Attendance is much better than I expected with a good student turnout.

Vegas has us as 8.5 point favorites today with an over/under of 143. I wouldn't be surprised if the game is closer than the spread.

SD is a pretty good basketball team and, despite their overall record, they're capable of beating anyone in the league. I expect that there will only be a very small crowd today so the team won't have a lot of vocal support and I hoping we won't come out emotionally flat and dig ourselves a big hole. We've had to come from behind a lot this year after starting slow. It would be great to see us come out, take control early and maintain a solid lead throughout the game. Go Ags!

My wife and I will be there. Eli could drop another 30 for sure.

The bats finally came alive for the Aggies today as they scored 20 runs on 18 hits to beat Utah Valley 20-4 and gain a split in the 4 game series.

Small comment in the Davis Enterprise from Hawk:

The UC Davis football team returned to the field on Tuesday morning for the first of 15 practices this winter.

The Aggies will conclude the allotted practice sessions on Saturday, March 4.

“I thought the energy and the organization was great,” Aggie head coach Dan Hawkins said. “It is nice to be in a program for a while where guys know what to do. Sometimes they know it better than some of the coaches, which is part of the Davis legacy. There was a lot of good teaching today, it was fun to see.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/local-roundup-uc-davis-football-workouts-under-way/

Other Big West games on Monday:

Hawaii at Bakersfield 5 pm
Irvine at Poly 7 pm
Fullerton at Santa Barbara 7 pm
Riverside at CSUN 7 pm

Current Big West standings:

1. UC Irvine 12-3 19-8
2. UC Santa Barbara 11-4 20-6
3. UC Riverside 11-5 18-10
4.Hawai'i 10-5 19-8
5.Cal State Fullerton 10-6 16-12
6. Long Beach State 9-7 15-13
7. UC Davis 8-7 15-12
8. CSU Bakersfield 6-9 10-16
9. UC San Diego 4-11 9-18
10. CSUN 3-13 6-21
11. Cal Poly 1-15 7-21

Other Big West final scores today:

Hawaii 70 Long Beach 67 (LB barely misses a half court shot at the buzzer)
Riverside 74 Santa Barbara 63 (First time ever that Riverside has swept SB)
Fullerton 83 Poly 62
San Diego 75 CSUN 62

We lost the second game of the double-header 7-1.

The Ags picked up their first win of the season beating Utah Valley 4-2 in the first game of today's double-header.

Proud team effort after a lackluster first half that's for sure.

I loved those confident 3's from both Leo and Christian. We need that kind of offensive support for Pepper who's going to continue to draw a crowd every time he touches the ball. Christian had 5 blocks also...wow!

I listened to Les in the post-game interview. He said he was proud with how hard the Ags kept fighting and their resiliency. He also acknowledged how Pepper keeps finding a way to score despite teams concentrating on stopping him. He said that Pepper is getting bumped and grabbed a lot and he would like to see him get the respect he deserves and get the fouls called when he's getting grabbed and pushed around.

Irvine is a solid basketball team on both ends of the floor and they've got plenty of depth. Their ball movement, especially in the first half, was outstanding and their interior passing is excellent. I think they are the best team in the league overall.

What the heck is up with us getting beat on these outlet passes and easy buckets for Irvine?

We're off to a terrible start down 10-2. Irvine is killing us on the boards and we're having defensive breakdowns again.

The Aggies fell in their opener against Utah Valley 8-1. There was a pretty nice crowd of 532. Hopefully, the Ags can get in the win column tomorrow in a double-header.

First game is at 11 am
Second game starts at 2:30 pm

Go Ags!

I've broken my ribs and cracked them and torn rib cage cartilage several times when I was into mountain biking. There's nothing nothing they do for you when it happens unless the broken rib is damaging some internal organs. It's a slow painful recovery and it's miserable trying to sleep for quite a while. I hope that Losé doesn't have a rib injury.

I wonder if Sione Losé will be available for the game tomorrow. He looked very shaken up after he got fouled hard and crashed into the ESPN cameraman under the basket. He was motionless for 30 seconds or so and, when got up, he was wobbly and needed assistance to get to the training table area. I'm assuming he may have suffered a concussion and was probably placed in the concussion protocol. He didn't return to the game.

Anyone know anything more about what happened and how he's doing?

From the Davis Enterprise article:

Jim Les:

“I wasn’t pleased overall,” said the UCD coach. “Our defensive effort just wasn’t there. At the end of the day, you have to show some pride and some desire. We had some spurts, but we have to get better.”

On Atin Wright scoring 42 points:

“We gave him two wide open looks and that got him going,” Les added.

Commenting on Leo DeBruhl:

“I thought he did a really nice job,” said Les of DeBruhl. “We have a lot of confidence in him.”

Regarding the "mystery" point that was added to the score late in the game:

For unexplained reasons at that point, a “mystery” point changed the score to 61-59 on the scoreboards at both ends of the court. After a bit of discussion, the point remained on the board, even though UCD statisticians and The Enterprise’s own play-by-play tally showed the score to be 61-58.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/basketball-uc-davis-men-too-much-for-matadors-2/

I agree, you would think that would definitely be a forfeiture.

Hickey Gym was always packed and I seemed to remember that it would also get pretty hot in there. Officially, it only had capacity for 900 on the bleachers but I don't think the Fire Marshals were as strict way back then and I seem to remember standing room only at times.

One evening I was at Mr. B's with girl that was as cute as they get and Ham was there having a drink by himself. At one point, he got up and came over to our table and introduced himself and started talking excitedly to us in his raspy voice about the new Rec Hall which was under construction. He said the new facility was going to going to allow the Aggies to move up to the next level of college basketball and he envisioned great things to come for the basketball program.

Just as he was leaving, he turned and looked at me and said, "She's a special one...just look at the twinkle in her eyes." I think she was probably the real reason he came over and started chatting with us.

Speaking of attendance, anyone else notice Chancellor May and wife haven’t been courtside like in the past. — DrMike

I mentioned the very same thing to my wife at the game last night. I don't recall seeing them at any of the games this year but we've missed two games ourselves.