Giving credit to the Matadors, they're a lot better this year. Their defense was very good. Adams is a great addition, noting that he was 5 for 9 from the arc and had 28 points. Also, Keonte Jones ripped down 20 boards. When was the last time that happened against us? On the other hand, the Ags continue to struggle from the floor and I note that their assist to turnover ratio in their last two games is 16:28. BlueGold was right about not covering the 8.5 spread. Dr. Mike was right about not being able to win shooting under 30%. Coach Les has to figure out how to right the ship before it sinks.

I'd like to see TY pull up for a short J instead of trying to force a shot inside, even if he draws a foul. He's only 6 for 9 from the free throw line in this game.

Nicole? Did you mean Nico Rocak?

Aggies down 34-25 at the half and it could have been worse. Seems like the guys are in a collective shooting slump these last two games. CSUN is playing solid defense, but that's no excuse for a 6/24 effort by UC Davis. Rocak, DeBruhl and Tamba have a total of 4 points between them and TY is 1 for 5. They can still turn this around. Focusing on Mani, I get the impression that his basketball IQ is not very high, as if lacks experience or something. He had 2 turnovers, foul and a goal-tending call on plays when he should have played smarter.

The thing about sports is that you never know for sure what's going to happen. Go Ags! Sevilla drains two treys in a row and defensive rebounding seems better. Trouble is, everyone else is 0 for 5.

That group behind the Aggie bench was there deliberately, making a lot of noise during the timeouts to interfere with the coach's instructions. It's consistent with the Bakersfield brand of sportsmanship. Extra glad there's only one more visit there. Hope they never schedule them again for anything.

Games of Jan. 2:

UC Irvine (11-2/2-0) 98, Cal Poly (home, 6-9/0-3) 89 OT
CSUN (9-4/2-1) 95, CSU Fullerton (home, 4-10/0-3) 65
UC Riverside (10-5/1-2) 76, Long Beach State (home, 6-9/2-1) 60
UC Santa Barbara (9-5/1-2) 64, Hawai’i (home, 8-5/0-2) 61

Cal Poly is going to be tough to beat at home as shown by taking the Anteaters to overtime.
I watched the second half of the Hawai`i game. The Gauchos built an 13 point lead with a 15-0 run in the second half and almost blew it at the end making only one field goal over the last 7 minutes.

I've said it before, but the Aggies have trouble playing team ball on offense. They only had 5 assists but that is not unusual. They had only 5 against Pepperdine. In fact, with the exception of the Oregon State game they have single digits in assists i every loss this season. Between that, the lack of rebounding at both ends and poor outside shooting (4 of 21) there's a lot of blame to spread around. Things will only get harder Saturday vs.CSUN.

Tamba was a non-factor in this game (4 pts. no rebounds) until the end, but the rest of the team failed to give TY much offensive support with Sevilla's 10 and no one else in double figures. Ugly game, ugly place to play, ugly commentators and even their PA announcer was trying to rattle TY's foul shooting.

Ags shooting has really tailed off so that they're just about even now around 35%. It's clear that UCD is not comfortable playing in this kind of game, both last year and this year.

Don't think much of the Roadrunners TV guys. They're about the worst homers in the league asking for fouls on the Bakersdfield players. One of them was calling Rocak "Mani" in the second half. They also have made a bunch of mistakes on the number of fouls on Aggie players.

Both Mani and Sansgter looked a lot better against CMA, but I guess that shows the difference in quality of the opposition. I'm betting we don't see Mani again in this one. Seems like Rocak wasn't in the game as much as usual. Wonder if he's okay?

You're right. The zebras weren't calling much earlier, then a swarm of phantom phouls.

Is the box score right? It shows that the Ags are holding CSUB to 12.5% (2 of 16) shooting!

Game of Dec. 30:

UC Irvine (away, 11-2/1-0) 71, Cal Baptist (7-7) 63

Lancers auditioning for future Big West slot?

Game of Dec. 29:

UC Riverside (home, 9-5/2-0) 81, St. Thomas (10-5) 79 OT

Games of Dec. 28:

UC Santa Barbara (home, 8-5/0-2) 89, Westcliff (5-5) 72
UC San Diego (home, 121-2/2-0 )109 , Occidental (4-5) 50
CSUN (home, 9-4/1-1) 87, La Sierra (0-16) 52
CSU Fullerton (home, 5-9/0-2) 93, Nobel (1-10) 60

FYI, Nobel is NCAA Div. 2, Occidental is in NCAA Div. 3, the others are NAIA schools. Looks like the Big West wanted some easy wins before league play.

Now I'm only watching to see if Prongos scores.

I have to confess that the main reason I'm still watching is to see if the Ags can break the school record.

As hard as it was to see the Aggies get blown out by Pepperdine, it's not much fun seeing them outscore an overmatched team at a 3:1 ratio. But I'll take it. If UCD keeps scoring 3 points a minute they'll wind up with over 120. The school record is 123.