Big West Banter had the Beach finishing last in the Big West. Not a bad guess since the school fired Dan Monson even though they beat the Aggies last year to win the conference tournament. Maybe it was because of Monson’s firing or maybe it’s just a sign of the times, but none of the Long Beach State roster came back for this season leaving new coach Chris Acker a chance at his first head coaching job. He’s done a credible job at one point getting his men to reel off five straight victories including two against Fullerton and Hawai`i, plus one over Pepperdine. But that came on the heels of a nine game losing streak.

The key addition to the Beach is Devin Askew a 6’5” guard who transferred from Cal and is averaging 17.8 ppg. Another force is 6’ 10” forward Austin Johnson (5.3 rpg) whose height will give the Aggies problems. Their outside gunner would seem to be Kam Martin who is making 46.9% of his 3-point attempts. Defense is moderately weak as they are 181st in the nation allowing 71.1 ppg., comparable to the Ags 71.3 ppg. UCD’s offense however, is much better so the Ags should win this one at home and continue to be undefeated at Davis. Game will be on ESPN+