Looking at the recap of the 3-2 loss to #13 Stanford, it looks like two costly throwing errors did us in and, that otherwise, we were right there all the way with The Cardinal.

So even though Irvine beats SB by 20 at home, I think our 17 point win at SB on the road is even more impressive. I think you'd have to favor Irvine at home against the Ags but the Aggies have been so surprising since the Moneke suspension that I wouldn't bet against them. This team has perhaps more heart than any Aggie team I have ever seen.

What Grand Canyon is doing in their athletics programs as a for profit university is controversial for sure but many of their supporters say that what they are only doing what many of the other college elite power programs have been doing secretly for years. I don't like the idea of massive sums of private and corporate money pouring into Grand Canyon's athletics program at such a meteoric pace. We all know that the "win at any cost" mind set has been tied to numerous scandals and sanctions at the top level of college athletics over the years.

College athletics based on a "corporate greed" philosophy is just a huge conflict of interest for me compared to an academics first model of athletics like ours.

I hope so too. I like these games a lot. The last time we played down there in the old stadium they blew us out 52-3..I think, but I believe that 10,000 Aggies fans made the trip..?? Sorry, at my age the mind starts getting fuzzy and may even make things up!

Anyway, these are games that Aggie fans will travel to in groves and, if we have improved significantly by then, we could have a really big following on hand. The Aggies will be fired up big time and could make the game interesting for a while at least or maybe even who knows what could happen. Big paycheck, lots of Aggie fan interest and just down the road...there's a lot to like about these games if we come away healthy.

I heard Les say "he would be calling" but he was not referring to the Moneke situation. I thought Scott had said, "TJ should be the Player of the Week in the Big West" and Les' response was, "If he isn't, I'll be calling." I hope you heard him say something in regards to Chima though. All this waiting is getting old.

It's the Wild, Wild Big West!

How can any Aggie, who is old enough to remember, ever forget his deep 3 with time running out that won the D2 National Championship in 1998?

Yes, he has been in street clothes on the bench at the home games but is not traveling with the team.

Yes, he's been on the bench and was even at the end of the starting 5 introduction line embracing each player as they got announced. Les has said they want to support him and keep him in contact with his teammates during the review process.

It seems that the infraction of "rules" is something more than a coaching decision but less than something criminal. The longer this goes on the more it sucks big time.

Still a pretty good start to the season and, hopefully, we'll be able to keep the bats alive.

I would presume that suspended from the team does not mean he is suspended from school. I think he is still attending classes and we've seen him with the team at home games. I don't think we would see him at the games with the team if he was suspended from school.

AJ has a very nice shot from distance but he has struggled to shoot a high percentage this season. That has been improving lately. I love it when we have a big man that can stretch defenses out to the perimeter. Chima was starting to do that this year and Josh Ritchart was deadly from 3.

Post-game comments from Jim Les and AJ John from the Davis Enterprise article:

“I don’t think we defended really well at our home,” Aggie head coach Jim Les said. “I was watching some of those clips (from Feb. 8), and it wasn’t really to chastise the guys, it was more to say, ‘Hey, we’re a lot better than this, and we had too many breakdowns in too many places. Let’s get back to being us and being solid at what we do.’

“And I thought the guys did that in a big way (Saturday), and set the tone right from the tip that nothing was going to be easy against (us) tonight. I think it frustrated the Gauchos a little bit. “

“We feel like we have really good balance,” Les said. “We’ve been getting good scoring off our bench, Rogers (Printup) and Joe the other night, and they came in (Saturday) and gave us some good looks. It’s different guys every night. We don’t have one guy you can necessarily key on and say, ‘Hey, if you stop him, you’re going to stop UC Davis.'”

The Aggies have gone 3-2 without leading scorer Chima Moneke, who is serving an indefinite suspension following an undisclosed incident during a road trip to Cal State Northridge earlier this month.

“There’s no new news other than the initial announcement,” Les said. When asked if fans should assume he won’t return, the seventh-year coach responded: “I wouldn’t assume anything other than there’s an indefinite suspension.”

“We locked in defensively,” said John, who also had two blocks and six rebounds. “It really was a team victory. We can’t get that (offensive) run without getting some stops.”

“We play a lot of equal-opportunity offense,” Les said. “When a guy gets going we call his number. I think T. J.’s penetration was strong, and either he got to the basket to score or he was finding open players. A. J., because of his size, he’s such a hard cover that (the opponents’) big guy (is drawn) away from the basket. So now, if the big guy helps at the basket, A. J.’s out on the perimeter shooting wide-open 3s.

