Yep, an unfortunate asterisk on this season if no regular-season match between UCI and UCD. Among many other asterisks.

That being said, if Irvine wants a chance to knock the Ags off, they can still earn their way to doing that in the BWCT, where it will matter more. As a likely 2/3 seed they'll have every opportunity to do so. First test will be if they can beat LBSU in their rescheduled weekend later.

NCAA's own selection rankings aren't very impressed with the conference outside the Ags though. As of this morning, UCD's NET ranking is at a (relatively) stratospheric 64, which would be lower/mid-table in the power conferences. LBSU has fallen to 124, and UCI is next at 177. The gaps get a lot smaller after that.

Yeah that's a good point. And these athletes are expected to do their thing in a ton of different arenas and environments, so it makes sense the pressure and their coping might not vary that much based on location and crowd size, compared to game factors

Yeah I'm just spitballing, not like I've ever shot a real FT under pressure outside of IMs

That school record might stand for decades due to how favorable the conditions were for this specific thing (no hostile crowds, 2 months to to work on the shot mid-season)

Going into today Davis was 74th in NET rankings and LBSU was 108. Nobody else in the Big West is close and after tonight the gap might be enormous.

Even if multiple BWC bids is a pipe dream, for the sake of seeding we're all LBSU, USF, and Oregon fans now. They're our only prayer of quality wins and losses, and after tonight's hit to the Beach's NET ranking USF is probably going to be UCD's best win of the season, which isn't saying all that much.

Also, rank Davis.

Long Beach might eventually be a problem, but probably not this year.

I'm... honestly not sure the Ags need to win the tournament anymore provided the loss is to LBSU. Objectively speaking, if a mid-major finishes the season with 2 losses, one of which is to a top team and the other is to the next-best conference team, one would think that's prime at-large bid material

Hall finally missed one, "only" going 9/10 tonight

Commentator: "Oh wow she's human"

Up by 18 with a bit over 4 minutes left in the 3rd

Last few minutes of commentary have basically been variations of the commentators acknowledging that LBSU is good, but Gross's program is just a different level

And now she's skewering them

Maybe some planned rotations to keep the starters rested? I think Konrad came out kinda early too

32-21 at the half. Beach showing some signs of life but they still have a hill to climb

I'm just cheering every Cierra FT now, I believe she's 29/29 on the season

Edit: Announcers just confirmed, and it's the school consecutive FT record

Turner makes a three 14 seconds into Q2 and Long Beach immediately has to call timeout. This is insanity

11-3 at the first timeout. Ags aren't even playing that well -- still some sloppy play -- but rebounding and early threes have been decimating the Beach

OK that Valentines Day skit was pretty great

Hindsight is 20/20, but it occurred to me that because of the unbalanced schedules LBSU made a bit of a tactical error yesterday if it's true that they end up ahead of the Ags in the standings with a split this weekend.

Arguably, they could have rested the starters and just tried to wear the Ags down by running a press or something, take the L on Friday, then set up a more certain victory today. Helps to not have fans there to disappoint.

Of course, it wouldn't be very sportsmanlike and put an even bigger asterisk on this season than there already is if LBSU eventually won the championship over the Ags, but it was an option.

One could argue that true Hawkins fashion would be to list three starters on game day and then swap QBs in the red zone lol

In a way I'm glad there are some clear things that need improving for the team to focus on --- not that I imagine there's much time to prep for tomorrow other than a chat in the hotel. Trpcic just made some errors that she usually doesn't so hopefully she's back to her usual self tomorrow.

I am a tad concerned because I would assume that LBSU's larger schedule means they win the conference and we don't in a both-one-loss situation. So Ags don't control their own fate if they split this series, which is kinda crazy.

Rank Davis.