I've never followed college baseball very much, but my wife's cousin has a son n the Hawai`i team who transferred back from Fullerton State this year and is now starting at 3rd base. Gotta root for family, but did not want to see them play the Aggies because of my conflicted feelings. The stadium has to be one of the best college stadiums in the country and was built as a tribute to Les Murakami, an excellent manager in the 70s and 80s who took Hawai`i to the finals of the College World Series back in 1978 or so. Baseball is very big out here and Hawai`i has sent a fair share of players to the major league.

I had to watch the game after my wife and I went out to dinner. Tough loss, but UC San Diego sure put up a great fight. This will be my last post of the season. See you all in the fall.

UCSD is only 2 of 15 from the 3 point line, which is very low considering their usual accuracy from out there. They were also very sloppy with the ball early on as the Tritons clearly had the jitters. Michigan blew out to a 10-0 lead. Still UC Sand Diego mostly hung with them until the final minutes of the half. If they can settle down and start hitting their 3s, they can turn this around.

UC San Diego faces Michigan today, the Wolverines still being a 2.5 point favorite. I suspect the line is set by oddsmakers who think that Michigan fans will underestimate the Tritons, but those of us who know how good UCSD is should not be surprised by an upset. The game is at 7:00 pm PDT on TBS.

UC Irvine defeated Northern Colorado 82-72. The Anteaters will play Jacksonville State this weekend.

I wonder when the NCAAs will expand to 96 teams? There will soon be 360 division 1 teams, so that would be well under a third. In place of the current mini play in, the first round would be the lower 32 against the middle 32.

Santa Clara 101, UCR 62
Stanford 87, CSUN 70

Irvine should do better tomoorw against Northern Colorado.

CSUN, UCI and UCR got NIT invitations, so at least the Big West has four teams in major post-season tournaments. When was the last time that happened? I suppose without the Aggies, this discussion isn't all that interesting, but I'll keep it going in case one of the teams makes a deep run.

So UCI did not get a bid to the big dance, which was no real surprise. I'll be hoping that UC San Diego can show the nation how good the Big West is. Starts with a tough opponent in Michigan on Thursday. Early on the Wolverines are a 2.5 point favorite. At least the game is out west, in Denver.

If this discussion is all about whether Jim Les should be retained, I think it is too easy to focus the whole issue on him as opposed to he overall future of the program. Thus I think many of the comments here are misguided following the frustration of a disappointing season. We all knew that last several Big West games were going to be tough and not likely to result in more than two wins, given the nature of the opposition. Next year the Big West will probably be even tougher with UCSD and UCI having their usual strong teams and Cal Poly coming on. My final thought here is that Jim Les is a good coach and the MWC will not be a huge step up for UC Davis. Best to not change horses in the middle of the stream.

Yes, I thought the same thing, but the Tritons just have too much talent, plus their defense is under-rated, I think. The final score of 75-61 is not indicative of how close the game really was. I very much doubt that UC Irvine will be in the NCAAs.

Pretty good game between the Tritons and Anteaters. Score at the half 33-31, UCI.

It would seem that UC San Diego will get into the NCAAs win or lose tomorrow, so just because I want to see two Big West teams in the tournament, I'll be rooting for UCI. In toady's game on ESPN2 I noted that the commentators mentioned that the Big West is one of the best mid major conferences (it's average net ranking places it as tenth.) in the country, so two bids would seem appropriate.

It does appear that the Aggies have been mired in mediocrity the last 6 years, but I just want to point out that two of those years were afflicted by COVID and the 2021-22 Big West season was especially bad for UC Davis eight league games were cancelled whereas some other Big West teams lost only 2 games and none lost more then the Ags. Taking those two years out, Coach Les' league record for the four years was 40-31.

Another factor to consider in looking at the future Mountain West is that with the MWC losing their best teams (this year's average net rank for those five is 92.2) and some weaker teams moving in, the MWCs average net ranking from this year (excluding UCD) is 206.3. That sure does not sound all that formidable.

The Anteaters big men just wore down Cal Poly and won 96-78 to set up the finals match we all expected.

Cal Poly is giving UCI all it can handle at the half, up 39-38 despite Owen Koonce only scoring 2 points. Mustangs have hit 7 of 16 treys.

The game is on ESPN2 now, after a delay for the Big 12 game.

UCSD 69, UCSB 51. I think this cements the Tritons for a ticket to the Big Dance even if they lose tomorrow.

At the half: UCSB 27, UCSD 26

Note that the game between CalPoly and UCI is one ESPN2 at 8:30 PDT.