I watched the whole second half and it seemed like Purdue was playing at half speed. Their big center kept bringing the ball down and getting stripped, part of the Boilermakers 16 turnovers that offset a 43-33 rebounding edge. The whole half I watched, Purdue could not figure out the Knights defense and missed a hole lot of 3s, (5/26) shooting late. FDU was not that great on offense, but they just out-hustled Purdue.

With UCSB out, my tendency is to root for the far west teams, of which St. Mary's, Gonzaga, UCLA, Arizona State (at least as I write this), and San Diego State are still alive. Beyond that I'll jump on the Cinderella (Furman, Princeton, FDU) bandwagon if any of them make it to the Sweet 16.

I was distracted a bit in the second half, but I watched in dismay as the Bears built their lead. I am in some disagreement over the size disparity because Baylor did not have that much an advantage especially among the starting five. I wonder if a bigger problem was the altitude of Denver? Baylor is in the Big 12 which has several schools at an elevation of over 1000 feet, whereas UCSB plays most of its games at closer to sea level. Maybe the Gauchos ran out of gas, namely oxygen gas.

Looks like you're right about the Gauchos drives. On the other hand, Baylor is slicing through the UCSB defense with surprising regularity. If Norris can get his offense going, though I like Santa Barbara's chances. He hasn't even tried one shot through most of the first half. Baylor leads 22-19.

ESPN gives the Gauchos a 9.4% chance of upsetting Baylor on Friday.

UCI missed 56 shots in their loss to Oregon! The Ducks missed 40 themselves, setting up a game in which their were 100 rebounds.

Gotta root for the Big West! Here is what Jay Bilas predicts for UCSB's first round game: "Winner: Baylor. The Baylor guards are just too good."

I can't see rotating the venue every year. First, as ucdboyd points out, many of the campuses have pretty small gyms. Second, I don't think the conference wants to expense of flying out to and staying in Hawai`i once every ten years. Third, ten years is a very long cycle. I think Henderson is fine, since no team has a special advantage of being very close and only one team, Hawai`i, is seriously disadvantaged, but that would be the case anywhere in California as well.

UC Santa Barbara at a 14 seed will play Baylor, 3 seed, in Denver. Seth Davis of CBS thinks the Gauchos will pull an upset.

Manjon got 16 points and dished 7 assists in the lost cause for Vanderbilt.

Fullerton put up a pretty good fight, but the Gauchos have too much firepower. I hope they get higher than a 15 seed.

I wouldn't be surprised if Fullerton won, given how late the game was today. Maybe a difference of 2 hours rest is not that big a deal, but the Gauchos have depth issues and Fullerton is well rested given that two of their last three regular season games were cancelled. Plus the Titans beat UCSB 74-60 at Santa Barbara only a few weeks ago. Even so, I would prefer that UCSB represent the Big West in the NCAAs because they have more talent.

I'm really surprised that UCI lost. I didn't see it, but from the boxscore it's clear that the two teams were evenly matched and it came down to Fullerton making 5/6 free throws in the last minute. If Riverside beats Santa Barbara, then both top seeds are out, to state the obvious.

Not possible for any of us to say why so many players left last year. I can only speculate that most of them were not getting enough playing time. The exceptions being Manjon and Fuller. We've already speculated that Manjon wanted to see how well he could do in a Power 5 Conference school and Fuller was a grad transfer.

I'd like to think that Pepper, as well as most players, will stay due to the many positives of continuity, earning a degree from a high quality university, loyalty to team-mates, playing for a good coach and all the attractions that the Davis campus has. That being said, the attraction of playing for a higher level program is a strong one. Does anyone know if Pepper would be a graduate student next year?

Yes I know, I was counting all transfers, both in and out, in regard to both Anigwe and Fuller.

I've cancelled my ESPN+ subscription until fall and football. If I watch any more of the tournament, it will only be the finals on ESPN2. Then, of course, March Madness during which I will be rooting for the Big West team whoever it is.

Over the last few years, I've noticed that Coach Les usually does pretty well in getting transfers and it more than balances out the losses. Look who he has this year who all transferred (If my memory serves): Milling, Beasley, Johnson, Anigwe, Henry and Rocak. I think our only major loss to transfer were Fuller and Manjon, right?

A fitting end to this one: An air ball from Beasley. I disagree with Richie Schueler, the color commentator who said that the UCR defense should get credit for the Ags poor shooting. A 1 for 16 performance from the arc is not the result of good defense. It's just bad shooting. I've gotta say that the guys choked.

At this point, I just want them to make the final score respectable...

Our rebounding edge is offset by the turnovers. The main difference is that the Highlanders are making their shots and we're not. Not only 3s but lay-ups. UCD is 33% from the field. The only way they turn this around is if they suddenly get hot from 3.