Yes, but it could have been even better. I just remember one stretch of three straight possessions late in the game when the team lost its focus, seemingly, a surrendered unforced turnovers on bad passes.

I would have disagreed with you before this past weekend. I still think Irvine and Hawai`i are clear co-favorites, but let's see how things play out.

Nice points about the defense. I don't think I've ever seen such great defense by a college team before. All of the guys on this team play the one on one by staying very close to the player they are guarding. That's so essential because it only takes one player to let the offense break it down. Plus, their switches are incredibly fast. The fact that they could hold Irvine to only 30 points in the second half is strong evidence of this. Now if only the offense could turn the ball over less. On the other, hand, quite true that the defense converts turnovers by the other team into points.

Thanks. I don't know how I missed that.

The first and eighth place teams are now only separated by 2 games. It's always been tough to win road games in the BW. The Anteaters have now lost two of those in a row and Hawai`' lost their only two on the road as well. Look out Aggie fans: two road games next week. With back to back home wins, UCD is in the mix...for now. Ironically, they played poorly against a mediocre Fullerton team, but played maybe their best game of the season to beat UCI. It makes me wonder if they're playing to the level of the opposition?

I am so happy the Aggies win especially after seeing the 49ers get demolished up in Seattle!

That was way too close. Don't know why the Ags didn't foul in the backcourt at the end. Aggies could have lost on poor free throws (20 for 30), but their solid trey shooting (11 for 27) saved them. Interesting that Rocak made 4 of them and he only made only one 2 pointer.

I guess Coach Les held Cooper out in the first half due to foul trouble.

Aggies have missed 7 free throws; UCI has missed none.

Cooper is out there now. Wonder why he was out so much in the first half?

Maybe Scott will have some information about Nils after the break.

I think something is, in fact, the matter with Nils. He went out after only 9 minutes and has not been back.

The Aggies have brought their B game so far although their shooting is dragging it down from an A. Odd, because they're moving the ball well and getting good shots. The D is solid as well as the rebounding.

Cooper is okay and playing great! Outscoring UCI 8-4 by himself.

I haven't seen them play either, but their record so far is very strange. They won 10 of their first 11 preseason games and I was thinking, same old Tritons, but they then lost to a weak San Diego team. In league play they lost to Fullerton, Cal Poly and CSUN, but they are the only team that has beaten Hawai`i so far. Maybe they had a key injury or two? I'll be digging into it more before we play them on Jan. 22.

I also wonder what happened to San Diego?

I'm copying the current Big West standings that BlueGold already posted elsewhere. The most interesting point is that seven schools are all bunched together at or close to .500. The other teams cap the top and the bottom with two top teams, with Hawai`i taking over first place last night and two bottom teams and, sadly, two of the Aggies three losses came against teams with losing records. The good news is that the third seed is open to anyone, the bad news is that UCI comes into town on Saturday.

Hawai'i (5-1)
UC Irvine (5-1)
CSUN (4-3)
UC San Diego (3-3)
UC Davis (3-3)
UC Santa Barbara (3-3)
Long Beach State (3-3)
Cal Poly (3-4)
Cal State Fullerton (3-4)
CSU Bakersfield (2-5)
UC Riverside (1-5)

I suspect he has some slight injury problems. Not so bad as to keep him out of the game but it might be affecting his shooting of his long range jumpers. Clearly, when he does not have to move much he can hot his shots.

That was an overall pretty sad exhibition of basketball but a win is a win. Thank goodness for Conner Sevilla, although he only made one field goal, his free throw shots held off a bad loss to the surging Titans.

De Luna, #24 is hitting only 4 of 25 (16%) of his free throws this season. If it comes down to it, he'd be the one to foul.

This game is hardly marked by proficiency by either team. The Titans are less proficient, though. The two teams have combined to make just 4 of 20 treys only 1 of 7 from Fullerton. Both team are under 70% from the line. They've combined for 25 turnovers. The winning features for UC Davis are great defense, a big rebounding edge and hitting 467% from the inside the arc. My one fear for the second half is that Fullerton's offense will explode the way Cal Poly's did last week. A team that scores almost 90 points a game is not going to be held to 24 points for another full half.