Thanks for the info. No doubt that this will be a very tough game for the Aggies. Hawaii doesn't lose often at home.

Irvine beat Hawaii 75-74 in OT in a great basketball game. Both teams looked really good. The Aggies will need to bring their A+ game to have a chance against the Warriors.

In other Big West games Riverside blew out Poly 74-51 and CSUN shellacked Long Beach 86-71.

Have fun on the island, Toke69! Trip to the beach is always best after an Aggie win

Gunrock: Actually I live here now and worked for the University of Hawaii for 25 years, becoming a fan of the teams, except when they play the Ags. Hawaii plays a tough man to man defense, much like UC Davis does. I expect the Aggies to give them a tough game, but I'll leave the arena disappointed. I think I've only seen the Aggies win there once, when Corey Hawkins had one of his great shooting nights.

I always figure the game @Hawaii is a loss, regardless of the records, although we generally keep it close. I imagine we'll play good solid defense, and perhaps the new 4 guard small lineup is effective enough to pull out a win. As BGA said, we'll need our A+ game.

The Hawkins game was in '13 where he scored 40 pts on 10-14 FG (8-9 3PT and 12-12 FT). One of the most impressive offensive performances I've seen. Oh, and he pulled down 12 rebounds! Amazing.

Yes, Oldbanduhalum, I remember that game well. It was the only time I got some pushback from some Hawaii fans because the Ags were so hot from 3 point range. They hit over 60% that night. Ryan Sypkens, Josh Ritchart and Tyler Les were a combined 7 for 15. but Corey was on fire. I was was so convinced that Hawkins was going to make it in the NBA that I asked for his autograph when I ran into him after a game in 2015. I guess it the Aggies hit 60% of their 3s this Saturday, they might win, but Hawaii is pretty good at perimeter defense.

Man they could really shoot from the outside. It was definitely an exciting team to root for! I think that's the squad that turned my kids from causal into hardcore fans, who still stream the games even though they are both along ways from Davis.

As for Saturday, Ags will definitely need to stay aggressive on defense and get some easy buckets in transition. If we have to rely on our half-court offense, than Mooney/Schnieder/Gozalez will need to be on from the outside to open up some lanes to drive.

Go Ags!

The wild, wild Big West continues to live up to its reputation as Fullerton routs Santa Barbara 81-60 at Fullerton.

With Ahmad, Alman and Rowe csuf can get hot and beat anyone. But 21 pts is surprising.

Do any of the bars in town show the games? I wouldn’t mind watching with some other fans tonight.

Maybe The Grad...?

40-32 at half, Hawaii finishes with 14-6 over last 5 minutes. John on fire, 5-6 from floor, 13 points. Shorts and Nuefield have the rest of the scoring. rainbows shooting over 50%. Need to stiffen in defense and get more scoring. Mooney and Silar need to step up. Hate these late games.

John's the only one shooting well, unfortunately.

Neufeld contributing.

UCDd missing threes and Hawaii making threes. Hawaii up 20 now with 4 left.

These 4-5 minute dry spells are getting all too familiar.

No FGs for UCD in the last six and a half minutes of the game. Not good. :meh:

Age lose again 80-60. Neufeld had a very nice game and AJ had his best shooting performance since the Indiana game.

Les likes to say "defense travels" but it missed the plane to Hawai'i.

that team should have made March madness. Might be our best team ever.

I just got back from watching a pretty sad performance from the Ags. The passing especially was sloppy and accounted for a lot of the turnovers in the first half. I was surprised that Hawaii used their big freshmen so much. They are not very athletic but I guess the Hawaii coach, Eran Ganot, thought he could use them to an advantage over the small Ags. When the big men were in, due to their lack of mobility, Hawaii used a high number of zone defenses and they were pretty effective. During the local post-game show, Coach Ganot said he had Drew Buggs guarding TJ because he can stay with him better then the taller Drammeh, who started after being in the doghouse earlier this season and has been playing a lot better lately. All in all, it was very lonely feeling being one of the few Aggie fans to watch the game. Wearing my UC Davis sweatshirt, proudly, and clapping for each Aggie basket, I kinda stand out.

