The Aggies head into the home stretch of the Big West tonight against CSUN in the Pavilion at 7 pm. The Ads have won 4 of their last 5 games and will play 6 of their last 7 games at home whereas the Matadors have lost 3 of their last 4 games. The home heavy schedule gives the Ags an opportunity to make some serious noise in the Big West.
CSUN hasn't beaten the Aggies since January 19, 2014, but they will present some difficult matchups for the Ags with their athleticism and length tonight. Leading the way for the Matadors is freshman sensation 6'7 Lamine Diane from Senegal. Diane is leading the conference in scoring with 23.4 ppg and pulls down 11 rebounds per game as well. Those numbers put him at 8th in the nation in scoring and 10th in rebounding. It will be interesting to see who gets the assignment of trying to keep Diane in check. He has the kind of ability to take over the game and the Ags can't let him go off for 30+.
Does anyone know why the students aren't coming to the games? When I was there, it was SRO every night, whether it was a weeknight or not. Some of the Big West schools are predominantly commuter campuses, but Davis?
I’m sure there are several reasons, not the least of which is a student body that is more academically motivated than when I was there. Plus I know my daughter had several evening classes that kept her from going to all the games.
I feel your pain Toke, but its not all the students fault. The City of Davis is like one of those now unique places where there are so many local things to go to every night for parents and older people- PTA, night classes, workouts, church meetings,2 HS games, Jr. Hi games .etc. We are not like Berlekey, LA, or Palo Alto where a huge number of non student fans come regularly because they have no other responsibilities or things to do. Actually that is why I loved living in Davis for all those years. But, i went to many many games!
Up 8 at the break, despite only 4 from TJ and none from Silar and AJ. Gonzo has been on fire. If we get the others going, and keep playing D, we should pull away
Gonzalez and Mooney hitting from 3, but I wonder if Schneider has lost confidence in his shot? He passes on some open looks and the ball does not look good coming off his hand.
TJ, AJ and Silar go 5-21 from the field and we win by 17! Solid shooting from 3, 10-11 from the line and good defense. 3 areas we struggled with in the non-conference. On a roll. Beat the Beach
That was a solid team win by the Ags. Northridge is a very athletic team and we defended them about as good as you can. So good to see Mooney and Gonzalez draining those 3's too and Matt Neufeld's offense is really coming along. What a pretty, post-up hook he has.
We were listening to the post-game interviews on the radio on the drive home and it was really great listening to Les and Bob Williams discuss the game. I think Williams should be sitting alongside Scott Marsh for every broadcast. He adds so much insight from an experienced coaching perspective. He told Les, "You've got a good team right now that's on the verge of becoming a really good team."
One stat really jumps out to me; we had 20 assists on 27 made baskets...wow...that's a team playing as a team! I also thought we did a nice job defending Lamine Diane. He scored 20 and pulled down 9 boards but both totals were under his averages. He was 8-19 from the floor so we made it tough for him to get his points.
We've now won 4 straight...amazing what a couple of wins will do for the confidence of a team...
Bob also said he thought we have a shot at finishing 2nd in the BW if we continue playing like this (Uci has a stranglehold on first). What a remarkable turnaround that would be. Even finishing top 4 would be amazing. Long way to go though.
Good win last night. Decent crowd. It looked like a lot of the students stayed for at least the first half. Nice to see Hawkins and the football players get honored at halftime.
box score says the attendence was 1700; not sure if that includes students or not. it would be nice to get a big crowd saturday, but i don't think the students will show up in full force with the 3-day weekend. its 'Bright Out Night ' which i'm guessing means free white tee-shirts?
Yes, it was great to hear Bob Williams explain the fine points of the game. I did not know that “foot placement” was an important aspect of playing defense. I heard him say he was back in “nor-cal” but he did not say Davis that I heard. Great that his heart is here and not in Santa Barbara. 20 years ago he coached a team that I believe did what no other UCD team has ever done: won a National Championship. I recall his ardent plea at a 1990’s campus meeting that we needed to move up to D-1 for the good of all Aggie sports, but he could not convince the hard headed academic senate to go there. He has been proven right to his ever lasting credit. I hope he stays on as the color guy. Great guy!