As for the men keeping turnovers to a minimum will be vital for the Ags. I'm not a huge fan of Sydney Burns at point - she makes some seriously awful passing decisions - a tendency that hasn't improved a great deal in her tenure at UCD. I think the Aztec small team will test this tendency to toss the ball away. If they are speedy our ability to run may be curtailed.

Turnovers have been the Achilles heel of Jen's teams the past couple of years. PG's should be your best ball handlers and passers and, when they are prone to throwing the ball away, it's a big problem. TO's also have an emotionally negative effect on the team and tend to lead to scoring runs by opponents.

24-21 SDSU at the en of the first quarter.

Both teams are playing well. Sabel has 9 for the Ags but has to sit now with 2 fouls. The Aztecs are a very experienced team. They have two 4th year players, one 5th year and two 6th year players.

33-25 Aztecs with 6:15 to go in the half. The Ags need to tighten up their defense.

39-35 Aztecs at the half.

The Aggies are shooting 55% overall but only 29% from 3. Turner and Sabel have 9 apiece but Sabel had to sit out the entire 2nd quarter with 2 fouls.

SDSU is shooting 47% overall and 67% from 3. The Aggies went to a 2-3 zone for a while in the 2nd quarter and it was effective in slowing the Aztecs down. SDSU has some very talented players.

55-51 Aggies after 3 quarters in a really good ball game. The Ags need had a chance to stretch the lead but are shooting poorly from 3...only 3-15 for 20%.

Free throw disparity is a little eye-popping.

The Aggies played well for the first 3 quarters and then self-destructed in the 4th. The Aggies were ahead 63-55 with 6 minutes to go and then the turnover bug hit again along with a bunch of fouls. The lead disappeared and the Aztecs went off on a 22-5 run to end the game with a win 77-68. The biggest factor in the win by the Aztecs was their good 3 point shooting (8-15) and 23-26 from the line.

As well as the Aggies played for 3 quarters, this is a very disappointing loss. Shooting only 24% from 3 on 5 of 21 didn't help either. The Ags had a distinct height advantage too. SDSU doesn't have a player over 6'0 but they out hustled the Aggies and got critical offensive rebounds when the Aggie got caught flat footed.

Overall, this game was an improvement compared to the loss to Portland State. Burns was much better at PG with 12 points, 9 assists and only 3 TO's.

Jen was clearly not happy with the officiating. The Ags couldn't get a call but were getting tagged for cheap bumps and phantom touches over and over. The disparity was big.

Regardless, the disappointing thing to me was that we were clearly out played in the final 6 minutes. We lost focus and got out hustled. SDSU was simply more aggressive down the stretch and it paid off for them.

I don't think the Ags played well at all except for the 3rd quarter when they got a lead as SDSU went cold. Bad passing, poor blocking out on rebounding and poor ball handling. They have to get a LOT better if they're going to compete successfully in the Big West this year.

I will agree that Burns had some very nifty passing but also passed to phantoms or simply to SDSU who anticipated the pass and intercepted.

It was a frustrating loss for sure but I though it was a significant improvement over the PSU game. I too wasn't impressed with their lack of blocking out and rebounding despite our height advantage. You have to give SDSU credit though. What they lacked in height they made up for with good shooting and aggressiveness. They're small but they've got some good athletes.

Not that we need more evidence, but today's men's game clearly showed that aggressiveness is more important than just sheer size. NDSU was taller than us, but the men fought for every board on both ends. The women, last night, looked flat footed, looking like they hoped the ball would bounce to them rather than going to get it (obvious simplification). But aggressiveness can be learned (to an extent), so hopefully we see some growth in that from the Ags.

I agree. I think their smaller players were quicker than our taller players also. The Aztecs reacted to the ball much quicker.