MBB: Aggies (13-15, 7-5) at UC Santa Barbara (17-9, 6-5) 7 pm Saturday, February 22nd I was at the earlier game between the two. With the way the Aggies started, there was some frustration on one side and some strutting on the other (neither of which seemed out of the ordinary). When Max got insanely hot in the second half and started bringing the Gauchos back into it, I think the Ags started pressuring him more and getting more physical. From his standpoint, I'm sure he wasn't thrilled with it, and I wouldn't be surprised if the Ags let him know that his team lost. Again, I didn't see anything I'd consider dirty, just hard physical play. Being such a small team, the Ags do have to play a physical brand of basketball to keep from just getting bulldozed by bigger stronger opponents. I can certainly see how that might tick off other teams, especially if the refs are letting them play.
Obviously I want players held accountable for their actions, but with Joe not having any history of issues, and the back and forth nature of the relationship, it seems like a warning is appropriate.