The second game of today's double header features CSU Fullerton tangling with the Aggies at 5 pm in the Pavilion. The Titans handed the Aggies their worst conference loss of the season back on January 13th 85-70. Fullerton came out on fire from beyond the arc and the Aggies were never able to recover from the Titans barrage of 3's in the first half.
The game in Fullerton did not end well either. The Titans head coach and former Aggie player, Dedrique Taylor, took exception to Rogers Printup taking a 3 point shot, which he missed, as time expired even though the Titan's were ahead by 15 points. The shot was meaningless to the outcome of the game but Taylor thought it was poor sportsmanship by the Aggies. As he went through the handshake line he said something offensive to Aggie assistant, Kevin Nosek, who was a former Aggie teammate with Taylor, and also to Jim Les. Whatever he said nearly ignited a brawl as Nosek and Jim Les were livid and Les and Taylor had to be restrained from getting to each other. Taylor's ire was surprising to see given the circumstances. The game was also a chippy affair and the Titan's sharpshooter, Khalil Ahmad, was given a technical for too much trash talking at the Aggies.
Kyle Allman and Khalil Ahmad are two of the best guards in the Big West Conference and they are capable of getting hot and taking over the game. The Titans also have plenty of size inside with 5 players taller than 6'7 led by their talented 6'7 So F Jackson Rowe.
The Aggies 19 game home winning streak was broken by UCSB on Thursday evening in a 90-81 loss to the league leading Gauchos. The Aggies are now one game behind and tied for second with Irvine. Coach Les was extremely disappointed with the Aggie's defense against UCSB. Fullerton, like UCSB, is loaded with offensive firepower and the Ags must play better on defense to win this one.
Unfortunately, there is still no word regarding the suspension of Chima Moneke so I would presume that we will be playing without him again today. UCSB took advantage of the absence of Chima and had their way in the paint and on the boards against us on Thursday. Our other big men must step up and give us better contributions than we saw against Santa Barbara or we are going to have trouble in all of our remaining conference games.
Come on out to the Pavilion today and enjoy a two good college basketball games beginning with the women at 2:30 followed by the men at 5 pm all for the price of a single admission.
This may be a good thing learning to play w/o Chima. Let’s just hope he’s back soon. We could use a Shorts, Schneider, Chima trio in scoring. Plus Chima’s defense and rebounding
Two odd statistics from the game. Fullerton got 7 blocks on Aggie shots. That seems about right. On the other hand, UC Davis only made 7 turnovers to the Titans 19. That difference was not enough to off-set the discrepancy in shooting percentage.
In the post-game radio interview Les was very discouraged and didn't have much to say except that he was "very discouraged with the way we played defense." I noticed that Les was pulling players out of the game with regularity every time there was anything that he thought was a defensive mistake or lapse. He's a smart coach but I think it must be pretty tough to play for him at times.
Trailing by two, the Aggies had the ball out of bounds under the basket with five seconds left after Fullerton was called for traveling.
During a timeout, UCD head coach Jim Les drew up a play where Shorts would inbound the ball to Rogers Printup, who would attempt a game-winning three-pointer if it were available. If not, the ball was to go back to Shorts for a drive down the lane.
“That was the plan and five seconds is plenty of time to get a good look,” Shorts explained.
The ball went to Printup as planned, but he did not have an open shot, so he fed Shorts, who drove the lane in heavy traffic to attempt a shot that had fallen several times earlier in his 21-point night.
“Those are shots that I’m used to finishing, especially in traffic and over taller men,” added the 5-foot-9 Shorts.
“I tried to get it just over the front of the rim and it just so happens this one came out. Those things happen.”
Added Les, “We got the ball to the right guy for him to shoot a good shot and you have to accept the result. I’ll live with giving T.J. the final shot every time. It just didn’t happen to fall.”
“The bottom line is we had some really good looks tonight, but they made their big shots and we just missed ours,” Les said.
Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor, who played three years (1995-97) at UCD under Bob Williams and later served as an Aggie assistant during the 2000-01 season, said it was just another crazy Big West Conference game.
“That was Big West basketball at its best,” Taylor said.
“Every team has a chance every night, at home or on the road. It certainly mumble-jumbles the standings, but we’re back in the thick of it now. Obviously, they were a man down and that really hurt them. He (Moneke) went for 29 points and 12 rebounds against us last time. If he’d done that tonight, we wouldn’t have had a chance.”