Irvine and Hawai`i are pretty evenly matched no matter where they play. In Hawai`i the Rainbow Warriors won on a buzzer beater. Last night it went into overtime at UCI after Hawai`i tied it in regulation with two last second free throws but the Eaters won 87-76 to take sole possession of first place. I wouldn't want to bet on who wins the tournament between those two, but I'd bet that it comes down to those two.

This team is certainly hard to figure out. We know they can play outstanding defense because we saw it against Irvine. They say that defense travels well and can be a consistent strength. It was no surprise that the shooting cooled off in the second half simply by the law of averages after a hot opening. When the offense struggles it seems that the defense would strengthen, but ours collapsed. I don't think it had anything to do with the strategy, so I don't blame the coaching. I just saw a lack of effort. They let the Matadors inside too easily then often fouled when they were shooting from there.

I wonder how many points CSUN got in the paint, including the free throws they made after an Aggie foul on the shot? The interior defense was disgraceful. I'm guessing that it was well over 40 because of their 84 points, 30 came on long distance and they hardly shot any mid range Js. So 30 points on layups and 10 on free throws.

At the 4:24 minute mark left, the Ags have scored only 16 points in the second half and trail by 18. This one is over.

I take back what I wrote earlier, the commentators are as bad as the camera work was. The camera work has improves, the commentators remain very biased.

Offense too.

This is easily the worst half of basketball I've seen all season. Their inconsistency is mystifying and discouraging.

I've lost count but it feels like CSUN has gotten a lot of And Ones thanks to Ags lazy defense.

It's getting ugly and Matadors now making free throws. The Aggies have depth but really lack discipline on both ends of the court.

Te difference in the game is literally the free throws of which the Ags have made 4 more. The turnovers are starting to even out, but the Ags have been pretty sloppy with their passing. One thing the Ags are doing is tying up the ball on defense. I don't think those count as turnovers because of the alternating possessions, but if all of the tie-ups are by the Ags on defense it is effectively a turnover, no?c

I vote for the camera work. It's amatuerish.

Starting out as a shoot-out. 20-13, UCD after only 5 minutes. At this rate, the Ags will easily hit triple digits.

Hawai`i travels to Irvine today. A win puts the Anteaters in the driver's seat.

Were you guys able to see some of those foul calls or missed calls on replay in the arena? Both Scott Marsh and Sandy Simpson pointed out a few of them.

The standings after this weekend show that the middle of the Big West remains a 7 team pack separated by only 3 games. For UCD the problem is to climb over at least UCSD to grab a fourth seed. Trouble is they have already lost a game to the Tritons and have to play them again in SoCal along with six other road games.

One point that needs noting is the quality of officiating in this game. I thought it was pretty poor. The refs missed a few and made a few "phantom" calls as well. Those who were at the game might have noticed it too, but on TV, the replays made the errors very apparent.

It was the spring of 1968. I don't remember seeing John Frost get hit, but I can believe it. I think that was also the game that Aggie fans outnumbered Hornet fans by 3:1. One of the guards for Sac State was a guy I went to high school with, Bill Steinmetz.

Too close for comfort. It's beginning to look like opposing coaches are trying to be physical with our guards to take advantage of their relatively small size. Their #10, worthy, was getting easy layups against Sevilla, but then he stopped. I think it was because Niko Rocak was shading his man to the left to help out with Worthy who has 4 inches and 40 pounds over Conner. Too bad they didn't use that against UCSD.

It was nice to hear Scott mention Gordon Baranco who was the Ags point guard when I was an undergrad. I still remember a tight game at Sac State when the Hornets were fouling to try to cut into our slim lead. Coach Hamilton kept the ball in Gordie's hands and they kept fouling him and he kept making the free throws. Aggies won, 73-67

Hope the Aggies don't have second half let down. They showed some signs of it near the end of tghe first half, giving up an 8 point run by UCR and missing a lot of shots. At the half, they have tgwice as many assists, 3 fewer turnovers and 5 more rebounds than the Highlanders

Good start. The Highlanders don't seem to be very disciplined on defense.