I can see why UCD is not doing as well this year. Their shooting is lot poorer, the defense is spotty (they played really well in the first half, especially Rogers Printup guarding Jack Purchase) and they seem to lack that certain toughness that gets a team to come back even when things are going badly. Tonight the defense fell apart for most of the second half. It makes me wonder if Chima's contribution to the team the previous two years was his spirit as much as his play.

5-14, 1-4, 0-10 on the road.

Maybe some home games will help. Are we a 20-loss team talent wise?

Unfortunately, I believe we are...

How can this be when we really only lost one starter from last year? Maybe Chima was the key, but we played well without him.

69aggie: Guess we were on campus at the same time, but to get to my point, Chima was still "with" the team through last season. A guy like that who brings a can-do attitude, upbeat personality and off-court leadership can still have a big impact. This is all speculation of course, but given the veteran nature of this team, it is one theory as to why they are not playing as well as last year.

This group, essentially, went 6-2 down the stretch. But, as someone pointed out to me last week, those 6 wins included 2 3OT, a 2OT, and a 1-point win at home. Really close to 2-6. Michael O’s contribution might have been overlooked in both ends of the court. We miss that grittiness.

A 20-loss team with:

- most players returning
- no major injuries
- TJ Shorts at PG.

Huh?

From 22 wins last year, to potentially 20 losses?

I'm not making any excuses but several things have had a lot to do with so many loses this season. The two biggest factors in my estimation have been the big step up in our preseason schedule, our toughest ever, and injuries that sidelined AJ John and Stefan Gonzalez for much of the season. We needed both of those players to contribute to our perimeter shooting. We have fallen way off in 3 point shooting without them being healthy. Teams are now zoning us and forcing us to try and beat them from distance and we continue to shoot poorly from the perimeter.

Another factor is the we had Chima for most of the season last year and he was a tremendous impact player. Chima and TJ were able to break down defenses one on one. TJ is really the only player with that ability that we have this year. Schneider can do it also but he can be very inconsistent. It's very hard to slash and drive against the zone defenses we are now facing. They clog up the middle and make it very tough to drive the lane. If you can't make teams respect your perimeter shooting they will force you to beat them from the outside.

The best teams in the Big West have several players who are long, athletic and talented. They can create off the dribble and make difficult, contested shots. We are not keeping pace in recruiting those kind of players and, with TJ, Siler and AJ graduating this year, we could be in big trouble again next year.

The trajectory of the program currently is very disappointing after 3 Big West titles in 4 years. I thought we had turned the corner and were on the fast track to becoming a west coast, mid-major power but, instead, we're on a slippery slope back to the bottom half of the Big West.

Good point, I forgot about those two. Also, you correctly point out a contributing factor to our previous success - other teams had some off years. Coach Williams at SB had several.playerd out and Irvine graduated some impact players.

Home games should help.

I just love watching the gals do their thing so well. Just enjoy it while it lasts because it doesn’t last.

the preseason schedule was a bear. i was glancing through, and i'm only disaapointed with two of the losses -> Sac and UT-Arlington (and just a little since it was its the 2nd of a back-to-back on the road). i was shocked by the margin of the losses to the WCAC teams. the BWC schedule start has been tough. UCI and LB on the road, Hawaii on the road. Still time to right the ship and finish in the upper half, but its going to take a real mental toughness to do it. AJ's outing on Saturday gives some hope, as does Nuefield. Squire and Fuller played a combined 5 minutes, after being key members of the rotation early. Goode played 11 minutes, with no points or rebounds. Silar another 2 point night. getting a solid performance from 4 or 5 guys has not happened all year, either due to injury or bad matchups or something. its hard to pinpoint what the heck is going on.