I think it's far too early, Toke69. We still have 7 conference games to play and 2 of those are against UCSB who may be the odds on favorite at the moment. We may also be without Moneke for who knows how long...? Then there's the brutal Big West Tournament which will decide who goes to the NCAA tournament. We're still a one bid conference so even if we win the BW title we won't go to the NCAA tournament unless we win the BW tourney.

This was the most assertive that I've ever seen him on offense and I hope it continues. I've always been a bit puzzled as to why he seems to struggle so much when it comes to scoring the ball. Chima goes out and all of a sudden Goode steps up....

Thanks Toke69. I fixed the link. I had to do a different copy method to get the link to work. Strange...never had that problem before...something was wonky with the first link.

Some recognition for these guys stepping up:

Garrison Goode - career high 14 points including 8-11 from the line and 6 boards. It was so great to see how aggressive he was in the paint. Chima was out and he really stepped into the void.

Rogers Printup - 13 points on 5-7 from the field and 3 boards.

Siler Schneider - 27 points on 10-17 from the field and 7-7 from the line and 4 rebounds.

Michael Onybalu - career high 11 boards.

Total team win!

Comments from Coach Les after the game (excerpt from the Davis Enterprise):

(Regarding Moneke's suspension)

“It’s indefinite right now,” explained UCD head coach Jim Les, who added he didn’t know for how long. “And the release kind of speaks for itself. What I like is these guys didn’t hang their heads. I talked to them about the foundation of our culture. It’s tested when you have adversity."

“And I thought it was tested,” Les continued. “It brought our guys together, not broke them apart. And that tells you the character of this team.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/heart-stopper-at-long-beach-won-by-aggie-men-despite-monekes-suspension/

Here's a classy post-game interview with LB Coach Dan Monson and a brief interview their star player, Gabe Levin, who scored 45 points:

https://youtu.be/3ct1Wd42GiE

I wish we had post-game videos like this after each game.

I love that video!

Nice post, SoCalAg. My wife said the same thing about Les out coaching Monson in the game. Les knew that Monson was probably going to try and double TJ if he got the initial inbound pass and designed a play with that in mind.

If you replay the video of the final 6.9 seconds it looks like LB was set up in a 2-2-1 zone press alignment with 6'8 Jordan Roberts and 6'3 Deishuan Booker guarding the area in front of Joe Mooney who was going to inbound the ball. Monson was betting that the Ags would try get the ball to TJ and let him take it to the rim. He wanted Roberts and Booker to double team and trap TJ if he got the ball. Les thought that might happen so he let TJ be a decoy as he raced in front of Booker and Roberts. As that was happening, Mooney made a deep pass into Printup while TJ was curling around those two defenders and was flying up the left sideline. Printup then made a nice pass to TJ who was now at full speed and the rest is history. Really smart coaching by Les and brilliant execution by the Aggies!

For anyone who wasn't able to watch the game and for all the fans who just want to see the game again, you can watch the entire game replay here:

http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3252368/uc-davis-vs-long-beach-state-m-basketball

A quote from Bruce Weber - Head Coach Kansas State;

"The biggest thing, and the hardest thing, to judge is the heart. You can have the athleticism, you can have the skillset, but if you don’t have the heart and if you’re not a student of the game, then you don’t have the complete package."

More than anything, the players on this Aggie team have HEART...

We finished the game with 5 guards on the floor and 3 of them had 4 fouls. Thank God the game didn't go into a 3rd OT. We cold have ended up playing 2 on 5!

Well said, Toke59. This was as good a "whole team win" as we'll ever see. I still feel giddy just thinking about it!

Another surprise: Poly knocks off Hawai'i in SLO 78-64...wow. They outscored the Bows 50-29 in the 2nd half...

From Chima's twitter account 1 hour ago:

Chima Moneke
@Chimdogg_1h

OMG!!!!!! I love you guys!!!!! @UCDavisMBB

https://mobile.twitter.com/Chimdogg_

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this gets straightened out and Chima is able to return to the team. That's not only because he's a great player but because I think he's a fine person as well who obviously must of made a big mistake.

Weren't his parents supposed to come and visit Davis and to see him for the first time in something like 7 years? What a shame if they come and he's suspended.

I'll tell you what also: we've got ourselves an outstanding D1 basketball coach. His players play their hearts out game in and out and, when they don't, they find themselves on the bench. We win a lot of games just because we never quit grinding and that's a tribute to our coaches. They've created a competitive culture and the players hold themselves accountable for maximum effort.

I loved seeing Kevin Blue and Coach Les hugging on the court and grinning ear to ear after the game too.

I with you there, Russ. This is an early gut check for the Aggies though. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of this team but they have been making too many mental mistakes and have not been the aggressor lately. Case in point: the first two baskets in OT by CSUN were layups by their small PG. She simply drove to the basket after getting a step on our taller guards and made 2 uncontested layups.

Quick guards are tough for us to handle but, when they do drive by our defender, the help needs to be there to contest the shot. That didn't happen twice in a row to open the OT period. Our back up help just stood there. We're a veteran team and that kind of defensive lapse just can't happen at crunch time. The players won't enjoy watching the film this week.

Time to learn and move on. We're still in the driver's seat.

They are a very good team, 69aggie, no questioning that. The thing that concerns me is that you could see this coming. For several weeks now we have been turning the ball over and digging ourselves a big hole to climb out of. The team has looked unfocused for a good part of each game but, to their credit, have been able to come back and get the win. Today the odds of continuing to come back and win caught up with them.

CSUN is a pretty good basketball team and they played better today. The Aggies did a much better job today of taking care of the ball with 14 total TO's. That said, it was a TO on an poor inbounds pass with 18 seconds left and the Ags down 3 that pretty much sealed the deal..

I'm sure that the team is disappointed and that Jen Gross will sit down with her players and take a deep look about their goals and what it will take to get back on track and playing like a veteran team.

This was perhaps the guttiest win I have ever seen by an Aggie team and Lord knows the officials weren't helping us out!

Great interview with coach Les on the radio post-game interview. He said they drew up a play on the time out with 6.9 seconds left. He figured that LB would press and try and deny the ball to TJ on the inbounds so they thought they might be able to get the ball in his hands on the second touch. He said Joe Mooney did a great job of getting the ball into Rogers Printup who was then able to make that nice pass to TJ streaking down the left sideline. Les laughing said that normally he would have preferred for TJ to take it to the rim but, since the 3 ball runner went through the net, he fine with the way it turned out. He said he told the team that they deserved to win today and he would have been heartbroken if we had lost given how hard the Aggies played.

In the interview with Scott Marh, TJ said he just decided it was time to try and win it rather than take it to the rim and when he let it fly it felt good. Coach Les said he was happy that we didn't go into a 3rd OT because we could have ended up playing with only 4 or even 3 players because of all the fouls we had and, again laughingly, he said, "I don't have any plays for that."

I couldn't be more proud of this team to come out and play their hearts out like that after the disappointment of Chima being suspended. I'm still stunned...fantastic win!!!!

The Aggie's ability to come from behind ended today as they fall in OT 75-71. CSUN was the better team today.

And we're headed into OT...62-62