The Highlanders and the Roadrunners are fighting it out for tenth place in the Big West, but Aggie fans should be quick to recall when the Ags lost at home to Bakersfield back on January 3 and not take this game too lightly. UCR has lost to some very good teams: UCLA, BYU, New Mexico and UC Irvine, not to mention an unsung St. Thomas which is 15-5. They have a very good new coach in Gus Argenal who has moved up from CSU San Bernadino which he has taken them to the Division 2 final four. Some fans will remember that he played for UC Davis from 1999 to 2004 and still holds the school record for assists in one game with 14. He was also briefly an assistant coach under Gary Stewart. He has had to deal with a completely new roster which helps explain the team’s record, but Coach Argenal has made good use of the transfer portal. The six players with the most playing time come from such programs as Massachusetts, Utah Valley State and Montana State. Their poor record in the Big West—four straight losses prior to last week’s win over Fullerton-- is most likely a reflection of the time it takes to integrate players from such disparate backgrounds.

The most important additions are guards #12 Andrew Henderson from Division 2 Sonoma State. He is currently fourth in the league in scoring with a 16.2 ppg average. His backcourt mate, De’Undrae Perteete, Jr. is a diamond in the not so rough, having been the PacWest freshman of the year last season at Westmont. This year, he has hit an amazing 61.7% (but only 34 attempts) from the 3-point line. He left in the first half of the UCLA game on December 23 and on his return on Thursday, he scored zero points in 15 minutes. He might be back in form against UCD. The point guard is Marqui Worthy Jr.,#10, their second leading scorer and assist leader.

The two starting forwards are 6’ 9” Osiris Grady (#9) and 6’10” B J Kolly (#80). They do much of the heavy lifting off the boards both averaging over 5 rpg. but judging from the stats the whole team crashes the glass. Grady also pours in 12.6 ppg. The only other player who gets significant court time is forward Jailen Daniel-Dalton, who contributes well at both ends of the court. This reveals a possible problem for Coach Gus: lack of depth. He usually only puts six players on the floor and with Perteete back, maybe seven and three of their starters average well over 30 minutes a game. The Aggies should win this one even if they trail early.