It’s been a fun ride here in Vegas. Time to bring it home tomorrow Ags!

SD is a tough match-up for the Aggies and they have played the Ags tough in both of their previous games this year. More than anything, the Ags have to take care of the ball and not turn it over like they did when SD beat them in Davis when the Aggies collapsed in the 4th quarter primarily due to TO's. The Ags had 26 TO's in that game which led to 25 points by SD and somehow we survived 20 TO's yesterday which led to 25 points by Irvine.

Aggie opponents know that we have a tendency to make lots of TO's so they have turned up the defensive pressure and physicality to try and rattle the Aggies and force TO's. We simply have to keep our composure under pressure and take care of the ball better. If we can do that and continue to play excellent defense, we can win the title.

Agree with you on that. Physicality seems to be a chronic issues for the Aggies. Our women are just too nice; need some players who have an edge or who grew up with several older brothers. The last team that didn't seem to bother was when Nagel-Gianotti-Nafekh played. They weren't overly physical, but it didn't seem to throw them off.

As for turnovers, those have been a problem. However, since Gross has been head coach, the Aggies have been between 13-20 per game each year - career average is 15+. The backdoor cut is key to the Princeton offense as she runs it, and it isn't an easy play to execute. It's beautiful when you do it, but it is turnover prone...and that doesn't include the missed layups. Those TO's we have to live with. It's the "got-rattled" and the open-court bad pass turnovers they have to avoid.

Ags start off ice cold with TO's on sloppy passes. Down 8-0 and Jen forced to take a time out.

Ags trail 16-9 after the 1st quarter. SD is playing much more physical and aggressive than the Ags and the Aggies already have 5 TO's. SD is doing a good job of clogging up the lane forcing the Ags to shoot 3's.

23-14 SD with 5 minutes to go in the 2nd Q. The Ags are shooting 21%.

34-21 SD at the half. Ags are not playing with the energy that SD has especially on defense.

Looks like the ladies are getting out hustled.

I think we just play too nice at times. We struggle to be as aggressive as our opponents especially on the boards and 50/50 balls. Jim Les always says that good things happen to the most aggressive team.

These announcers must be from SD

Ryan Bennett is playing with a face mask today after taking a vicious elbow to her nose yesterday. The was ruled a flagrant 1. Now, she just got pushed to the floor while going up for a rebound and she whiplashed her head to the floor. The foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 and she's out of the game. It's been a rough 2 games for her.

The Ags are down by 18 early in the 4th. The game is all but out of reach.

Ags fall 75-66. The Ags made energetic run in the final minutes but the hill was too steep to climb. They were getting out hustled by SD the whole game until Jen finally dialed up the pressure defense which seemed to energize the team. I would have liked to see her go to the full court pressure much sooner to get the energy going for the Aggies.

Nice season for the team despite this disappointing loss. With Norris and Epps coming back and our talented freshman, Ryan Bennett, just beginning her career, we have a lot to look forward to. Loved watching our graduating seniors over the years. Aggie Pride...

Four finals losses in the last nine seasons. Two tourney appearances isn’t bad by any means but it really feels like we should have had 3 or 4 at least in that span.

A 21-win season is good in anyone’s book. In more prestigious conferences, that many wins gets you into the tournament. Several teams with worse records will receive at large bids this year.

Jen Gross and her staff do a great job. This was a great group to work with, fun to watch and they never quit. But the fact is that this team had one dependable double-digit scoring threat - Tova Sabel. Nya and Megan improved in all offensive categories this year, but neither were consistent scorers. Megan hit double-digits in 14 games; Nya did it 9 times. Tova a hit double-digits 28 times.

That allowed teams to focus too easily on Sabel, and that made us too vulnerable, especially against better / better-coached teams. It’s like Tova was our Steph Curry, but we didn’t have a Klay to go with, that someone else that had to be equally accounted for. Second option by committee just isn’t as effective.

So Tova was coming off having the flu when the tournament started. Hard to imagine how much energy 3 straight games must have zapped from her. Also, how tough was Bennett who was on the receiving end of a flagrant 1 foul in each of the last two games resulting in a broken nose from a vicious elbow and then a near concussion after getting hammered to the floor.The women's game has become as physical as the men's often are!

Neither Irvine nor Davis was selected to the WNIT, which is now the #3 post season tournament. Despite having better records that 22 of the 48 teams selected. Four teams selected had losing records. No teams from the BW or MW made the tournament.

That sucks, in my opinion. Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of politics that go into the selection of teams for any of the post season tournaments.

So 2 WCC teams with losing records got in: Pacific 15-18 and St Mary's14-16. The Big West teams got screwed: Hawaii 22-9, Irvine 21-10 and the Aggies 21-12.

Has the WNIT become one of those lower rated tournaments where teams pay to participate?


The WNIT website says Auto qualifiers are "Teams that were the highest regular-season finishers in their conference that did not receive a bid into the NCAA Tournament or WBIT."

In a quick look I don't see any mention of the Big West or Big Sky. There are probably others...Big 12? SEC?

WNIT is owned by a company out of Ft. Collins, CO that conducts several tournaments in basketball and volleyball. I cannot help but wonder if participation is a pay to play situation or a contract with the conferences. Then I wonder about a lot of things anymore.

Hawaii is in the WBIT, which is now the #2 postseason women’s tournament. They are an aq for winning the regular season title, but losing in the tournament.

St. Mary’s was seeded 6th in the WCC tournament, and was beaten in the 3rd round by #7 Pacific by 15. Pacific lost in the quarterfinals to #3 Washington State by 11.

Cynical take, but, I think, ultimately correct: if you aren't in the P4 right now, you can get fucked. Mid-major conference champs in the play-in games? Losing-record teams in tournaments? It's pretty clear than the NCAA isn't interested in the "little" schools.

on the men’s side, UCI got the #1 seed in the NIT and both UCR and CSUN got in.

St.Mary's lost to both Irvine and Riverside, and beat UCSD in 2 OT. Pacific beat LBSU and lost to Santa Barbara.

I hope that Rocko and the UCI AD make some pointed complaints. You know we'll hear from P4 schools that feel snubbed.

The snubbing of Irvine and the Aggies is egregious when compared to Pacific and St Mary's being chosen. The Aggies have beaten Pacific and St Mary's in recent years and are definitely better when you compare the Ags to them on paper. This is nothing short of favoritism to the WCC.

What are the differences in NET, Massey, or other metrics?

NET rankings as of 3/16:

USF 143
UCD 146
Irvine 159
UOP 178
SMC 192

Massey:
USF 127
Irvine 144
UOP 145
UCD 149
SMC 151

Found these in WarrenNolan.com

RPI:

Irvine 125
UCD 155
USF 158
UOP 208
SMC 211

Strength of Schedule:
USF 0.5192
UOP 0.4992
SMC 0.4810
UCD 0.4645
Irvine 0.4574