“We like it when we can put the defense in a position where they have to make some choices. Our guys made the right decisions based on what the defense was giving them.”

Les “gave the game ball” to head Athletic Trainer Tina Tubbs, “who spent the last 48 hours with ice bags and recovery and calf massages and just trying to get these guys ready after the triple overtime win at Cal Poly. So she’s the MVP because she got them ready to play.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/ ... ara-71-54/

Wouldn't that be a free-for-all!

The following was put together by gauchodan over on the Big West Boards:

Remaining schedules

UC Santa Barbara (9-3)
02/22 at UC Irvine
02/24 at CSUN
03/01 Long Beach State
03/03 Cal Poly

UC Davis (9-4)
02/24 UC Riverside
03/01 Hawai'i
03/03 at UC Irvine

UC Irvine (9-4)
02/22 UC Santa Barbara
02/24 at Hawai'i
03/03 UC Davis

Cal State Fullerton (8-4)
02/21 at UC Riverside
02/24 Long Beach State
02/28 at CSUN
03/03 Hawai'i

Long Beach State (7-5)
02/22 at Hawai'i
02/24 at Cal State Fullerton
03/01 at UC Santa Barbara
03/03 UC Riverside

Some thoughts...
UCSB wins the conference outright by winning out.
If UCSB loses once, the Gauchos would tie for the conference title with (possibly) Cal State Fullerton and (possibly) the winner of the UC Davis/UC Irvine game.
If UCSB, Fullerton and Davis tie at 12-4, UCSB will be the #1 seed, Fullerton will be the #2 seed and Davis will be the #3 seed.
If UCSB, Fullerton and Irvine tie at 12-4, UCSB will be the #1 seed and Fullerton and Irvine have sub-scenarios to determine #2 and #3 seed.
If UCSB ties with Fullerton only at 12-4, UCSB will be the #1 seed and Fullerton will be the #2 seed.
If UCSB ties with Irvine only at 12-4, #1 and #2 seeding will depend on where Fullerton (SB sweep) and Long Beach (Irvine sweep) finish.
If UCSB loses twice, it's a free-for-all.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bigwest/handicapping-the-big-west-race-t21806-s10.html

I looked at the stats and we only had 10 TO's so I think you're right that we did a pretty good job of taking care of the ball. What concerned me is that we got away with quite a few "near TO's" also on ill-advised passes and that we began to get rushed which, as you noted, was resulting in some poor shot selection. I thought that Hawai'i was getting after us with more energy than we were playing with in the second half and they reduced our lead by 14 points in 8 or 9 minutes of play.

We have had a few games lately where we let some big leads get away from us and yet we still eventually won. I just think it's a concern. I don't think that Jen Gross wants to see these big leads slipping away especially with the kind of competition that this team will face in the post-season. We won't be able to get away with careless passes against really good competition.

I guess I'm old school in my thinking but, if I were a head coach, I'm not happy if my team relaxes and let a big lead dwindle because the opponent is playing with more aggression and energy. I want my team to keep the pedal to the metal with a hard effort from start to finish.

I hope I don't sound overly critical. I just want this team to keep their energy and focus high and continue to improve. They have a chance to do something very special this year.

The Aggies move to 22-4 with a 68-56 win over Hawai'i. Morgan Bertsch scored 27 and Pele Gianotti had 13. Although the Ags shot 51% for the game but they took their foot off the accelerator and got outplayed by the Rainbow Wahine in the second half.

The Aggies were up by 25 with 3:26 to go in the 3rd quarter and Hawai'i kept chipping away and pressured the Aggies into ragged played and got the lead down to 11 late in the 4th. The Ags are still inconsistent in handling the press and, although they continue to win, it is an area that causes them problems and they are likely to see more of it.

59-40 Aggies going into the 4th quarter. Bertsch has 23.

Elsewhere around the league today:

Fullerton 88 CSUN 70
Hawai'i 74 Riverside 69 OT
Irvine 75 Poly 58

So here's where we stand:

UCSB 9-3
Aggies 9-4
Irvine 9-4
Fullerton 8-4
Long Beach 7-5
Hawai'i 6-6
Cal Poly 3-10
CSUN 3-10
Riverside 2-10

Nope...which, unfortunately, is better than the typical freezes and no feed at all...

I switch back and forth to Live Stats to keep and idea of the score.