The Rainbow Warriors (12-6, 4-3) went 2-0 on their last trip to the mainland, defeating UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton. This trip looks a little tougher, with a game with UC Davis up near Sacramento followed by a Saturday night clash at UC Irvine in Orange County. Hawai’i went 1-1 at home last week, getting routed by CSUN but turning things around with a win over CSU Bakersfield. The ‘Bows are shooting 47.6% on the season, tops in the Big West. That includes a league-best 49.7% in Big West games.
The Aggies (11-8, 5-3) had a successful trip to the Central Coast last week, winning at both Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara. TY Johnson has averaged 29.0 points over the last three games to raise his conference-leading scoring average to 21.2 points. Johnson is 3rd in the country in free throws and free throw attempts (8.5 per game). UC Davis is 12th in the nation in forcing turnovers at 16.1 per game.
A small kerfuffle broke out on X Thursday night after Cal Poly lost its 45th consecutive Big West regular season game. Some guy posted that the Mustangs had tied the NCAA record held by Grambling State, which I had debunked the other night, and he tagged a bunch of mid-major college basketball accounts in the process. Cal Poly play-by-play man Chris Sylvester jumped in, basically saying, “Wut?” To clear things up, Cal Poly has the longest “active” conference streak and it’s the 3rd longest of all time. Colgate is 2nd at 47 (1984-87) and U. of Chicago lost 60 in a row 1940-46. The Mustangs (6-13, 0-7) weren’t expected to have this continue based on their non-conference body of work, but here we are.
Another 3-pt second quarter. Funky. — Russ Bowlus