 2-19 at one point in their game against LMU and many of those were wide open looks. Maybe the men should have a few practices with the women and get some tips from them on 3 point shooting...

Aggies blitzing the Penguins with 3's...

Teams do try and shut down TJ but he still manages to get his points in most games. LMU did a good job of keeping him out of the lane tonight and he had trouble trying to loft his lefty floaters over their 7'3 post. I'm not sure where consistent scoring is going to come from when TJ and Siler both graduate. Les needs to really step up his recruiting because we are not keeping pace with the better teams in the Big West.