The Titans are coached by former Aggie Dedrique Taylor and the games between these two teams has become a heated rivalry of late. Taylor is in his 9th season at the helm of the Titans and he has built the program largely around transfers whereas less Les generally recruits primarily from the high school level. Nine of the 13 players listed on the Titan roster are transfers from other programs.

I imagine that these two teams will really get after one another in a hard played game and this will be the first time in a long time that the Aggies will be able to have fans at the game also.

Go Ags!

Fullerton is a little bit of a surprise atop the standings but they’ve been solid the past few years. More surprised to see Hawaii with them at 4-0 (3 on the road) and the Beach just behind at 3-1 (all at home).

Much more surprised to see UCSB and Irvine pulling up the rear with 0-2 and 1-3 records!

Maybe things will calm soon with COVID and we’ll see if any teams are above or below their real potential

Can't wait to go see this one. The past few games have been very intense so we'll see if this one becomes a bit chippy.

The coaching staff of both teams nearly came to blows and the end of the game in Fullerton a couple of years ago. If I remember correctly, Fullerton was leading by double digits in the final minute of the game and chose to just dribble the ball without taking a shot and the ball went over to the Aggies on a shot clock violation. The Ags had their bench in and someone took a long 3 in the final seconds which enraged Taylor and he mouthed off to the Aggies coaches. He thought we should have just dribbled out the clock even though the Titans had the game won by a wide margin.

Taylor then said something to Les and Nosek that really got them hot and the players of both teams had to restrain the coaches from going after each other. It seems like that little incident has had a lasting effect on these two programs and it has become a rather bitter rivalry since then.

Yeah I remember that game, though I didn't remember the specifics. It'll be interesting, as we didn't play them last year.

Well, it looks like my wife and I will be watching this one on TV. The 6 pm start puts us right in the rush traffic from Sacramento and we're still waiting for the infection rate of the Omicron virus to settle down a bit more too. We've had a couple of friends who are vaccinated and boosted and wear masks who have come down with it and one friend has had some mild lasting effects for 10 days. We're not spring chickens anymore so we're being cautious. I think that we will go to the Saturday game against Long Beach though. Go Ags!

First game for me in a while. I'm not a big fan of the 6:00 start time but being 10 minutes away helps. CSUF is favored by a point per ESPN. Hopefully we can minimize those prolonged scoring draughts that we ALWAYS seem to have. Go Ags!

I’m here tonight. Up early for pre game burgers and brew, then to the game. Glad I ate big - I don’t think there are concessions tonight!

Yep, we have a tendency to go cold for big stretches too often but our defense usually keeps us within somewhat in reach. Not a good trend though. I thought the spread would be bigger than 1 point for Fullerton. They've certainly been more consistent.

You were right to eat big before the game...no concessions available. Make some noise for us!

Hey Dr Mike is this the first game with new lights on the court? Certainly a big difference

So far, so good. I like the ways the Ags are playing, especially on defense.

I just mentioned that to my wife. I like it

Ags were up by 9 and Coach Les is using a lot more players than any time for awhile. Good to have that depth again. Now up by only 2, but this looks like a game of runs.

As expected, fullerton scratching back, within 2

30-30 at half. Both teams went ice cold last 5 minutes

Should be a close game the whole way. Ags high energy defense early on seemed to take a little out of them by the end of the half. Fullerton is quick and puts a lot of pressure on our perimeter defense.

The offensive drought happened again though as the Ags went scoreless for 6 minutes squandering an 11 point lead. Once we start missing a couple it seems to become contagious...

Good second half start; our bench substitution hurt.

54-49 8 to go. No more turnovers

Free throws are hurting. They are 7-7, we’re 2-6!

I liked Borra’s inside work in the first half. I’d like to see him get more time

4 to go, Ags down 54-60

Fullerton 100% on FTs, Ags 29%

And the Ags drop that one 74-58. It was a closer game than that up to the last several minutes

The Titans outscored the Ags 18-4 in the last 5 minutes. The long scoring droughts by the Aggies has become common place for them. They can play good ball for 8-10 minutes and then go ice cold. Happens too often for any kind of consistency. I think we'll be fortunate to win 1/2 of our remaining games.

A very disappointing loss. Not sure what happened in the second half, but give credit to the Titans for being aggressive and coming back from behind in both halves. Their guards did a good job of containing Manjon and Anigwe was not much of an offensive factor. Getting only 10 free throws and making only 4 of them didn't help either, but mostly it almost seemed like they got demoralized late i the game and gave up the fight.

This is a very frustrating team. There are times when it looks like we can beat anyone on our schedule, but there are huge gaps where we seem to forget how to play Aggie basketball. Ugh! Fullerton seemed to be a step quicker tonight.

Bench is a real weakness for us. We went with 4 subs and Anegwe at about the 15 minute mark when we were up 5, and that quickly turned to a lead for them. Same in the first half. I think Ba and Shaw would be more athletic alternatives but both are in street clothes.

Can’t figure the FT. Two games in a row, but hurt this time

Is it my imagination or has the size of the group following UCD Men's basketball shrunk in the last two years? I count only four others besides myself posting about last night's game. If true, I can understand it, given the number of cancellations and the inconsistent play of this year's team, but still...

Yeah it seems pretty quite on this board now. I guess a large part is due to the pandemic, but honestly, the program seems to be a bit stagnant, which leads to apathy on this board. No real excitement surrounding the team. Last night we grabbed some seats on the student side. I'd say there was about 90/10 ratio of females/males on that side and judging by the ones sitting around us, they were only there to rate the guys on the team. The group behind us decided to root for Fullerton because they were cuter. Not saying there isn't hard core basketball fans (both females and males) but the numbers seemed to have really dropped. Maybe things will change when we can get consistently in our schedule.

I agree with Obda that the last couple of years have not been very exciting. We were 11-20 in 2018-19 and 14-18 in 2019-20. Then, with the Covid shortened season last year, we were 10-8. Those sub .500 seasons combined with our current 8-6 record, which includes a bunch of cancellations and games with no fans, have really taken its toll on fan support.

I think the pandemic has sucked a lot of the energy out of the team and the fans as well. It just feels like the program has become muddled in in mediocrity for a few years now. Even the women's team is having a down year after 5 straight conference titles. Covid, losing seasons, poor student support and a lack of fan excitement in general is hurting the program and it doesn't feel like we are making significant strides forward. Hopefully, better times will come sooner than later. Winning more would help...