From the Big West website:

Big West regular season champion UC Davis captured three of the four primary awards to highlight the announcement of the 2017-18 men’s basketball all-conference team, voted on by the nine head coaches. TJ Shorts is the first individual in Big West history to earn both the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year award in the same season. Jim Les, the architect of the UC Davis championship season, claimed Coach of the Year accolades. Meanwhile, CSUN local product Terrell Gomez notched the Freshman of the Year award.

Shorts II secured the second Player of the Year award in UC Davis lore behind Corey Hawkins in 2014-15. He also became the third Aggie – Hawkins (2013) and Chima Moneke (2017) – to receive Newcomer of the Year recognition in the eight-year history of the award.

The 5-foot-10 junior guard was a catalyst in the regular season championship for the Aggie program. In overall games, Shorts II ranked seventh among conference players in scoring (15.2 ppg), fifth in field goal percentage (.538), second in assists (4.3 apg) and first in steals (2.0 spg). He also placed third in assist-to-turnover ratio at +1.8. Shorts II stepped up his performances towards the latter part of the season to help the Aggies finish 12-4 in Big West play. Over the final eight games, Shorts II averaged 21.0 points on 56.6% (56-of-99) shooting and hit two game-winning shots – a running three-pointer that downed Long Beach State on Feb. 3 and a coast-to-coast layup that nipped UC Riverside at the end on Feb. 24.

A native of Tustin, Calif., Shorts II recorded first UC Davis triple-double in nearly a decade with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a victory at Cal Poly on Feb. 15. The Saddleback College transfer poured in 10 20-point games, including a career-high 31 points in the triple overtime, 105-104 win at LBSU. He had six 20-point efforts in the last eight games as the Aggies made their run to the title.

Les became the 12th individual in Big West history to earn multiple Coach of the Year plaques. He claimed his first honor in 2014-15 when the Aggies notched a school-record 25 wins and won their first Big West title. With just one returning starter from last year’s NCAA Tournament squad, the 2017-18 Aggie edition went 21-9 overall under Les. In his seventh season at the helm of the Aggies, Les led them to 20-plus wins for the third time in four seasons. The Aggies owned one of the nation’s longest home court win streaks – 19 games – after starting out 8-0 this season on Hamilton Court. Over the last eight contests, in which UC Davis posted a 6-2 record, three of those wins came in incredible fashion as the Aggies defeated Long Beach State in double overtime, Cal Poly in triple overtime and UC Irvine in double overtime. The 90-84 win over UCI in the regular season finale – in a winner-take-all atmosphere – came in front of a Bren Events Center sellout crowd of 5,000. Les has now coached two Big West Players of the Year and three Big West Newcomers of the Year.

http://www.bigwest.org//story.asp?story_id=20328

This is great news and well deserved recognition for the Aggies!! TJ is the first player in the history of the Big West ever to be named both the Player of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year at the same time.

Here's the whole list of awards:

http://www.bigwest.org/assets/sports/mbball/18_MB_All_Conference.pdf

Yes, the Aggie women lost at Washington State in WNIT after road wins over Colorado State and Utah State. They absolutely deserved a home game at that point but the PAC12 has much more influence and power than the Big West.

My guess is that, with the good following the women have, we would have had more fans in the seats than WSU. A WNIT quarterfinals game against Davis in Pullman with a Cougar team with a losing record would not create much excitement with their PAC12 fans. On the other hand, we would have had more fans in the seats because this was a big deal for us and Aggie fans were excited about it.

Yeah, and they skew the starting times to favor the top SoCal teams so they can increase attendance. So even though we are the #1 seed, we get slotted for a noon game in a big arena before an empty house. That's not an easy environment to play in.

I hope that Aggie fans will keep in mind that Chima has also been a big part of us getting to where we were before the suspension. Sure, it's apparent that he messed up, how big and why, we just don't know, but he was the team leader up until then and he had a lot to do with many of our wins up to that point. The team has been unbelievable since his suspension but he deserves a Big West Championship ring too regardless of how things turn out.

My feelings exactly. Well said.

