Rainbows are in ESPNU tonight at 8:00 vs Riverside, if you want to scout. Their road record is very surprising

Riverside give Hawaii their first conference loss 64-59.

that’s a good sign! Hawaii has always been tough on us. I vividly remember the last time they were here March 2020 (a week before, well, you know) : they hit a long contested three to win 67-65, since after we scored late to take the lead. I was sitting on the sideline about a foot from where he released the ball, and my seat mate mumbled sh*t as it was arching to the basket. That one hurt

I remember that shot. What a dagger!

The Honolulu paper gave a lot of credit to Callum McRae for the Highlanders win. The big guy had 19 points and 3 assists, which means that Hawaii did not defend him as well as we did and their front court is bigger than ours. I wasn't impressed with him so either he was having a bad night or the Aggies were doing a very effective job on defense. Matchups being what they are, it's not at all predictive of how UCD will fare against Hawaii. I call this game a toss-up depending on which Aggie teams shows up.

riverside shot poorly from the outside vs us, allowed our defense to sag in on the big guy. Did the Highlanders shot better last night?

We’ve had trouble vs bigger MOBILE guys who can take it to hoop from 10 feet away. We seemed to be able to slow down McRae’s low post game

We are certainly going to have to bring our A+ defense in this game. Hawaii is athletic and can shoot from deep. If we push out on defense to stop the long range shots, that's going to open up the driving lanes, and since we don't really have much of a shot blocker down low, we could see a lot of driving shots. Or, if we slough off to cut down on the lanes, definitely going to give up some open 3's. We are going to have to really play good team defense.

We'll definitely need to play very well but I'd give us the edge considering our defense and playing at home. We defended the paint really well against Riverside. We really do need to contest their 3's and make a good percentage of ours though.

I hope you're right. I do think we played better defense at UCR than last weekend, so hopefully the more consistent schedule (both game and practice) is paying off.

By the way, I happened upon the ESPNU game vs SLO from 2015 on youtube. Crazy how loaded that team was. Starters were Hawkins, Graham, Avery Johnson (very underrated player), JT and Ritchart, with Lemar, Monson, Fox and Tyler Les coming off the bench. That team went 25-7 but was upset in the BW semi's by Hawaii (hey, I tied this tangent into this string!) From a pure talent perspective, that might have been our best team top to bottom (Michael Onyebalu, a future starter, was basically the last man on the bench). And the Pavillion was going crazy!

Big game Saturday with road trip to Irvine next week coming up. After that we have a stretch of games we should be favored before the last week of the season.

OldAlum - that was a great team. Lots of offensive weapons, long and quick defenders and a solid JT in the key.

That team shot 45% from 3 with Hawkins at 49%!

Talking defense, i really like the energy that Debruhl brings off the bench. I don’t think he has impressive FG numbers, but good defensive effort.

I don’t think he’s quite ready to run the point when Manjon sits. Fullerton really ramped up the pressure on him and they erased that second half lead. He does play hard and smart on defense

I've been encouraged by how Milling played against UCR. He hasn't been the deep threat we expected so far, but perhaps we expected too much. If he is feeling more comfortable now, he might be the X-factor against Hawaii.

I like seeing Milling starting now and bringing in Adebayo as first off the bench. Milling is looking much more comfortable as he gets more minutes and he's starting to find his stroke. He gives us another deep threat and that opens up the lanes a bit more. He also doing a nice job on the boards. I feel like the pieces of this team are starting to fit together much better.

We need to get Anigwe back in the offense. He’s scored 11 points total in the last 3 games. He was a very reliable inside scorer there, but is a little bit out of the flow right now. Past few games he’s been rushing his shot and missing some easy shots - could be the size mismatch he gets. A few early buckets by him opens things up

I wonder if he’s dealing with lower back pain that’s reducing his offensive productivity. The last couple of games he’s had that brace on that looks like some sort of electrical stimulation.

that’s a good point. I believe the two of low output games coincide with the back issue. Last game he was 1-5 from the field, 3-9 vs Fullerton. Those games he seemed to rush his shots, lose his soft touch

I think he's got a back problem for sure. I noticed how he was sitting back and very straight up when he was out of the game. I've been there and done that before too when I had some back problems.

Warriors are a 3 pt underdog tonight. Go Ags!

I can’t figure out the odds for our games. Never seem to make sense

Betting odds are based on what the bookies think the pubic will put money on so that the bookies make a profit. They're right often enough to make a lot of money. So if they thought people will bet on UC Davis to come within 3 points of Hawaii, that's where they put the betting line.

Hawaii came out hitting 4 of 5 from the 3 line. Since then the Aggies have done a very good job of defending the perimeter. Ags could use a few more 3s.

Ags doing an amazing job on the offensive glass with 8 rebounds compared to Hawaii's 2 and a 21-14 edge overall.

COME ON AGS!!!

Definitely an offensive foul

Huge FT and block! Ags win!

That was a lot more exciting than it needed to be if the Ags could hit their free throws. It has to be a psychological thing. But UCD gets to .500 in the conference and gives Hawaii it's second defeat.

Very exciting win. Hawaii is a tough matchup but Manjon was almost unstoppable. Adebayo went fro goat to hero in about 10 secs.

Really good comeback win from 14 down in the second half for the Aggies. We don't match up well with Hawaii's size and length like 6'9 Anigwe guarding 7'0 Colina and 6'4 Pepper guarding 6'10 Hepa. Pepper and Manjon really sparked our comeback and we created some TO's during crunch time. Not sure what's going on with our poor FT shooting. Regardless, this is one of our best wins this year!