Wow I get the need to be on tv, but woah those games have some really late starts.

Yeah, and they skew the starting times to favor the top SoCal teams so they can increase attendance. So even though we are the #1 seed, we get slotted for a noon game in a big arena before an empty house. That's not an easy environment to play in.

I don't know. I'd rather play in an empty noon game for two reasons.

1. You get the most amount of rest before the semi-final.
2. A hostile home team crowd is generally worth an extra two points or so to the home team. That advantage won't be there in an empty arena.

And someone on the Big West Boards even pointed to the short Aggie bench about why rest can be critical for the 1 seed.

Not looking forward to playing Riverside, Fullerton, and Irvine consecutively after the series with CSUF and how close we came to losing against the other two. Come to think of it I'm terrified about every team in the bracket.

Can Les give us 5 or 6 minutes of floor time?

Anyone else from the board planning on heading down to Anaheim? My son and I are meeting down there to watch as many Aggie games as possible!

Go Ags!

We're 6-2 without Chima?

TJ best PG in the Big West?

TJ is probably going to be conference PoY. First team for sure.

I thought UCR looked weak at 9-21, but we only beat them by 1 at home, and they played some good teams tough.

TJ is Player of the Year and 1st team and newcomer of the year, Siler 2nd team, Chima Honorable mention, and Les Coach of the year. Per Bigwest.org Go Ags!!!

This is great news and well deserved recognition for the Aggies!! TJ is the first player in the history of the Big West ever to be named both the Player of the Year and the Newcomer of the Year at the same time.

Here's the whole list of awards:

http://www.bigwest.org/assets/sports/mbball/18_MB_All_Conference.pdf

From the Big West website:

Big West regular season champion UC Davis captured three of the four primary awards to highlight the announcement of the 2017-18 men’s basketball all-conference team, voted on by the nine head coaches. TJ Shorts is the first individual in Big West history to earn both the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year award in the same season. Jim Les, the architect of the UC Davis championship season, claimed Coach of the Year accolades. Meanwhile, CSUN local product Terrell Gomez notched the Freshman of the Year award.

Shorts II secured the second Player of the Year award in UC Davis lore behind Corey Hawkins in 2014-15. He also became the third Aggie – Hawkins (2013) and Chima Moneke (2017) – to receive Newcomer of the Year recognition in the eight-year history of the award.

The 5-foot-10 junior guard was a catalyst in the regular season championship for the Aggie program. In overall games, Shorts II ranked seventh among conference players in scoring (15.2 ppg), fifth in field goal percentage (.538), second in assists (4.3 apg) and first in steals (2.0 spg). He also placed third in assist-to-turnover ratio at +1.8. Shorts II stepped up his performances towards the latter part of the season to help the Aggies finish 12-4 in Big West play. Over the final eight games, Shorts II averaged 21.0 points on 56.6% (56-of-99) shooting and hit two game-winning shots – a running three-pointer that downed Long Beach State on Feb. 3 and a coast-to-coast layup that nipped UC Riverside at the end on Feb. 24.

A native of Tustin, Calif., Shorts II recorded first UC Davis triple-double in nearly a decade with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a victory at Cal Poly on Feb. 15. The Saddleback College transfer poured in 10 20-point games, including a career-high 31 points in the triple overtime, 105-104 win at LBSU. He had six 20-point efforts in the last eight games as the Aggies made their run to the title.

Les became the 12th individual in Big West history to earn multiple Coach of the Year plaques. He claimed his first honor in 2014-15 when the Aggies notched a school-record 25 wins and won their first Big West title. With just one returning starter from last year’s NCAA Tournament squad, the 2017-18 Aggie edition went 21-9 overall under Les. In his seventh season at the helm of the Aggies, Les led them to 20-plus wins for the third time in four seasons. The Aggies owned one of the nation’s longest home court win streaks – 19 games – after starting out 8-0 this season on Hamilton Court. Over the last eight contests, in which UC Davis posted a 6-2 record, three of those wins came in incredible fashion as the Aggies defeated Long Beach State in double overtime, Cal Poly in triple overtime and UC Irvine in double overtime. The 90-84 win over UCI in the regular season finale – in a winner-take-all atmosphere – came in front of a Bren Events Center sellout crowd of 5,000. Les has now coached two Big West Players of the Year and three Big West Newcomers of the Year.

http://www.bigwest.org//story.asp?story_id=20328

Will the Grad have it?

