I've got my tickets. Hoping for a somewhat competitive game.

We'll need Chima and JT to stay out of early foul trouble since Garrison Goode will probably still be out. Having them sitting on the bench for most of the Idaho game really hurt us on both ends of the floor.

absolutely. No stupid fouls. I imagine we'll use zone to try and protect our "bigs".

I thought that JT and Chima got tagged with a couple of very questionable fouls at Idaho. I just hate those fouls called on the defender when the defensive player is backing up as fast as he can and the offensive player initiates the contact by leaning in with his shoulder and bumps the defender and a block is called. It happens a lot and puts the defender at a distinct disadvantage. No one can back up fast enough when a player is driving the ball, leans in and initiates contact. Those ticky tack bumps should at least be a no call.

27-13... Only Moneke piaying well w 9 puts and 4 rebounds. We're shooting 33 percent.

At the game with the kiddos. Ags trying to stay in it. Way over matched. 33-16 3 mins left in 1st half

The Aggies are doing that thing where they make the other team look like All Americans again

No doubt that Cal has much more talent but that was a very ugly half of basketball by the Aggies. The Ags turned the by over 16 times which led to 19 points by the Bears. That's got to be a record or nearly a record for TO's in a half by an Aggie team. Cal is a very good defensive team but the Ags are telegraphing passes and driving the ball into trouble and then turn it over.

Our defense is not bad but we really struggle to score even when we have open looks. Lamar and Moneke have 16 of our 18 points. We can't be competitive with defense alone.

Brynton can play. Other than that we are pretty soft, and pretty slow. Not a good combo.

Moneke 1.of 6.from line.

- Hopefully we don't see "Hack-a-Chim" down the road...

5 points for you, good one.

Cal beat the Aggies 86-61for their 32nd win in 32 games between the two schools .

The first and second halves were like night and day for the Ags. The first half was a comedy of errors as the Ags had 16 TO's that led to 19 Cal points. Our defense played well but we were out of control on offense playing way to fast for our skill level, throwing half-hearted passes and driving the ball into trouble with no idea of what to do then. That led to a ton of TO's. It was just very sloppy. That said, Cal is a very good defensive team but, nevertheless, the Aggies did not play smart and played out of control on offense to make things worse.

In the second half we played much smarter, made crisp passes, knocked down some nice shots and played pretty well on both ends of the court. We essentially played Cal even in the second half. The hole we dug in the first half was too deep to get out of though.

Chima had another tremendous game with 24 points 10 boards and he was battling much bigger players inside. I know he wants to shoot better than 4-10 from the line though. Lamar and Henn also played pretty well. Brynton defends well and made some nice shots and Henn is a bruiser but pulled up and hit 3-3 from downtown. Henn is going to become a stellar player for us with an inside outside game. Siler Schneider always plays hard but he gets a bit out of control and drives the ball into trouble. He needs to play within his ability and cut down on his TO's.

After the game Coach Les said he was not pleased with the team's lack of aggressiveness in the first half and "soft passes" that led to TO's.

The Aggies travel to Fargo next Wednesday to take on the Bison of North Dakota State.

Can't add much. That first half was possibly the worse half of offensive ball that I've seen from an Aggies team in a long time. Our poor offensive execution led to so many easy transition buckets that it masked what I thought was pretty good man defense. The 1-3-1 zone, on the other hand, just gave Cal wide wide wide open 3 shots that they didn't have to work hard to get. A couple of passes and their best 3 point shooter would be wide open. The man defense seemed to slow down Cal, and the doubling of their post players seemed to be effective.

Well, I expected a loss, but I was hoping for a more competitive loss. I know the record doesn't really matter (just what happens in the conference season and tourney) but winning several of these last OOC (and not just against William Jessup) is going to be important to build just a bit of self confidence.

Yes, the first half was a real stinker! I was very impressed with Cal's defense though. We weren't able to get many good looks in the first half even when we did have a possession with good ball movement. We just got more and more tentative as the half ticked on. I couldn't believe the number of soft passes that got stolen and how many times we would drive the ball into trouble and then turn it over with a travel or get it stolen. There's no way to sugar coat it; it was awful.

We need to get Garrison Goode back before league starts too. He doesn't score much but he defends and rebounds really well and that helps keep Chima and JT out of foul trouble.

Les sounded very disappointed in the post-game interview and I think the team probably feels the same way. They had a chance to show something on national tv and totally laid an egg in the first half. I'm sure he only basketball fans who continued to watch the second half were Cal fans and die hard Aggie faithful like me.

There were times in the second half where I was thinking, wow, this team has the ability to play at a high level, but they have been very inconsistent this year. I get the feeling that they really haven't gelled as a team yet and the best is yet to come from them.

Like me (Re: die hard fans). I almost didn't watch the second half, glad I did as it helped restore some faith

Yes it did! (Y) I'm finding myself getting a little impatient though waiting for the basketball program to really take off. Without the great year with Corey there hasn't been too much to get all that excited about.

