It'll be a challenge for the Ags to shake off this rough patch and find a way to win.

The Ags can clinch a tournament berth with a win tonight at CSUN OR a CSU Fullerton loss OR a CSU Bakersfield loss. (thanks to Gouchdan over on the tapatalk big west boards for providing that information.

That was some second half buy the Ags. I wasn't able to be at the game but watched it on ESPN. Good commentary. We started playing our game and Pepper hit some critical 3 pointers. Too bad the rest of the team was a bit off from beyond the arc. All those missed free-throws really hurt.

I can't fault Pepper so much - he's human like the rest and really wanted to see us come back. I'm hoping it all is dealt with in the locker room after the game. Les can do some coaching there and get the team focused for Saturday.

Answer: checked at the ball park today and doggies are NOT permitted.

I totally mis-remembered the Cal Poly game. Fortunately ESPN keeps the game-flow

ESPN game stats and game-flow

I remember the Poly game as being more competitive than the final score indicated. I hope we didn't leave too much in the Thunderdome.

But it's clear this team knows how to win and can bring a variety of tools to make it happen.

The Cal Poly game is a home game for us, just to be clear.

And Norris . . . she's responding in every positive way to fine coaching. All those little things she was doing early are vanishing. I was watching warmups yesterday. She'd receive the ball from outside, in the paint, and move to the hoop - no timing dribbles, keeping the ball protected, picking up the hoop as she moved - she's doing in practice, even warmups, what she needs to do in the game. And that's huge. Shine needs to do the same thing.

Pepper, even when he's not scoring, makes a huge difference for the Ags. He's there in the rebounding, in defense with incredibly busy hands. I keep remembering the take on Oscar Robertson - that he beats you away from the ball by being smart on the court.

It hurt to watch UCSD continue to play their starters for up to 5 minutes after Les had pulled the UCD starters. It felt wrong. Let's pump up the stats, I guess. I thought it lacked class.

As it happens we DO have an en suite guest room on the first floor with a convenient exit to the outside and we'd LOVE to host a player. We do, however, have cats and dogs so there's that.

I'll paste in a quote from "The Davis Enterprise" article by Bruce Gallaudet:

In this first season, lighting at Dobbins Stadium will be temporary. The game plan is to have permanent lights installed by the start of the 2025 Aggie baseball season.

Down the not-too-distance road, UC Davis has committed to other stadium improvements, including locker rooms, concession stands and a new video scoreboard. Some of the capital improvements should come with assistance from the Pioneer League club.

Lights are coming!

2153 was reported for the UCI-UCD game. Best student turnout of the season and definitely the loudest crowd of the season. Hard not to be engaged with a game that was this close.

Here's what Tomba experienced. He was hammered. how there wasn't a foul called boggles my mind. This was a very physical game and it probably had the highest amount of energy expended per point scored of any game I can recall.

Tamba hammered as he attacks the bucket.

Click any image to enlarge.

A good game by Norris. She's getting some excellent coaching. He outlet passing has improved markedly. In the paint so many of the bad habits that bigs seem to have are vanishing: no dribbling around when she gets the ball, no holding it down low for the little ones to grab hold of: just quick moves to the hoop. And she seems to know where she is. If she doesn't have a shot she gets rid of the ball. She's improving every game. And her defense is improving as well. I'd vote her most improved player.

TY has been playing INTENSE defense. He's been putting the effort in there. His defensive effort since the start of conference has been extraordinary. I'd take that defense over scoring offense any day.

I'd love to see the +/- stats on the guys he's guarding vs his scoring.

This was a fun game to watch. The Irvine guard combination of Tom & Lee run a brilliant trap defense. And Tom is a lethal 3 pt shooter. Lee plays all over the court. I was reminded of an NBA coach talking about Oscar Robertson: "He beats you in every phases of the game," is how I remember it. Watching the Ags deal with that combo was fascinating. Watching the Ags learn to deal with them (or not) was also great. Some really fine ball movement by the Ags opened up scoring for us as well as some clutch rebounding. I thought this week Bria Shine played her best and made a crucial difference in the outcome.

Would it be grades if TY was allowed to play last week? Grades should have been in before then.

Jen kept her second squad in much too long. After that 3rd 3-ball you could watch the energy flow into Riverside. But the Ags made no changes and when the Ags did they were back on their heels. It was an ugly win.

Bossie Cow-Cow died a few decades ago at least. But I can remember how the cheer could really shift the team to a new gear. But I think it's simply gone now and not enough people remember it to even get a feeble effort during the game unless someone really put a lot of effort into restoring it.

Giving up 30 pts in the paint didn’t help.