Tuesday March 7
First Round Scores

#5 UC Riverside 92 #8 UC Irvine 60
#6 Hawai'i 71 #7 Cal Poly 50

Wednesday March 8
Second Round Games

#5 UC Riverside vs #4 UC Santa Barbara
#6 Hawai'i vs #3 CSUN

Wednesday March 8
Second Round Scores

#3 CSUN 71 #6 Hawai'i 64
#4 UC Santa Barbara 81 #5 UC Riverside 71

Friday March 10
Semifinal Games

#1 Aggies vs #4 UC Santa Barbara
#2 Long Beach State vs #3 CSUN

So there's a "UC bracket" and a "CSU bracket."

Friday March 10
Semifinal Games

#1 Aggies vs #4 UC Santa Barbara 12 noon. Live stream on ESPN3

#2 Long Beach State vs #3 CSUN 2:30 pm. Live stream on ESPN3

Sac Bee feature article on Coach Jen Gross and her husband, assistant coach Joe Teramoto:

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/ailene-voisin/article137599043.html

Aggies up on the Gauchos 30-29 at halftime. GO AGS!

Aggies are down 52-45 at the end of the 3rd. Gonna need a comeback now.

Just rename us UCNIT already

One and done

UCSB pulls off the upset and beat the Aggies 73-59

Returning all of our starters and and getting one of the top HS centers next year really takes the sting out of it a little. Let's go win the WNIT.

Still though, I have 3 semifinals to watch today and this was supposed to be the easiest W. Might end up being a rough day...

The old adage that it's tough to be a team 3 times in one season held true today for the Aggies. You have to give the Gauchos credit though. They beat the Aggies in all phases of the game and particularly on defense. They were jumping the passing lanes the whole game and the Aggies just kept throwing soft, telegraphed passes that got stolen and led to points off TO's for SB. The Gaucho guards were too quick for the Aggies to handle as they penetrated into the lane off the dribble time and time again.

This has to be a bitter pill for the Aggies to swallow. They beat themselves with TO's as much as UCSB beat them. At halftime, Coach Gross said the Ags had to take better care of the ball but they continued to make some critical, poor passes in the second half.

Bonnie Henrickson has turned the SB program around in just two years. She brought in several D1 transfers like Drew Edelman from USC, Drea Toler from Oregon and Sarah Porter from Ole Miss . They'll be a force next year.

The Ags future looks bright with only one senior leaving the team and some nice recruits coming in. The biggest problem I see that the Aggies have is a lack of quickness in the front court. We have relatively big guards that have trouble defending smaller more athletic guards like UCSB has. I'm not sure how Jen Gross will be able to address that next year.

As disappointing as this loss is, at least we're off to the WNIT where we might have a better chance at winning a game or two.

Go Ags!

Bonnie Henrickson is on the fast track of putting UCSB women's basketball back on the map after several dreadful years under their previous coach. She has 5 D1 transfers on this year's team and they are a relatively young team overall so they'll be in the mix next year too.

One thing I noticed as a difference between Henrickson and Jen Gross is what they say after a loss. Jen was very complimentary about how UCSB played and what they did that made the difference in the game. She also was gracious in her comments about the Aggies and praised them for the goals they accomplished already this season and didn't dwell on this disappointing loss.

http://www.bigwest.org/userfiles//2017%20UCSB-UCD%20Quotes.pdf

In a post-game TV interview after the Aggies beat the Gauchos in Santa Barbara this year, Henrickson had nothing to say about the Aggies win even when the UCSB TV commentator kept saying how impressed he was with the Aggies. Instead, she groused about what her team did not do that she said made it easy for the Ags.

Henrickson may have turned things around at UCSB but I'm glad we have a coach like Jen Gross at the helm of the Aggies. She's humble when we win and supportive when we lose and gives credit to our opponents for what they did well. Not so much for Henrickson.

The Aggies have put in a bid to host a first round WNIT game. I'm not sure what our chances are to get a home game but it would be great if we do. A big home crowd and a noisy environment would be awesome for the team and for Aggie fans.

Great set of photos from the game:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/BigWestConference/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10155128951287743

Post game coaches comments:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/BigWestConference/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10155128951287743

Long Beach State nipped UCSB 56-55 to win the Big West Tournament and a ticket to The Big Dance.