As of March 11, the NCAA Net rankings have UCSD at 35, UCI at 62 and CSUN at 104, then the rest of the conference well below. While it is possible for any team to get hot and/or lucky and win the Big West Tournament, it is most likely to be one of the top three. With UCSD having such a high rating, the Big West should have two teams in the NCAAs if either CSUN or Irvine wins the tournament. That woud be the first time since 2005. Anyone recall when a Big West team won the national title? Or that it was once called the Pacific Coast Athletic Association?

I wonder how long before UCSD moves to a higher level conference, the WCC or Mountain West?

Amazing how many move out of state but I was suprised that Cal got two of the top 25.

Yes, the play by play commentator was saying enough about UCSD that he had to have been their guiy. It was also annoying how in every time out they kept showing stats abot how great the Tritons were and almsot nothing about the Aggies.

Interesting. Clearly Coach Les figures having Cooper play center against UCSD and Cal Poly is a better matchup than Niko, but it still figures that Niko is hurt. His last few games have not been up to his standards. I'm not confident going into the tournament.

Good observation. At the same time, if Niko was injured, it just could have been that Cooper has been coming on so well lately that Coach Les felt they were better with him in there than an injured Rocak.

Oh. I guess that's why he didn't start last night. That's another thing this year: our big men have been banged up.

Too bad more of the team did not play as well as Leo. Not only TY and Sevilla had off days, but Niko was almost absent with no blocks, 2 points and only 2 rebounds. Daughtery has not been the offensive threat we had hoped he would be this year and contributed only one trey in this game. It was encouraging to see how well Nils Cooper played. His development has been steady through the season and that bodes well for next year. We need better team play if we're going to get very far in the playoffs.

I don't think TY has ever had such a bad shooting night. So far he's 1 for 13 and has yet to get a free throw opportunity. At this point, I'm just hoping the Ags can beat the spread.

Games of Mar. 8

Cal Poly (14-18/8-12) 83, Long Beach State (home, 7-25/3-17) 69
UC Riverside (21-11/14-6) 64, CSU Fullerton (home, 6-26/1-19) 59
CSUN (home, 22-9/14-6) 82, Hawai`i (15-16/7-13) 73
UC Irvine (27-5/17-3) 97, UC Santa Barbara (home, 19-11/11-8) 88

A near upset down in Santa Barbara, but it didn’t matter in the final standings. Fullerton put up a good fight but Riverside was able to grab the 3 seed thanks to their sweep of CSUN to get the tiebreaker. The final standings are set and Cal Poly has managed to secure a playoff berth at Hawai`i’s expense.

The tournament seeds are:

1. UCSD
2. UCI
3. UCR
4. CSUN
5. UCSB
6. UC Davis
7. Cal Poly
8. Bakersfield

Looking in advance to a first round match with Cal Poly, it is worth noting that the Mustangs have become an offensive machine, scoring around 100 points a game in four of their last five.

This game is an example of the Aggie's problems late in the season. The D isn't all that bad (hard to defend a 40% 3 pt. rate from UCSD), but the offense is really poor. Except for DeBruhl, the Ags are 4 for 23 from the floor.

I think Ben Braun is one of the ESPN overall color men for ESPN. He's not a UCSD guy. Not sure about the play by play man.

Ags playing really good defense. Wish I could say the same about the offense, but at least the Ags are hanging in there. Great crowd!

The Tritons are favored by 12.5.

I was mostly agreeing with Bob Williams assessment of the teams performance in the first half when he noted the lack of energy and the body language that suggested the team was demoralized. Still, I agree with you that the guys did not fold in the sense that they gave up in the second half.

I think you've got it right in your last paragraph. The team knows how good UCSD is and won't want to embarrass themselves on national television and in front of a large crowd of their fellow students on senior night. They might not win, but I would be surprised to see them fold like they did against UCI. Go Ags!

It's unfortunate that Roberson only played that briefest of times, because according to the crazy NCAA rules, he can't redshirt. The only freshman to get any amount of playing time this year was 6'9" Isaiah Chappel who got hurt but looked pretty good. He should be a factor next season.

Right. I don't know why I didn't realize this, but the Honolulu paper noted this morning that if Hawai`i loses to CSUN on Saturday and Cal Poly beats the Beach (both likely) then we wold wind up playing Cal Poly. That could be a bigger problem for the Ags than Hawai`i.

Games of Mar. 6

Cal Poly (home 13-18/7-12) 100, CSU Fullerton (6-25/1-18) 69
UC San Diego (home 27-4/17-2) 70, Long Beach State (7-24/3-16) 63
CSU Bakersfield (home, 14-18/7-11) 76, Hawai`i (15-15/7-12) 64
CSUN (home, 20-8/12-5) 94, UC Riverside (home, 19-11/12-6) 79

Some blow-out games today, notably the one that took place in northern California and one upset that puts the 3-4 seeds in doubt. The other “upset” is Hawai`i loss to CSU Bakersfield, which is not huge, but seals the 6th seed for UC Davis, and put the Warriors in jeopardy of falling into 9th.

Ags outscoring UCI in the second half, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Irvine is going to win this one.