Ags down 33-26 at the half and not playing well at all. We've been in a rut lately, especially on offense, and it appears that we are still in it. Eli is off his game again too.

San Diego just beat Irvine 92-88 in overtime in a great ball game between the 2 best teams in the conference. SD is now tied with Irvine for first place. The Tritons are 12-1 on their home court which is the best in the conference.

Bryce Pope hit a long, contested 3 with 0.7 left in regulation to send the game into OT. Both teams have deep benches. SD had two starters foul out with 5:30 to go in regulation and still managed to win the game. I think Pope is a candidate for POY in the BW along with Pepper. He had 32 today.

One thing to note about Pepper - he had SEVEN steals last night. That’s an incredible feat. And he’s the reason Leo was so wide open on his threes. — DrMike

His ability to be an impact player with his hustle, movement away from the ball and defense even when his shots aren't dropping is what makes him a very special player. He puts his teammates and winning ahead of his own numbers.

The announcer kept referring to Milling as “the freshman.” Finally I asked my wife why they were calling him a freshman? She laughed and said he’s saying “Frenchman” not “freshman,” lol. — agalum

I heard Freshman also! — DrMike

:rofl:

The Bakersfield game will not be easy either. The Runners have play hard and are very athletic. We needed OT to beat them as did Long Beach and they only lost to Irvine in the final seconds.

I think a top 4 seed means a lot. Non-seeded teams would have to win 4 games in 4 nights which is a huge disadvantage and even being a 4 or 3 seed means you have to win 3 games in 3 nights. It's a big advantage being the the #1 or #2 seed since you only have to win 2 games in 2 nights to win the tournament and the #1 and #2 seeds will have a distinct advantage of being more physically fresh for their games.

2/22 Scores:

Aggies 66 CSUN 65
Irvine 81 Santa Barbara 69
San Diego 77 Riverside 65
Long Beach 79 Bakersfield 66
Fullerton 68 Cal Poly 50

Current standings:

Yes, it will go in the W column but "Aggies escape" tells more of the story of this game against a team that had lost 23 straight games. The Aggies had an 18 point lead at the start of the 4th quarter and CSUN cut it to one with 18 seconds to go.

66-65 Aggies win. Give the game ball to TY and DeBruhl. Our FT defense was great too! The Matadors were only 16-29 from the line.

Who would have thought that we could still win with Pepper in a shooting slump? He only had 4 points tonight on 1-10 shooting. So he only has 13 points total in his last 2 games. He's contributing on defense and assists but we really need him to get back rolling on offense.

Offense is out of sync. CSUN scored 22 of their 29 points in the paint. We are unable to stop their dribble penetration. It's not looking good at all.

31-22 Aggies at the half.

Ooof...the Aggies got drilled today 20-4 by BYU.

Ice cold shooting for both teams as the Aggies trail CSUN 11-10 at the end of the first quarter. The Matadors only shot 22% but the Ags weren't much better at 23% and 6 TO's already.

I’m hoping we can get a top four seed now. — DrMike

I'm hoping for a top 4 seed also but it's going to be very difficult. Irvine and San Diego continue to play well consistently and Riverside, Hawai'i and Bakersfield are playing much better now while we're currently headed in the wrong direction.

It appears that teams have decided that the way to beat the Aggies is to shut down Pepper as much as possible and dog him constantly from start to finish in order to make the rest of the team try and beat them. We're seeing a box and one used on him a lot now and Riverside really bothered him with it in this last game. They were sticking to him like glue, trapping him and face guarding him and they were effective in preventing him from getting into a rhythm.

The Ags average 71.1 ppg as a team. Pepper is averaging 21.1 ppg and Johnson 16.8 so they combine for 37.9 ppg which is 53.3% of our total offense. We struggle to keep the offense flowing when teams are effective in limiting either or both of them.

Les has said that Mani has the potential to be the best big man he has ever coached according to a comment made by Scott Marsh on an ESPN+ broadcast when we saw Mani enter a game for a couple of minutes earlier this year. The key word here is "potential." Unfortunately, he's been injured for the most part of the 2 years since he came here and we've only seen him take the floor in 3 games this year for a total of 14 minutes.

My guess is that he may not be physically ready yet to play extended minutes. I think he would be eligible for another medical redshirt year. Generally, college players have 6 years of eligibility to play 4 from the time they enroll when including redshirt and/or medical redshirt years.

2/17 scores:

Riverside 67 Aggies 61
Long Beach 87 CSUN 73
Santa Barbara 77 Hawai'i 71
San Diego 76 Fullerton 69
Irvine 77 Bakersfield 71

Current standings:

Santa Barbara 77 Hawai’i 71 - Final. Hawai’i is such a different team on the road.

32-27 Riverside at the half.

Off to another poor start…cold as ice, getting ponded on the boards and no offensive flow…

Remember that his extra year was the Covid year though.