If the Ags lose in, say, the finals to UCI, who will get to be in the NIT if they don't get the NCAA bid, then it seems to me that the Ags might get an NIT slot, but I don't know much about how the NIT makes it decisions. If that happens, Pepper would get 4 more games. If none of the above, I wonder if the school would accept a bid from the CBI or the College Insider tournaments to give Eli a shot at breaking the record. (Yeah, it seems like cheating, but he's already played a whole lot more games than any of the other scoring leaders. It's like Caitlin Clark beating out Pete Maravich while playing in something like 40 more games, plus having the 3 point shot.)

An improbable evening.

A gritty stand by the Ags after coming out for the second half making only one shot until Ade scored with 12:07 left. Pepper was clutch from the foul line. I think the shot by DeBruhl was huge, not only for the points but for the momentum. It took the air out of the Tritons sails and gave the Ags a lift. UCSD never got closer than 4 after that.

Does anyone else find the commentators as annoying as I do? They are showing more bias than most and the play by play guy really likes to milk the drama.

Down by 15, the Tritons started getting into the paint, but they didn't close the gap by much. I look for them to do more of that and to get Bryce Pope more shots. He was only 3 of 6 for the fist half and leads UCSD with 9 points, but we know all know how prolific he can be. I liked the way the Ags matchup zone confused San Diego, so I hope we see that more often or, if Pope starts to go off a box and one.

Good start! Aggie's D is really tough.

You're right. Nothing wrong with my math, just my logic. Only one event has to happen, so it's either we win or the Beach loses then we clinch, which makes it a 59.6% chance of our not clinching, so a 40% of clinching.

ESPN gives UC Davis only a 16% chance of winning. At the same time, it gives the Beach a 71% of beating UCSB. If I remember my probability calculation correctly, this means the odds of the Ags securing the second seed tonight are 4.6% (assuming ESPN's analytics are also correct).

Thanks

I can't remember if the Big West Tournament is only on ESPN+ or will be televised on something like ESPNU. Anybody know?

Poly will have lost 38 consecutive Big West games. I wonder what the Division 1 record is for any school in any conference in that regard? I couldn't find it on the internet, only that Towson State has the longest overall losing streak: 41.

Unfortunately, one Beach win and one UCD loss could happen at the same time. Meanwhile, CSULB plays a still struggling UCSB at home while the Ags have to travel to both San Diego and Long Beach. If I were a betting man, I'd say the odds are long on us getting the 2 seed. On the other hand, if the Ags bring their A game I wouldn't be surprised to see a SoCal sweep.

So we need to root for the Anteaters on Saturday then hope that the Aggies can at least split their last two road games (or that the Beach loses to both UCI and UCSB). If Pepper is back on track, I'm optimistic.

It looks like the Ags have clinched at least a 3 seed.

Did I hear Scott Marsh say that Long Beach had two key players out tonight?

Great to see Pepper break out on Senior night! Does this clinch at least a four seed?

Pepper is still struggling from outside, but he still got 10. He and TY are the difference in the game, but Ade now has the energy that had been missing recently. In fact, the whole team has energy, which shows on the boards. They have 4 offensive rebounds to Hawai`i's 0. Only 2 turnovers to Hawai`i's 7.

Great start! Smart of Jim Les to set up a play for Eli to get a wide open mid-range shot to get him going. Hope it works.

The Honoluly paper had some nice quotations from Coach Les and underscored the importance of the game for both teams, noting that Hawai`i i has--as of pre-game--a mathematical shot at the two seed.

Hawai`i has swept UCD at least 4 times since both teams joined the Big West. When the Rainbow Warriors first joined, I thought they would dominate since it was a step down from them from the Mountain West and teams like Utah and Brigham Young, but they've never done well on the road and that has been their Achilles heel. Hope that continues tonight.