The Aggies begin their final road trip of the regular season tonight when they travel to Fullerton for a huge game with the Titans at 7:30 pm. Irvine has essentially wrapped up the Big West title barring a completely unlikely collapse and will be the #1 seed in the Big West Tournament. The battle is on now for the #2 - #4 seeds and tonight's game is critically important in that respect for both teams. The surging Aggies have won 5 straight and 6 of their last 7 games while the Titans have won 3 straight and beat the Aggies in all 3 contests last season.

The big question is the injury status of TJ Shorts II. TJ went down in the first half of the last game against Long Beach with what appeared to be a serious left knee injury. No official statement has been made about his injury but recently Scott Marsh stated that TJ is listed as "day to day." That's the good news but it's anyone's guess as to what that means. Is TJ's injury one that won't sideline him for the rest of the year or are the Aggies simply not showing their cards prior to tonight's game?

Fullerton sports a high flying offense led by 3 of the top offensive players in the league: 6'4 Sr G Kyle Allman averages 18.5 ppg followed by 6'3 Sr G Khalil Ahmad with 17.7 ppg and 6'7 Jr F Jackson Rowe at 11.1 ppg. As a team the Titans average 73.7 ppg while giving up 71.0. Anyone of these 3 players has the ability to get hot and take over the game. They're all long and athletic and they play particularly well at home.

The Aggies will need to rely on their excellent defense as usual while taking care of the ball and being efficient on offense. The Aggie offense has finally come alive after a dismal first half of the season. Joe Mooney, Stefan Gonzalez, and Matt Neufeld have all shown a new confidence in scoring the ball and Garrison Goode and Rogers Printup have been contributing also.

The last few games between these two teams have been chippy affairs. For whatever reason, these two teams seem to get under each other's skin. Khalil Ahmad, in particular, likes to talk and is a master at giving a little push or bump after he makes a play while avoiding the eyes of the referees. Last season, Titan coach and former Aggie player, Dedrique Taylor, had words with the Aggie coaches at the conclusion of the game in Fullerton which incited Jim Les and Kevin Nosek and the players had to restrain Les and Taylor from getting to each other. The Ags will need to keep their cool and play smart basketball in the heat of the game and avoid getting into a trash talking contest with the Titans.

The Ags lost Chima Moneke in February of last year and now the injury of TJ feels like deja vu. After Chima was suspended the Aggies responded by playing some of their best basketball of the season though and, the question now is, how will this team respond to the probable loss of TJ? Personally, I like the resiliency of this team and I think they will play with great determination with or without their diminutive star.

Live online stream from Big West TV at 7:30 pm: http://www.bigwest.org/tv/

Go Ags!