ISU has given up big rushing yards this year but they are doing a pretty good job stopping us today. You would think that would open up the passing for us but...nope...

Yards at the half:

Total: Idaho 253 Aggies 171
Passing: Idaho 252 Aggies 62
Rushing: Aggies 109 Idaho 1

Weber State 31 Idaho 29 - Final
Montana State 57 EWU 14 - Final
NAU 28 Northern Colorado 7 - Final
Sac State 31 Poly 23 at the half

The thing that is so frustrating to me is that we make the same mistakes week after week...TO's and an inability hold teams in 3rd and long. It's pretty much been the same all season and it's showing up today big time.

ISU has no respect at all for our defense and the defense is showing us why so far. Couple that with our offense and it could be a very long day.

What the heck is going on with our DB's? They play so loose.

Our offense has struggled in nearly every game and it's continuing today.

Here's a couple more scores of future Aggie opponents:

Utah 82 Riverside 53
Oregon State 81 Troy 80 (2OT)
Oregon 75 Montana 61

I watched the second half of the Montana @ Oregon game and the game was much closer than the final score indicates. Montana went toe-to-toe with the Ducks for the first 30 minutes of the game before Oregon's superior size took over. Montana will be a very tough game for the Aggies. They were impressive against Oregon.

Don't forget watch the Aggies play for the Big West Soccer Championship today at 6 pm on ESPN+ against UC Irvine. Go Ags!

I guess we can call today's family battle "Hawkins vs Hawkins" although it won't bear any resemblance to to another famous, family battle, "Kramer vs Kramer!"

Go Ags!

The Saint Mary's game was an exhibition game so it won't count against their season record.

Saint Mary's has built a powerhouse program by recruiting heavily in Australia and has now established a yearly pipeline to the best players down under. Their current roster has 5 players from Australian plus a transfer from Utah and Harvard. They don't have rebuilding years anymore, they just reload every year.

Recruiting in college basketball has changed a lot in the past few years. We are seeing more and more programs recruiting internationally especially Europe, Australia and even Africa.

Of course, the transfer portal has also figured largely in the way many programs are now building their teams. Portland State, who just beat Santa Barbara, for example, has 10 transfer players out of their roster of 13 total. It's not all that uncommon nowadays to see players in their senior year who have played at 4 different colleges.

Thursday 11/09 games:

CSUN 76, Idaho 73
UC Davis 79, Pepperdine 78
Portland State 82, UC Santa Barbara 76
USC 85, CSU Bakersfield 59
Denver 97, Cal Poly 76

I watched the second half of the PSU win at Santa Barbara. I thought that SB would dominate this game especially with the two, highly rated players the got through the portal from Creighton and Auburn. Both teams were impressive with big, athletic players but PSU was clutch down the stretch and hung on for the win.

PSU 71 Aggies 62 - Final.

After trailing 41-20 at the half, the Ags came to life in the second half and cut the lead to 4 with 53 seconds left but a PSU 3 pointer with 24 seconds to go sealed the deal for the Vikings. The Aggies just dug themselves too big a hole in the first half but made a gallant effort.

This half for the women is like a mirror image of the men’s first half…awful.

The Ags are bewildered by the PSU zone.

22-12 PSU at the end of the first quarter. Jen isn’t happy with what she is seeing…turnovers, porous defense and getting out-hustled.

The first and second halves were like night and day for the Aggies. TY came alive and inspired the team. One of the biggest comebacks that I can remember from the Ags in a very long time.

Ags win 79-78!!!

If you thought the first half against Jessop was bad, I hope you didn’t see this half…this team is totally out of sync.

- No offensive punch other than Pepper
- Johnson and Milling ice cold again
- Multiple missed layups
- 42% from the line
- Out rebounded 19-11
- Lots of defensive breakdowns

This is just bad basing the Aggies.