# Santa Barbara has players 2 on first team one on second team, and they didn't win it? Reminds me of the old Celtics and Lakers. Lakers had most the stars, but the Celtics always seemed to win. It is definitely a team game.

Woodstock will be showing it

“Skill wins games; intelligence and teamwork wins championships” (or something like that)

Micheal Jordan

I think that is exactly what the Ags have going for them going into the tournament this week.

Not to look past this weekend, but St. Mary's lost in the WCC semi-finals and by some predictions that loss took them out of the NCAA bubble and into the NIT. Ags mantra for this weekend could be "win or go to Moraga."


Update: However an ESPN bracket this morning has St. Mary's still in it. - And has UC Davis in as a 15 seed, playing a first round game against North Carolina in a West Region game in Nashville.

Dont think that is an accurate analogy. Its been known by SB fans and other BW fans all along that UCSB has a great starting line-up but a very shallow bench. Gaucho starters have played more minutes than any other team in conference. That, along with the Canty suspension, explains why the team wore down at the end and is why UCSB will be challenged to win the three day tournament. Its not a lack of team-play, as you seem to be implying, it is a lack of depth. They may have the most talented set of starters but can their bench do enough over the three days?

On another note, three of UCSB's conference losses were by one point. Their bag of cosmic basketball fairy dust is still full while Shorts has used up all of Davis's quota! ;-)

By the way, on a yearly selection, the Celtics had 27 all stars through out the 1980s and the Lakers 26. The Celtics had four HOF players from that era and the Lakers 5. Seems to me that both teams were pretty stacked.

Gauchofreg, I am referring to the Celtics of the 60's, where the Lakers had 3 guys you can easily say are definitely all stars- Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt Chamberlain who many think is the greatest of all time average over 50 points a game one year and the Celtics won 12 titles in 14 years.. Against the Celtics, who had Bill Russell, and without using the computer to look up former Celtics can you name 3 or even 4 players who are an equal to the three I have mentioned (Lakers players). Most people know 1 at most.

" They may have the most talented set of starters but can their bench do enough over the three days?"
Which is what I am implying. You cannot mention the names, but they were winners, because of depth.

Also, the Celtics had 27 all stars in the 80's and yet they won fewer titles than the 60's guys. As Bill Russell once was asked. If the Bulls played the Lakers at each teams prime, who would win. Jordan of course said the Bulls, and Russell of course said the Celtics. And, then Russell said it is because the the teams of the 80's all wanted to show off their stuff on the court. Make a tenacious block and send the ball out of bounds. That was not Celtics ball. Russell said we did it differently. We tapped the ball into the air and then went after it, and score a fast break 2 points. That is a 4 point turnaround- the 2 they didn't get, and the 2 the Celtics did get. The players of the 80's would knock it out of bounds, just to give it back to the opposition. This was show boating , and not a winners mind as he put it.

A screenshot of a commercial on tbs about March madness. Go Ags

so cool! If you find the commercial please post it!

Any viewing locations in the Bay?

Really Hoping that Chima gets to travel with the team to the tourney!

ESPN radio interview with Coach Les.

http://www.espn1320.net/media/audio-channel/jim-les-interview-uc-davis-mens-basketball-coach-3618

The Hawaii paper today noted that the University of Hawaii team has beaten every team in the Big West this season, which is oddly true. They also lost to every team oddly, half on the road and half at home. The column pointed out that Hawaii has as good a chance as any team to take the tournament. What it pertinent to this chat group is that only two regular season champs have ever won the tournament title. Given that this season the crown is up for grabs--an assessment which has more veracity than in most years--I think no team can match the Aggies for their spirit, team-work and the most important factor in the post-season: a very good point guard. They first need to get by UCR which might be their toughest match-up.

we're 7 point favorites today; that seems pretty high considering the past two games, the 'neutral' court and the weird 12:00 start. i'll be happy with a one-point win and get to the next round!

i figure i can follow online during my 1:00 meeting....might be harder to follow the radio broadcast! your tax dollars at work!

I agree, 7 point favorites is too much for a game like this. I think today's game will be a tough one. Riverside played us tough twice and the neutral court and noon start in an big, empty arena could be a factor.

I'm hoping the Ags continue to surprise us and play well today. I just ordered up the Fox Sports package so I can watch the tournament games.

Ags need to come out of the gates firing on all cylinders. My worst fear is coming out flat, then relying on catchup the rest of the way. That can really drain a team with a short bench

They finished the season 4-4 and played several teams tough.