They're playing like a veteran team. Great patience on offense, solid defense and the twins went wild.

I expect that CSUN will play zone like Irvine did and do everything they can to make things tough for Morgan. Irvine played her very physical and I expect Fluker will do the same. Morgan has gotten so much stronger this year. She's able to take hard fouls and still finish with an and one. She can also step out and hit the 3 so we might see may see the Age with both Stobbart and Bertsch on the floor at the same time. It will be important for the Ags to hit some 3's to stretch the zone.

Link for the ESPN3 live stream:

http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3475555/uc-davis-vs--cal-state-northridge

Go Ags!

Irvine beat Hawaii 75-74 in OT in a great basketball game. Both teams looked really good. The Aggies will need to bring their A+ game to have a chance against the Warriors.

In other Big West games Riverside blew out Poly 74-51 and CSUN shellacked Long Beach 86-71.

Thanks for the info. No doubt that this will be a very tough game for the Aggies. Hawaii doesn't lose often at home.

I hope the quality of his education is really important to him because, if it is, UCD has a lot more to offer.

https://herosports.com/fcs/football-top-returning-passers-jake-maier-bzbz

The big man throws it down:

This was a much needed and well deserved victory. The Ags could buy a shot in the first half and they let Poly dictate the flow of the game. Nice to see Siler lead the way and Neufeld, Mooney and Gonzalez really stepping up.

Now we hit the road for 4 games beginning in Hawaii. It's gonna be a grind...

31-22 Poly at the half. Ags shooting 36% and 0-4 from 3. In a word...ugly...

Good point. Irvine is very athletic and active but the Aggie defense has been good so far.

Impressive half by the Ags against a very aggressive, pressing zone defense. 8-16 from 3 helps!

Tough, swarming defense by Irvine. They’re doing a good job denying the ball to Morgan

Coaches comments from the game:

“This is a great win for us against a very good UC Davis team,” said Gaucho head coach Joe Pasternack. “I think Jim Les is one of the best coaches in America and for us to get a win on the road is big in this league. It was a team effort, especially on defense. I think we did a great job slowing them down.”

“I believe in the kids in that locker room,” said UCD head coach Jim Les afterward. “We have good integrity in our practices, and we’re in a better place than we were two and a half weeks ago. Our goal is get a little bit better each day, and we’re doing that. We’ve played some of the toughest teams in the conference early, and if we keep improving, we’re going to be a force to be reckoned with.”

“I thought the offensive rebounds really hurt us,” Les noted. “Especially when you’re playing against a good offensive team, giving them extra shots really hurts. Getting those extra chances was really the separation in the game.”

“We’re facing some adversity now, and we’re the only ones who can turn it around,” Les added. “These guys are going to fight, scratch and claw their way out of it. I like a lot of the things this team is doing”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/ucd-men-fall-to-uc-santa-barbara/

Excerpt from Bob Dunning's column:

Many of us were struck by the beautiful photograph of Natalie, arms outstretched, extending a version of the American flag known as the “Thin Blue Line” flag several years before she became a Davis police officer.

Accompanying the photo, Natalie wrote, “I would like this photograph to serve as my gratitude for all those law enforcement men and women who have served, who are currently serving and those who have died in the line of duty protecting our liberties in this great country.”

For many of us, it was the first time we’d seen the Thin Blue Line flag.

The photo was not posted in anger or hatred or defiance or righteousness. It was posted with love and with pride. In it, she looks happy and joyful and free as a breeze, proud in the very best of ways. It is indeed one of the most striking and beautiful photographs I’ve seen in a long time.

Unfortunately, a group of students at UC Davis, known as the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, didn’t want us to hold all those wonderful thoughts about Natalie.

Adding insult to tragedy, they attacked the photo as racist, seemingly because some white supremacists in Charlottesville decided to co-opt that flag as their own.

Associating Natalie with such a group is flat-out wrong and the ECAC knows it, but they simply couldn’t bear to see so much positive attention being showered on a member of the Davis Police Department.

Relations between law enforcement and groups who feel they are being unfairly targeted are a serious topic that deserves our constant concern and attention.

However, 22-year-old Natalie Corona, the pride of Arbuckle and a woman who desired to do good in this world, was precisely the kind of person members of the ECAC should be applauding. They chose instead to attack and attack hard. Their words served only to further the divide.

For now, our love and prayers and our very souls should be turned toward the Corona family, holding them all up as high as we can and thanking them for the gift of Natalie, who died trying to make our town a better place for all of us.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/dunning/bob-dunning-natalie-is-a-gift-we-should-be-thankful-for/

Les has already offered 8 guards and one power 6'11 power forward for 2020 to date according to verbalcommits.com . He has stated that he believes in never leaving his teams wanting for guards...

https://verbalcommits.com/schools/uc-davis

Totally agree. I think this team is still capable of making a run so, hopefully, we won't finish in the bottom of the league. Our ability to attract the type of athletes we need to compete year in and out at a high level, which seems to be falling behind the best teams in the conference, could take a big step backwards if we fall to the bottom of the league.

Amazing turnout and support...

I thought the Ags actually played pretty well for most of the game. Like DrMike posted in the other game thread, we had a short period in the final 5 minutes of the first half where we didn't play well and SB created separation and went up by 12 points. We made a run to get within 3 in the second half but couldn't take the lead.

Both teams played tough defense. I thought the main difference in the game was their 3 point shooting (11-24, 45.8%) and rebounding (37-21) and our poor 3 point shooting (4-15, 27.6%). The Gauchos are very athletic and long and they made a bunch of contested shots. They have players that can create off the dribble and make tough shots with the shot clock running down.

Alabama transfer, Armond Davis. was a one man wrecking ball for them. He hit a bunch of critical shots, was 5-7 from 3 and scored 23 points. He's an elite player and he killed us.

Bright spots:

1. Joe Mooney continues to have a hot hand and is playing incredibly hard. He also made a spectacular, acrobatic layup in traffic while getting fouled very hard and completed the 3 point play. He could be the team's go to scorer next season at the rate he is progressing.

2. Matt Neufeld is getting better with each outing and the Ags are looking to get him the ball on the low post and let him go one on one. He only logged 17 minutes though and the he looked gassed at times with the pace of the game.

3. We defended well for the most part. I'm sure it was discouraging for the Aggies when they play great defense late into the shot clock only to have SB pull up and knock down a tough shot time and time again. That's just a credit to the Gauchos. They are deep with good D1 athletes.

4. We had a decent crowd (3189) considering the team has only won 4 games this year. SB also had a quite a few fans seated behind their team and they were very vocal. Maybe they had a local area reunion or something?

Needs to get better:

1. 3 point shooting. It's been our Achilles heel all season and continues to be so. Joe Mooney is red hot right now but we need more than just Joe. Even though we were matching baskets with the Gauchos at times we were falling behind because we were trading a basket in the paint for a 3 pointer from UCSB.

2. Caleb Fuller has been seeing fewer and fewer minutes lately. I thought he might be playing a bigger role for the Ags by this time in the season but that hasn't happened yet.

3. Les needs to bring in a few more players that match the kind of physical talent that teams like UCSB have. He can usually get the Aggies to simply play harder on defense but teams like the Gauchos have the ability to break down good defenses with their superior athleticism and offensive ability. We saw that last night.

The Gauchos' 3 point shooting and rebounding was the difference in the game and our 3 point shooting was as it has been all season...missing. I thought both teams play pretty solid defense. The Ags didn't play poorly, they just weren't quite good enough to match the talent of the Gauchos.

Ags win 75-51.