Poly is the biggest surprise of the season so far...huge turnaround for them this year. Another team looking way up is Bakersfield. They brought in a bunch of new talent and are not going to be an easy out in the conference. Not surprisingly, the team that looks to be the team to beat at this point is Irvine. They are already playing in mid-season form.

Great set of action photos from the game here:

https://gculopes.com/galleries/mens-basketball/mbb-vs-uc-davis/3528

GCU coach, Bryce Drew, was not happy with his team:

Our performance, from beginning to end, just wasn't good," Drew said. "After the ASU game (a Thursday loss), obviously it was a big letdown. I think some of that letdown came over into the game. But we have mature players. They should be able to bounce back. We've just got to get better. We're not the team we want to be. We're not even close, but it's a long way off to March, and this team has a lot of room to improve.

When you play with an edge, you're dangerous," Drew said. "They (the Aggies) played with an edge. This team played with an edge for 30 games last year. Unfortunately, the edge was not there for 40 minutes tonight. It was there for eight.

Our defense has been really disappointing," Drew said. "We couldn't execute our system. We couldn't execute what we practiced. Stuff is going to change. We're not going to keep living and watching this out there. Guys have to start executing our system, and it's got to mean more to them.

We have too good of players," Drew said. "We invest too much in this program. We work too hard to come into one of our games in front of our fans and go 4 for 25. Not acceptable

https://gculopes.com/news/2024/11/20/mens-basketball-unfamiliar-adversity-hits-gcu-with-home-loss.aspx

Official attendance was 7002.

WHAT HEAD COACH JIM LES HAD TO SAY

"If we can play like that and win here on the road, we can win anywhere … I thought the team was so connected, even in times of adversity, and we stayed composed. When we absolutely needed to have a play, on either end of the floor, we came up with it.

"Niko was a monster; he affected so many plays at the rim. Pablo with the big block at the end. Connor with the minutes off the bench. I thought Nils was awesome defensively; he allowed us to switch a lot of things and sit down and guard.

"Just so proud of these guys. Totally a team win … That is Aggie Basketball at its best."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/11/20/mens-basketball-aggies-stun-gcu-snap-lopes-18-game-home-winning-streak.aspx

It's always good to beat Sac soundly. We did have 25 TO's which really needs to get cleaned up though.

Arizona State 93 Cal Poly 89
Gonzaga 84 Long Beach 41
UTEP 79 Santa Barbara 76

Great win tonight. GCU played poorly but this is certainly a glimpse of how good the Ags can be this year — Oldbanduhalum

GCU shot poorly from 3. We're not going to play many teams who only shoot 4-25 from 3. Our defense bothered them for much of the game and we scored 22 points off their 18 TO's but then they got after us in the second half and forced 18 TO's of their own for the game.

Signature win in a tough place to play. The Ags broke GCU's 18 game home winning streak. Great contributions by everyone who got into the game tonight. One thing for sure, no team will play harder than the Ags in the Big West Conference. Aggie Pride tonight!

Another TO by the Ags...they have completely lost focus...

GCU has all the momentum...Ags need to regain their poise or they are going to give this game away.

3 straight TO's by the Ags and the lead is down to 7....really sloppy play for the last 6 minutes by the Ags...

He drained a back-to-back 3's and then said something to the Grand Canyon bench.

Leo is playing great. He just canned a step back 3 ala Eli Pepper...

Lousy luck for those guys. We haven't really seen what Mani can do in the time he has been here due to injuries and Roberson hasn't even been able to suit up.

Tamba has really improved a lot and it's great to see Leo finally draining some 3's.

A couple of weeks ago DrMike said Borra and Roberson were injured along with Mani.

46-35 Aggies at the half.

Best half of basketball of the season for the Ags. Great defense from the start, crisp passing and excellent, disciplined offense. We'd be up even more if we could have canned a few more of looks we had right at the rim.

Vegas has the Ags as 16.5 point underdogs tonight. It's been a long time since the Aggies pulled a big upset. We can play some good defense but we're not a polished offense yet. Our 3 point shooting has not been good at all so far this season either and we need the to improve in a big way.

I sure hope he has a year of eligibility left and, if we're lucky, maybe he could end up in as a UCD grad student. As good as he is though, he might well go the route that Teddye Buchanan took and end up at as a grad student at a bigger school.