I'll be there Saturday; midweek games are nearly impossible for me.

^Likewise.

Planning on going Thursday and already have my tickets for Saturday.

Finish strong!

All the games are especially important now. The Ags want to be playing well when the BW Tournament is here and the higher the seed the better. My wife and I will be there as always.

Go Ags!

Re: seeding, following MWC basketball this year has made me conscious of how poorly implemented the BWC tournament is.

SDSU struggling to get up to 3rd and avoiding falling to 6th at all costs feels way more critical to tournament success than UCD getting 1st instead of 2nd seed. No byes all but guarantees that even as #1 you'll see a team that can beat you before the tournament championship game. Could happen to the Ags even in the first round if Cal Poly is 7th.

The Big West Tournament is brutal. I'm not a huge fan of these post-season tournaments determining the team that goes to the NCAA. It works for the big power conferences because they send so many of their teams to the Big Dance that it often doesn't matter if you lose in the post-season tournament. So, for the most part, the post-season tournaments for the power conferences are primarily big money makers for the conference. But, in a one bid conference like the Big West, you can win the regular season title and then lose in the post-season tournament and you're out of the NCAA.

Fullerton beat Irvine 56-54 on Wednesday night so the Ags and Irvine each have 4 losses in the BW now. If the Ags beat CSUN they will be tied with Irvine at 9-4 for first place in the conference.

Bob Dunning in the DE yesterday suggested that the team that wins the league should host the tournament. I like the idea.

i liked the old format where the top two teams got two byes, 3-4 got one. at least there was SOME payoff for winning the league (besides a banner).

I totally agree. Each conference should be free to determine who moves on to the Big Dance. And in the case of the BW, it should be the regular season conference champion, IMHO. Our 2014-15 team should have gone dancing. Playing in the NIT that year, against eventual NIT champ Stanford, was a great experience (even if Corey Hawkins was the only offensive weapon to play very well), but I just felt cheated.

Especially since Irvine -- whom we beat by 19 twice -- was 2 points and a questionable foul away from upsetting Louisville in the Ro64. Gotta think that Corey and/or the battalion of 3-pt threats could have clutched that one out in the same situation.

Also slight correction, it was Fullerton that beat Irvine, not Riverside. That's scary because CSUF just pulled a Cal Poly and beat the #1 team two games in a row, and are now in the hunt along with LBSU.

Aggies can clinch by winning out and would possibly get the title by losing one game that isn't to Irvine. If Aggies lose to Irvine they'd have to win everything else and UCI would probably have to pick up another loss, and even then LBSU or CSUF could take it. All other scenarios are too complex to pull from the top of my head.

In other words, just win baby.

Zandy, I think Irvine may have had a few players out at least once when we beat them. I'm not sure your math works on if we played Louisville (I thought it was SMU)... Mamadou and his fellow Big's were formidable... You can see the massive smiles at the post-game interview when the opponents were asked about his impact...Maybe SMU was the year prior.

I read in the Sac Bee today that our home game with Hawai'i will not count as a conference game. I thought it must be an error but I checked our official schedule and the game does not have an asterisk by it which would indicate that it is indeed not a conference game. Huh...?

I checked all the schedules and every team plays 16 conference games and our home game with Hawai'i is the only game which will not count as a conference game. I don't get it...??? :-|

Typo? The women played HI home and away.

edit: Hawaii's website shows it as a BWC game. *shrug*

Irvine was missing their PG and maybe somebody else the first game we played them, but we were Hawk-less. The differential would probably have been over 20 had Les not gotten T-d up in the final minute if memory serves. During the rematch in the regular season finale I think both teams were closer to full strength and it wasn't really a contest after Les made adjustments in the second half.

True, the whole playoff game would have gone differently had the Aggies been in the game. I never thought Mamadou was as big of a difference maker as he was hyped up to be, but maybe that's because Big West defenses got used to him in his second and third year. Still though, I think my point still stands that one way or another UCD would have faced a beatable and potentially underprepared 4-ish seed, and instead had to sit and watch a different team botch an upset opportunity.

The chippy folks over on the Big West Boards say that it is definitely a league game.

I think some paid, alt-right agitator was just getting the liberal Bee to bite on some fake news. SAD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD60yfj0vBI

Lamar just got fouled on a 3 and made iT! I don't think I've seen that on the Ags, ever. That puts him at over 1000 3s

17-11 Ags with 11:32 left in the 1st.

Lamar with 13 of the 24 points, up 26-16 with 7:40 left in the first

Graham passed 400 assists!

On a flagrant (?) foul, Ags up 32-21, 5:48 left in 1st

Killing it from 3 (7 made so far). 39-24 with under 5 mins to go in the 1st

56-38 Ags at the half

Aggies get a little sloppy at the end, wind up beating CSUN 96-85.

The defensive minded Aggies got offensive in tonight's win. They shot 61% for the game overall and 70% from downtown. The Ags were on fire in the first half and put up 56 points on 72% shooting that included 10-12 from 3. We had 91 points with 5 minutes to go and then got sloppy against the Matador's press and got out out of rhythm trying to take time of the clock and fell short of the century mark.

Brynton Lemar was flat out lighting up the Pavilion knocking down 8 of 11 3's and ended up with 28 for the game. Siler Schneider had a terrific game and pumped in 23 while Chima looked like his old self and added 19 to the offensive fireworks. Lamar joined the elite Aggie 1000 career points club and Darius Graham became one of 3 Aggies ever to have 400+ career assists.

The stage is now set for a big showdown in the ESPN game Saturday with Long Beach State. The Beach got upset at home tonight by scrappy Cal Poly so they will be fighting for their lives to have any chance at all in the conference race. If the Ags can continue their hot shooting on Saturday the Pavilion will be loud and rockin'. It should be a great game for Aggie fans in great atmosphere!

Great win! It was fun to see all of those 3's go down! Disappointing crowd, hopefully the place fills up Saturday

I was disappointed with the crowd size also. The official attendance was only 1621. There was a Fanfeast going on also with lots of different kinds of food available. For some reason I hadn't heard about that and had already eaten before coming to the game. I thought it was a great idea and I wish more fans would have come out and supported the Ags and the Fanfeast.

I feel like the men's and women's teams are doing their part...both are in first place and battling for the championship yet we often draw relatively small crowds. I'm not sure what it will take to change the fan culture and have these teams consistently draw good sized crowds. The players and coaches are getting it done...the fans...not so much...

I think that such an effort has been put into promoting the Saturday game that the Thursday game got a little lost.

That's a good point, Obda. Coach Les commented after the game that he felt like this was a "trap game" for the Aggies with all the hoopla about the ESPN game on Saturday. I guess I'm just overly optimistic when it comes to thinking that we're going to have a fan base that is typical of what you would see for a pretty good, mid-major progarm in the midwest. We'd have consistent crowds of 5000 or sell outs if that were the case.

I'd like to see that happen but I don't think it will unless we become the next Gonzaga.