Interesting rule changes. Obviously testing driving them to see if they want to implement season wide. I could see the 3-pt shooters having to really think about where they are on the court now, rather than it being "natural".

Should be a good game. Go Ags!

Yes, the 3 point shots are going to be from deep range and that will be an adjustment.

I like the idea of widening the lane so that players can drive to the basket without it being so congested by big men with long arms. It may also cut down on the amount of contact in the lane and open up the scoring a bit. Right now, teams who have good size inside can collapse and create a log jam especially for smaller players driving into the lane. This would give smaller players a better chance to score in the paint and would increase offensive production. It would make for some interesting defensive choices on how to defend the lane too since it would take a little more time to collapse and then harder to get back out to defend if the ball gets kicked out to the perimeter.

The four 10 minute quarters with 2 FT's after 5 fouls per quarter will be interesting also. It would make defenses pay early for fouls which would also open up the scoring and eliminates the 1 and 1. The women already do this.

Nuts! I don't get ESPN3. Does anyone know if they will re-broadcast the game later on ESPNU, ESPN2 or anywhere else?

Utah a balanced team, 4 players in double figures, almost 5. 5'8" Bibbins leads the team at 14.5 PPG, shoots 45% from 3-land. Collette shoots 63% from the field.

Two veteran starters at 6'10". Three young big men at 6'9", 6'10", and 7'0".

Run them? Box out. And hit your 3s.

Streaming on the app or ESPN website

Like 05 noted, you'll be able to stream the game on ESPN3 on your computer via the internet here:

http://www.espn.com/watch/

We’re 11.5 point underdogs. Really tough matchup. They have a lot of size and scoring options. Much different than Washington State. Hoping we keep
It close.

11.5 sounds about right. As with secondary bowl games in football, I wonder how motivated a team that feels slighted by the NCAA is. Do they come out all hyped up ready to show that they belonged in the big dance, or slow and depressed that they are playing in "just" the NIT.

We'll need to stay out of foul trouble. We can not rely on Printup guarding any of their bigs.

I presume if we look at historical data of previous NIT top seeds, the top seeds probably had won the vast majority of the time. Top seeds are probably dejected, but they are talented enough to win nevertheless.

Their height presents a real problem for us. I hope we are on fire from outside because points in the paint will be hard to come by and keeping them off the boards could be a nightmare. This is a tough match-up for the Aggies.

Even tougher than thought.

6'10" Collette severely injured his ankle last game of the season. He played through pain last tourney game, went 8 of 9 in limited minutes before fouling out.

It's a small sample size, but last years NIT 1st round saw the 16 first round games split evenly between the higher and lower seeds, including 3 of the 4 #7 seeds beating the #2 seeds. Of course, part of that might be mis-seading (people complain about seeding in the NCAA tournament, imagine how hard it must be to seed in the NIT). Previous year saw 15 of the 16 higher seeds winning in round 1. As you said, talent usually wins out.

Let Go Ags!

heir height presents a real problem for us. I hope we are on fire from outside because points in the paint will be hard to come by and keeping them off the boards could be a nightmare. This is a tough match-up for the Aggies. — BlueGoldAg

1+. What happened to our 3 point shooting the last few games? Seems like we either live by it or die by it. When those are dropping, it makes a huge difference and opens up shots inside the paint.

Don't know if this accounts for all the 3-pt shooting issues, but the Honda Center seems to always be tough to shoot in. Schneider in particular seems to struggle there.

Those big arenas are always tough for distance shooters if they haven't had much experience playing in such a vast space. It's even worse when it is practically empty. Amad and Allman sure had it dialed in for Fullerton against Irvine though and they regularly play in a crackerbox.

Hawaii's arena is a pretty big space, but BlueGoldAg is right about the problem for distance shooters. I still remember playing on the glass backboards at Hickey Gym, hardly a big arena, and having problems with my jump shot in comparison to the smaller ones that ran cross-court. I trust that the officials for the NIT will be better than the Big West ones, although I wonder if that will affect the Aggies who are used to refs calling a lot of ticky-tack fouls?

Legs? Late in the season with a short bench and guys playing lots of minutes could attribute to the misses.

ESPN3 is a channel that is streamed over the internet - it's not on cable or satellite. If you have cable or satellite TV you can log into the ESPN site to watch the game. I don't recall the details. I can watch ESPN3 on my iPhone or iPad my appleTV or on my computer using my Comcast credentials.

Hope this helps.

Also to clear things up.

ESPN3 & WatchESPN are the same thing.

As I just discovered, BigWest TV has it. Looks like that's my best bet since it's the ESPN3 feed.

Game Day! I watched the end of the USC NIT game last night. It took them OT to win at home vs UNC Ashville. The Trojans definitely didn't play with the same intensity as they did a few days earlier in Pac-12 title game. And one of their stars did sit out as not to risk injury before the draft. Hoping the Ags come out and play at 100% for 4 quarters!

:up: :up: :up:

Let’s goooo

Unfortunately, I'll have to watch the game on ESPN3 replay tonight after I get home from dinner with some friends. I won't be checking in here so I can keep some suspense in the game when I watch it. Utah will be a tall order (pun intended :cool: ). I hope we can stay within striking distance and make a game of it. It would be a huge win for the program if we can pull an upset.

Go Ags!

The Runnin' Utes, as they are called on their official basketball website, and the Aggies have had 3 common opponents: Washington State and Hawai'i.

Utah 80 Hawai'i 60
Utah 82 Washington State 69
Utah 77 Washington State 70
Utah 70 Washington 62
Utah 70 Washington 58

Aggies 81 Washington State 67
Hawai'i 77 Aggies 72
Aggies 70 Hawai'i 59
Washington 77 Aggies 70

This is only the third time these two teams have played each other and Utah won the previous two games:

Utah 106 Aggies 72 on Nov 24, 1990
Utah 94 Aggies 60 on Nove 15, 2013

On paper these two teams look very even although the PAC12 is a power conference compared to the the mid-major Big West:

UTAH................Aggies

GP..........30.........32
PPG.......74.1......72.9
REB........34.1......32.3
OREB.......8.1.........8.1
DREB......26.0.......24.2
AST.........15.7.......12.3
BLK...........3.5.........2.4
STL............5.3.........7.2
TO's..........12.2......13.3
FG%.........45.6.......47.1
3PT%........36.3.......37.1
FT%...........76.1......72.0

Without doing any research, I would imagine UW is another common opponent. Utah probably played them twice (I think Pac-12 teams play every other Pac-12 team home and away) and we lost a good game in Seattle. Regardless, hopefully this will be a close contest.

Go Ags!

Thanks, Obda. Yes, both teams did play Washington. I missed that one and will add it to my post above. The Ags nearly won that game in Seattle but we also had Chima battling in the paint with their bigs. I'm not sure how we are going to handle their size tonight.

YouTube is flagging me that they'll have the game?

Interesting. Underwood is dressed