This team is very special for all the reasons you've stated. They are Goliath slayers against all odds. I don't think they're done yet but, no matter how they fare from here on, this team is a courageous winner through and through.

The Big West Tournament is going to very, very hard for the Aggies. We have only been suiting up 9 players with Chima gone and Delveion Jackson curiously absent from the team. Playing 3 tough back-to-back games in a row will be brutal especially with the way the Aggies expend so much energy on defense.

The tournament format favors the better teams that have depth. Last night Irvine's bench outscored us 37-10. I'm not sure how much gas we will have left in the tank if we make it to the championship game but, one thing for sure, this team will play their hearts out and leave every ounce of energy on the floor. Aggie Pride in spades!

I've been watching Aggie basketball for 45 years and this is the most resilient team I have ever seen.

And he was an unknown walk-on 4 years ago. Worked his butt off and look how it has paid off for him. He's a great kid.

Cheers Portland Aggie! If you've got a good internet connection go to ESPN3 and watch the replay. Incredible game!!

Try this link: http://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=3271838

That may not work since it may be just for my internet provider. So if that doesn't work for you just google ESPN3 UC Davis vs UC Irvine Basketball and it should take you to the ESPN3 archive and you can then sign into your internet provider and watch the game.

I think Les should edge out Pasternack because SB was loaded with talent but struggled down the stretch whereas Les had to make big adjustments with Chima out and still managed to win the championship.

How about the the transformation of Garrison Goode since Chima went out! All of a sudden he's become an offensive threat and is taking the ball to the basket with authority and confidence. He has stepped up big time. Tremendous performance tonight: 6-9 from the field and 4-6 from the line for 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

Others stepping up huge: AJ John 7-12 overall including 6-10 from 3 for 20 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists.

Here's 4 Big West awards that the Men and Women should get:

Men's Player of the Year: TJ Shorts II
Coach of the Year: Jim Les

Women's Player of the Year: Morgan Bertsch
Coach of the Year: Jen Gross

Anything less than that would be criminal....

I don't think anyone knows what has happened to Jackson but being out so much and not even in street clothes at the games does not look good.

And let's not forget we are the Big West Champions in both Men's and Women's basketball. Wow...I'm super happy with that!

Just incredible and SO WELL DESERVED! This was Aggie Pride and guts personified. I could not be more proud of this team. Simply AWESOME!!

I loved it when the tv commentators said that they have covered a lot of basketball this year all over the country and this was one of the best played games they have seen in all of college basketball this year. The coaching strategies and player execution in this game was pure heaven to watch and beautiful defense too.

Onward Aggies!

What a great basketball game!! Not sure my heart can take it!

Really good basketball game. Well played by both teams and the excellent coaching is very evident. As usual, we're not getting any love from the Big West officials. TJ gets undercut on that last shot and there's no call.

Fullerton is like Hawai'i in the sense that you never know which version of them is going to show up.

The Ags fall 76-62. They're still the Big West champs but this is not the way Jen Gross wanted to see her team play today. This was no fluke by Riverside; they outplayed the Aggies on both ends of the floor and particularly on defense.

You could see this loss coming. The Ags have been coming from behind too often lately and today it caught up with them. These last two road games were perfect set ups for trap games for the Aggies and this was a solid beating from a team that was tied for next to last in the Big West. The Ags trailed most of the game last night against Fullerton too and they are the last place team in the Big West. If it were not for Morgan Bertsch's tremendous 34 point performance last night, the Ags would have lost to the Titans as well.

The 24-5 record speaks for itself but it can also be a bit deceiving because the Aggies have not been playing their best basketball for a few games now and this is when you want your team to be peaking. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call but it could also be a confidence shaker. It well be interesting to see how this loss affects the Ags in the Big West Tournament next week. Several of the other Big West teams have been playing much better basketball than they were earlier in the season so the tournament is far from a sure thing for the Ags.

Also of note, Rachel Nagel did not play and appeared to be wearing a hefty knee brace on the bench. She suffered the knee injury early in the Irvine game 10 days ago.