I'm in the same boat. It seems like we've moved from the bottom of the big west to the middle. When do we consistently get to the top?

@BlueGoldAg There shouldn't be any excuses at this point. Les can recruit across the country, has a good gym by Big West standards, and plays in a conference that is not difficult to win. It's not like we're Pacific in the WCC trying to beat two top 15 teams in the country to bring home the hardware.

And our SOS is 339 out of 351. Yikes.

I agree. We'll have to play better even to finish in the middle of the Big West. I try to stay positive about the direction of the program and I get it that it's not easy to build a competitive D1 program. We should be competing for Big West titles year in and out. Heck, I even think that a university like UCD should be, at least, a top mid-major competitor in basketball. I just don't see that much progress though.

So, at this point, I don't think Coach Les is getting it done. It has nothing to do with the great kids that we do get. They are true scholar athletes that have great character and I pull for them in every game. But, the fact is, we are still a struggling mid-major program and, just as in football, it needs to get a lot better.

This great university, the students and Aggie fans deserve that, and the greater Sacramento area is hungry for a exciting D1 college basketball program. It's time for Blue to assess the program and make a plan for the success of basketball just as he has for football. We need to get the basketball train rolling too!

early in the game my wife said 'we'll never win, too many man-buns'. i think what she meant is that we looked much softer than Cal in the 1st half.

but, yeah, the man-buns are a really bad look.

Ha, my daughter totally agrees!

Basketball can see greater success in a much faster time frame than football and we have seen that with Corey's senior year.

We just have to find a way to maintain that level of success.

A huge transfer rate in Les' first 3 or 4 years didn't help. THAT has to reduce if we are to build and have continuity.

Even with those transfers he still managed to have one good year with Hawkins, Ritchart, and crew. He has now set the bar high, given Aggie fans a taste of success and getting blown out just isn't in the cards.

The bigger issue is that these are his recruits. These are the guys he circled on the white board and went after. We're not that big, athletic, or aggressive...and that is going to hurt us. Even in a year like this one where the Big West is WAAAAAY down from previous years.

It will be interesting to see what Dr. Blue does. I generally like Les' in game coaching, but he really hasn't recruited the level of athletes we should. Yes, Chima (the Josh Fox re-incarnation), was a great find, and Henn has shown something as a true freshman, but we really need layers upon layers of these types of players (or better) to be competitive with other quality mid-major teams.

I've been really disappointed in JT's game this year -> i was hoping for a return to where he was back before injury, but i haven't seen that. He's a good kid, been at Davis forever, so i'd like to see him excel. seems like he never got his confidence back after the injuries.

i like schneider, but he can get overpowered by a physical guard (like Saturday). graham and lemar are both pretty solid players. Henn has shown some flashes. I'd like to see goode out there to see what he brings to the table.

I'm sure no one is more disappointed than JT about how things have gone overall. I agree that his confidence may still be shaky about those knees now. In my opinion, he wins the Aggie tough luck award and the Aggie perseverance award after those two devastating knee injuries and surgeries. He seems to have lost some quickness in his ability to react defensively especially when he needs to move laterally quickly and, as a result, has been getting in foul trouble. I hope he has a couple of breakout games and things take off for him. He's a great kid with a big love for the game.

Schneider plays hard all the time but gets out of control on offense especially when he lowers his head and shoulders and drives the ball into traffic and gets stuck. He's a warrior who plays with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and isn't afraid to play physical. I see him more as a small shooting guard than a point guard. I don't think he has the quickness necessary to play point comfortably.

I've been thinking about who is going to take over for Graham next year. Darius drives the team as a good point guard should so we'll have some big shoes to fill. We have Arel Hennings but he's probably not going to see much PT this year.

We also have TJ Shorts 5'10 165 PG transfer from Saddleback JC coming in next year. He'll have to learn fast but he seems to have the skills to take over the point. Saddleback is a juco basketball power. They lost in the state championship game last year so he has been playing at a high juco level. This year he is averaging 20.3 ppg and is shooting 54% overall and 58% from 3. In his last game against Riverside JC he had 33 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. It looks like he may be able to come in and step right in next year.

BGA - we are on the same wavelength with regard to JT. Love to see him have a big game and get himself back on track. I thought he had a couple early opportunities against Rabb (who is a really, really good defensive player) that went in and out; my heart sank with the misses, because i thought that's what he needs himself going. He works really hard, tries really hard (maybe a little too hard), so i'd love to see him reap the benefits of that!

I think JT is a stalwart emotional leader on the team too. I'm not quite sure why this team seems to be bogged down at the moment. We have 4 seniors in the starting lineup yet we are playing so inconsistently. We need to play like we did in the second half against Cal for the whole game. If we do that, this team can be competitive in the rest of our games. We can't come out tentative and lackadaisical and dig a big hole. We just don't have the offensive weapons to make big comebacks. I think this team will be in a lot of close games even when they are playing well. We're not the kind of team that's going to blow people away with offense.