I'll be there. i'll be using my Pizza Guy's 'free pizza' coupon from the Poly game for my dinner! i'll save room for the Feast.

they are on a 3-game win streak, including home wins over Hawaii and Irvine, after a 2-4 start. Another tough matchup at home. Love to see the intensity (and shooting!) we had last Saturday at Fullerton. 3-point underdogs tonight.

BigWest TV has a game time of 6:30 but ESPN says 7:00. Do you know which one is right?

7

Well just in case we thought we were TOO big neufeld is in street clothes. I don’t see any braces or anything.

We have a BIG problem now...

Up 14-7 at the 12. Playing solid

Outstanding defense by the Ags so far!

Anyone know what happened to Neufeld?

What a start!

Gauchos turning up the pressure

Ags are playing extremely well at the outset!

Might be the best half of basketball the Ags have played this year. SB has a huge height advantage and the Ags out rebounded them 20-13! Awesome defense!

Physical game, increasingly so as the half progressed. Go Ags

Uh-oh, getting tight. Glad the Ags are a good free throw shooting team.

Great win by the Ags. Swarming defense and great driving on offense.

I can't say I've seen enough of the games to state that this was their best game, but the first 30 minutes was outstanding. As it is, the boxscore makes it look like they won it at the foul line hitting 21 of 24 while the Gauchos were a miserable 7 for 16. But the Aggies outhustled and out-rebounded UCSB who at times did not seem to have their heart in it. I wrote early that the Ags were not the 8th best team in the Big West and right now, they're in the thick of the race. If they can beat CSUN Saturday they will be in second place as Hawaii has faded badly.

You can probably make an argument for a couple of games this year as our best (NAU comes to mind) but this one is certainly right up there. Everyone on the team hustled. Sow couldn’t move without running over someone. We’ll need a similar effort on Saturday

I thought we simply outplayed the Gauchos and we did it playing small ball. Our defense was tough for most of the game and we battled their length and physicality on the boards. We just had more heart. If it wasn't for Heidegger getting on a heater we would have won by 20. Les has a way of getting his teams to play really, really hard.

The thing I liked the most tonight was that everyone who played contributed. It was a total team victory. How about Manjon also...wow...he's getting better all the time.

Heidegger single-handedly kept the Gouchos in the game. I just took it on himself and was amazing. Wide open, guarded, popping up with incredible speed off a pass - he sank 'em all. Very impressive. I'm glad he was restrained in the first half!

Ball movement looked pretty good in the last 8 min I was watching. Seems like Aga can hang in there with anyone, except Irvine :(

i was really impressed by our play on both ends. Fuller and Manjon were very aggressive going to the hoop which opened things up. good ball movement, making that one good extra pass to get the good shot. Gonzalez was very aggressive at the hoop, which is something we haven't seen from him. we outrebounded them by a bunch which is very surprising at first glance, but i would think much of that was helped by the fact that they were 7-16 from the free throw line (lots of easy rebounds there) vs our 21-24. i was also impressed by how we dealt with their runs. in the first half, we were up something like 20-8 midway through, UCSB called a time, and came out POUNDING the boards resulting in several second (and third) chances. i was thinking 'uh-oh, well, that was fun while it lasted'. but, lo and behold, we kept at it and maintained that 10 point lead through the half. got to 20 until Heidegger went berserk to get it down to 8 or so...but....we stayed tough, hit all our free throws and didn't turn the ball over. fun game, good crowd with the student staying after their dinner!

i was listening to Les on the post-game. i kind of sensed that Nuefeld might be out awhile, just from his tone about the team 'embracing the small ball concept earlier in the week when they could have hung their heads'. nothing else was said, and maybe there's nothing there, but sounded like we might be playing small out of necessity for awhile.

As we all know, we were playing a lot of small ball anyways even with Neufeld. His time definitely dwindled through the year. Guys like Fuller and Printup, who were recruited as guards/wings, have to have a totally different defensive mentality now when facing guys like Sow on the block. On the flip side, we need to continue to take advantage of our speed on the offensive side (Fuller can get by most of the bigs that are trying to guard him) and our stretch big's, both Fuller and especially Prinutp, and even Koehler to a certain extent, can pull their bigs out away from the basket, making it easier for the guards to finish at the rim. It really is a pleasure to watch such a well coached bunch of kids playing with 100% effort.

Nice summary, Mike. It was fun night of basketball. I wish we could somehow get these good crowds out earlier in the season and on a more consistent basis. I guess the secret to getting the students to show up is, "If you feed them, they will come!"

The Enterprise article on the game says that Neufeld is "is day-to-day with a back injury but may be able to play on Saturday."

Unfortunately, my wife and I are going to miss the double-header Saturday. She got us tickets to see Paula Poundstone in Nevada City on Saturday night a long time ago before she knew the basketball schedule. Poundstone is insanely funny and witty in her live show. We've seen her once before and I don't think I have ever laughed so much for two hours in my life. I'll be checking into the game from my phone though.

I wonder why Les rarely used Printup until the last few games this season? He's a rock solid defender and can be a deadly 3 point shooter. I think his recent playing time is one of the reasons the team is playing really well right now.

you are the second person who has recommended Poundstone (she's coming to our theatre in a couple weeks). might have to check it out. i'm missing saturday to see Travis Tritt's solo acoustic show in Stockton.

i think Printup was injured somewhere around the NIU game. he had a big game v Portland and was solid vs NIU, then disappeared. we don't hear anything about injuries, so that's my guess.

i like Kohler's energy and tenacity. i was sitting with Sam Young last night and every time Kohler made a play he's yell out 'that's my guy!'. i think Sam likes him because they have the same vertical leap!

i thought we thoroughly outcoached them last night. we had answers for all their runs, we attacked our strengths, and somehow nullified their size advantage. coaching and effort brought that win home

Good question about Printup's time. I've been critical of Les in the past about entrenching guys on the bench for a good portion of the season, and then leaning on them at critical times and expecting top notch results (mostly this comes from a few years ago when they had 9 months to prepare for Monson missing the BWT but not giving Georgie any time at all, then expecting him to perform well in Anaheim). In this case with Printup, he's really stepped up. I think you're right about the correlation in his play and our recent surge. He's got the spot up shot going really well and plays tough smart defense. We could say the same thing about Fuller. He seemed to be at the end of the bench for a stretch of games, now he's in there giving great minutes.

Worth mentioning Squire's impact on the game too. He really bulked up over the off season, and while he doesn't quite have Manjon's speed or Gonzo's shot (who does?), he plays physical ball, and plays bigger that 6'0".

Get the Paula Poundstone tickets! I guarantee you'll be worn out from laughing by the end of her show.

We saw her at a small theater in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, last fall while on our long trip to New England and Atlantic Canada. She doesn't have a set routine; she just starts off with some currents events and goes from there...witty, smart, satirical and anything and anybody is fair game. If you've ever heard her on the National Public Radio show, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," then you've heard some of her PG rated commentary. You get her R rated version in her live show and it is hilarious. The audience in New Hampshire was largely boomers and, the funny thing was, that half the men in attendance looked like Bernie Sanders from behind with a flock of wild, white hair!

Is Poundstone an Aggie?

BGA I totally agree that Paula can be hilarious. But my favorite in that genre is Sarah Silverman. A little more raunchy and political than Paula, but a very very funny stand up. What a one two show that they could put on!

Here are some snaps from the game

Gallery of images from UCSB vs UCD Men's game