After three nerve wracking games at the Cream City Tournament, the Aggies get to return home to face the University of Pacific Tigers. Historically, UOP has a big edge on UC Davis, 82-14, but in recent years it has become more balanced. In fact, Jim Les is 6-2 against them. The Tigers are struggling this season, with a 0-4 record at home (yet oddly 2-1 on the road), most recently losing to Cal Poly on Monday night 62-58 after blowing a 14 point second half lead. Their scoring is led by Jordan Ivy-Curry (no relation to a certain Warrior by the Bay), who transferred from Texas-San Antonio. The 6' 2'' guard averages 16.7 ppg. They run a 4 guard offense with 6' 10'' forward Sam Freeman clogging the middle, but rebounding does not seem to be their strong point with no player averaging more than 5 per game. Also, their assist/turnover ratio is 9.7:10.2. The Ags ratio was a lot better than that before this past weekend (38:54), but I still see this game as likely W for us. The game will be on ESPN+.
The Tigers usually show up with their A game. Should be a fun game to watch. Wife and I were going to be out of town but our plans changed so we’ll be there. Go Ags.
Less than two hours until tipoff. Pacific will come into the game hungry after losing 4 straight on their own home court. The Aggies have had trouble holding onto big leads in their last 2 games so it will be interesting to see if the Ags can put together a solid, full 40 minutes of basketball. Go Ags!
I hope it's a blow out (and not an almost blow out as against BU) because I won't be able to see the end tonight and would like to know the Ags will win. My wife and I have tickets to see Yo Yo Ma in Waikiki. Not your everyday concert. Go Ags!
I really like Bob Williams' commentary. He knows the game like few people do. I always wondered why he didn't catch on with a major program. He pointed out that the foul (and it really is foul) shooting problems of all but Pepper are due to mental issues. Overthinking the shot or something.
We just got home from the game. Man, these last few games have been frustrating to watch. We've been in 3 straight games where we have squandered big leads and missed a ton of FT's. We were 16-30 tonight and a bunch of those were the front end of one-and-one's. 8-26 three point shooting didn't help either.
We looked great at in the first 10 minutes of the game. The defense was stifling and the ball movement was good on offense and we built an 12 point lead. Things went downhill from there. I thought Pacific was the aggressor in the second half especially on defense. They made things tough for us and battled on the boards. We had too many defensive breakdowns and critical TO's at critical moments.
Les was very displeased, to say the least, with the team in his post-game comments. He said the players lost their toughness when a few shots didn't fall and got away from playing as a team and started playing "me, me, me" basketball. They got away from the "scheme" on both ends of the floor. The ball movement went away and they began taking rushed, poor shots. He commented on the atrocious FT shooting and he said the players shot a ton of FT's in practice and everyone was making them. Then they get into the game and can't make FT's. He said it's a lack of "mental toughnes and it's ridiculous." I think there's going to be some tough practices before the next game.
Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, not all but some think there’s an I in team. I agree with the coach, me, me, me. He also needs to look at who are making TOs and missing FT and shake this team up. They have the stats so it’s up to the coaching staff. I don’t think they were outplayed on any of the losses. I think they gave the other teams an opening and they took the gift.
I left with the Ags trailing by 4 and around 6 minutes to play. Sounds like it was an exciting ending when Pepper made that 3 to bring them within one, but too little, too late. Very frustrating that they lost this game while missing 14 free throws. Take away Pepper and they were 10 of 23. They need to figure this out before Big West play starts.
Well, it got exciting in the last minute, but it didn’t need to be. Uop seemed to control the offensive boards and they nailed their FTs. I think Les needs to bring the band into FT practice. But there were times when the house was dead silent and we were still missing them. Painful to watch.
The team is off for almost two weeks for finals. Maybe coach Les should give them final exams on "The Difficult Craft of Shooting Free Throws." Seriously and, not too much of the burden on the players, I wonder if there is a sports psychologist who works on the team. There are a variety of methods that can be used to help with the mental aspects of specific skills from relaxation to visualization. My former grad school adviser did some of that kind of work using video and other techniques to help the Hawaii baseball team.
I was an excellent free throw shooter, and what I attempted to do was softly set the ball on the front rim. The balls.momentum going forward would help the ball climb over the front rim. From there the ball would either go through all net or it would climb over the front rim and settle in the hole. The forward momentum was just enough that even if it hit the back Iron there wasn't enough force for it to bounce back over the front rim. Hence the ball always seemed to roll in. Yes, I was also a very good shooter, but this philosophy worked so well I never missed more than 1 free throw in a 12 game season of City ball