I'm not as pessimistic as fellow Aggie. Even if the scores do't indicate it, the Ags have been in every game in the sense that we could have, should have won, with better free throw shooting and fewer turnovers in other words better focus. We all agreed that we needed more balanced scoring and I note that Milling and DeBruhl hit in double figures yesterday. Pepper and Johnson won't both be that cold very often in the future.

If I were superstitious I would say that my not watching the game in the second half jinxed the Aggies, since they got outscored by 19. But I'm not superstitious, just incredulous that they could play so poorly in the latter 20 minutes. It's not like OSU played especially well, except for their big man, Chol Marial, who seemed to be everywhere, and #4, Dexter Akanno, who did a nice job defending Pepper. That dry spell hurt the most. Not only did they go 9:30 without a basket, but 6:54 without any score. Sad.

Ags also outrebounded the Beavers in the first half.

I was watching an earlier broadcast of the Hawai`i-Utah game with color commentary by Mike Montgomery, who mentioned what a good coach Jim Les is.

Odd that Pepper hasn't scored through most of the first half. He's 0 for 3.

The game starts out here at 5:30 which cuts through my dinner time, so I'll only watch the first half in real time, but see the end well after it's over.

Hard to tell how good Oregon State is at 3-3 with all their victories were against low level schools (although they barely beat a weak Troy team by 1 point in Corvallis) and they lost badly to very good teams with a combined record of 19-2. I think the Ags have more than a fighting chance, though.

The poor free throw shooting is inexcusable. It's 90% psychological once a player has learned the fundamentals of making a free throw. The players need to learn how to focus on the line during the game. Easier said than done, though. I'd be willing to bet that in practice they make 80% of their shots. Does anyone know if the athletic department employs a sports psychologist?

Hard to point to one reason we lost, but the defense was a bit lax and that scoreless stretch near the end did the Ags in. This was a game that UCD should have won. Two positives: Borra looked comfortable playing and was aggressive on offense. Milling made a 3 near the end that shows that he might be gaining some confidence in his shot.

I wonder why Les is not using that zone>man defense that was so effective in Montana. I also wonder where Bob Williams is. No offense to Jason Goff, but he is not contributing much to the broadcast in comparison to Williams.

There have been enough turnovers in this game to fill a bakery.

Borra's in there.

Pending the outcome of tonight's game in Hawaii, Big West teams are 35-25 in pre-conference play. That seems pretty good considering they'e been playing some tough opponents such as Michigan and USC whom they beat and North Carolina and Oregon. I hope that it might open the door to more than one NCAA tourney invitation? Nah.

No, I was a transfer student so I never had to wear a dink.

While I'm looking forward to another game against the Hornets, I want to express my thanks to all of you on this chat site. There is no one I know out here in Hawai'i who is an Aggie fan and all my old friends from Davis are not as enthusiastic about UC Davis sports as I am, so it's great for me to get a chance to share my thoughts here before, during and after football and men's basketball games. Happy Thanksgiving to all! Go Ags!

I'll never forget the game I went to at Sac State when their gym had three times as many UC Davis fans ad Hornet fans and the cheerleaders lead us in a yell: "Welcome to an Aggie home game!"

I would like to share a perspective I’ve long had about being a fan. It seems to me that having placed team sports in the context of national championships has spoiled the original value of the core entity: the individual game. This UCD 2023 season illustrates the point. We were all enjoying the victory over arch-rival Sac State, but only for one day when that joy was ruined by not getting into the FCS playoffs. Maybe it goes too far to suggest that not getting into the playoffs spoiled the win, but I remember the days in the FWC when a simple victory in one game was enough to bring us joy, an upset over a major opponent would make the whole season and a conference title got the whole campus celebrating. Now it is not enough to win a game (and this is for every team sport at the pro and college levels) but your team has to get into the playoffs. For some teams, just getting into the playoffs is not enough, they have to win a national championship (which is why I’m glad I’m not an Alabama fan). On the other hand, for low level amateur athletes such as I was, just being able to play in one game was thrill enough and to win was the best natural high. Placing our sports into the context of national titles has ruined enjoyment of the sport for every fan except the ones who root for the final winner.

No I meant EWU (loss by 3) and Weber (loss by 1), the kinds of games where one play winds up making the difference. (I don't mean one specific play necessarily but any one of a bunch of plays). Against NAU we simply played poorly. Even some of the best teams have a game or two like that, e.g. Washington who barely made it past weak Stanford and Arizona State teams, but are able to pull out a win.

While I'm disappointed, I can't say I'm surprised. As with most of you, I think we were shy one win of getting in. If the Ags could have pulled out one over either EWU or Weber State, that would have done it. I agree, too, that the bad loss to Northern Arizona hurt. It's no consolation being one of the first four out. I still wonder about Hawkins claim that this was his most talented team at UCD.

Hasn't the Big Sky gotten 5 teams into the playoffs in the past?