No Cooper or Chapelle in the starting lineup, but only Coach Les knows why. I know that coaches tend to reward good practices by giving the player a start?

The only reason that I can see that makes sense in not starting Cooper was that Coach Les wanted to send him a message that he needs to put more effort in his game. He seemed kind of lackadaisical recently. His only good game recently was against Riverside and we won that one by no coincidence. If he steps it up, we've got a real chance against the Gauchos.

If the Aggies can only play as well as they did against Irvine, they've got a chance to win this one. A long shot, but a shot nonetheLes.

Just watched the reply and have three observations: 1. I see that Jaden Alexander, who scored 35 up in Davis, was hurt and out of this game. 2. The Aggies outscored CSUB 31-15 in the last 9:30 of the game by playin good defense and making a whole lot of free throws. 3. I take this game as a bad sign because they barely got by a team that los to Cal Poly 104-79.

"I feel a bit Schizophrenic texting to myself!" Sorry I wasn't there to engage in our usual dialogue.

Deepest apologies I totally messed up on the time and paid the price because I missed it entirely, thinking it was on at 4:30 here. Glad they won, but doesn't seem like they played very well.

Irvine and Hawai`i are pretty evenly matched no matter where they play. In Hawai`i the Rainbow Warriors won on a buzzer beater. Last night it went into overtime at UCI after Hawai`i tied it in regulation with two last second free throws but the Eaters won 87-76 to take sole possession of first place. I wouldn't want to bet on who wins the tournament between those two, but I'd bet that it comes down to those two.

This team is certainly hard to figure out. We know they can play outstanding defense because we saw it against Irvine. They say that defense travels well and can be a consistent strength. It was no surprise that the shooting cooled off in the second half simply by the law of averages after a hot opening. When the offense struggles it seems that the defense would strengthen, but ours collapsed. I don't think it had anything to do with the strategy, so I don't blame the coaching. I just saw a lack of effort. They let the Matadors inside too easily then often fouled when they were shooting from there.

I wonder how many points CSUN got in the paint, including the free throws they made after an Aggie foul on the shot? The interior defense was disgraceful. I'm guessing that it was well over 40 because of their 84 points, 30 came on long distance and they hardly shot any mid range Js. So 30 points on layups and 10 on free throws.

At the 4:24 minute mark left, the Ags have scored only 16 points in the second half and trail by 18. This one is over.

I take back what I wrote earlier, the commentators are as bad as the camera work was. The camera work has improves, the commentators remain very biased.

Offense too.

This is easily the worst half of basketball I've seen all season. Their inconsistency is mystifying and discouraging.

I've lost count but it feels like CSUN has gotten a lot of And Ones thanks to Ags lazy defense.

It's getting ugly and Matadors now making free throws. The Aggies have depth but really lack discipline on both ends of the court.

Te difference in the game is literally the free throws of which the Ags have made 4 more. The turnovers are starting to even out, but the Ags have been pretty sloppy with their passing. One thing the Ags are doing is tying up the ball on defense. I don't think those count as turnovers because of the alternating possessions, but if all of the tie-ups are by the Ags on defense it is effectively a turnover, no?c

I vote for the camera work. It's amatuerish.

Starting out as a shoot-out. 20-13, UCD after only 5 minutes. At this rate, the Ags will easily hit triple digits.

Hawai`i travels to Irvine today. A win puts the Anteaters in the driver's seat.

Were you guys able to see some of those foul calls or missed calls on replay in the arena? Both Scott Marsh and Sandy Simpson pointed out a few of them.