Wondering if Gonzo will be back. I agree that logically this will be an up hill battle. But I always think back a few years when UCI beat us by 30 and a week later we beat them to win the BWT. And we do seem to be playing better on the road this year (for whatever reason). Hopefully we give it an A+ effort.

Maybe the road will bring out the best in us again tonight. We'll need it! The game will be televised on ESPN3.

Go Ags!

Current Big West Standings for Men's Basketball

Weird schedule; finish with Irvine and Fullerton before we see UCSB

Pepper everywhere.

Started out looking good, UCI taking 10 point lead with lights out shooting

Down 20 now with 15 to go; this got outta hand quickly before the half and since

Starting to get ugly. Is there a good movie on?

Ags cut the lead to 13 with less than 9 minutes to go.

6 points down now. Thought it would go to 4 but MN took an extra step. 3:47 left; plenty of time if you get stops.

Didn’t get those stops; lose 83-72

Good effort during the last 5 mins, but UCI in control most of the game. They are really good.

At lest the Aggies hung in there and did better than they did in the Pavilion.

I didn't get to see the whole game. What happened to Mooney?

Joe's been in a big of a shooting slump lately. He's gone through those before so I hope he comes out of it pretty soon.

it seems like he’s having trouble getting open against someone of the more athletic teams. Fullerton took him out of the game almost completely the first time; he only had a couple attempts in the first half last night. We could really use a slasher to draw the defense in and open up the outside.

I wish both Adeybayo and Fuller would be more consistent on the offensive side. Both will make a move or two that's really impressive, then they will disappear for a while. If either one becomes more consistently aggressive driving to the basket, then that would open up the outside for both Joe and Stephan.

The conference teams have have figured out how to defend us since we rely so much on our 3 point shooting. They're really sticking to Mooney and Gonzalez like glue...fighting through screens and playing them very tight. Joe needs a little more space to get his shot off since he tends to lean forward a bit with a long, left hand push on the shot on the 3 but he does have a fall away short jumper in his arsenal. Gonzalez has a very quick release and tends to go straight or or even falling away a bit.

We're the best 3 point shooting team in the conference but the problem for us is that we don't have an interior game that teams really have to respect and the better conference teams are more balanced in their offensive attack. For example, in the first game against Irvine they pummeled us in the paint 40-12. We did a much better job defending them inside in the second game but, since they weren't scoring at will inside, they took what we were giving them on the outside and were knocking down 3's. We pretty much live and die by the 3.

DrMike, It seems to me that Ezra Manjon is a slasher, but when he gets inside, he rarely passes the ball out. I noticed the same tendency with TJ Shorts. Having never been a point guard myself, I can only imagine that one of the more difficult assists to make is that pass to the perimeter. Still, it would be great if he could do it. The turnover risk is high, though, so maybe Coach Les discourages it?

When a PG gets deep into the paint and surrounded by bigs collapsing on him it is tough to make the kick-out pass but Ezra does that at times. He's going to be one of the top candidates for Freshman of the Year in the Big West. I really like how he is driving and hitting that short, fall away jumper now too. Pepper is really gaining confidence also and his offensive game is growing. These two are going to lead the way for us in the next 3 years. Now we need to get some solid contributions from some wings and a in the post.