I've had a chance to watch most of the BW teams a bit in the past two weeks and here's how I would rank them at this point with plenty of room for teams moving up or down in the coming weeks.

UCSB and Irvine are most definitely the front runners and I'd give a slight edge to SB for having a small, overall talent advantage.

I'd place Riverside just a dab above the Aggies, Hawaii and Fullerton. Any games between this group of 4 will be an absolute dogfight.

Cal Poly is the sleeper in my opinion and could upset anybody on a given night with the rest of the teams being capable of creating some havoc of their own when they're having a good game.

Of course, there will be upsets along the way as the BW always seems to be quite balanced and competitive with lots of close battles between any two teams.

I watched the second half of Riverside's 1 point win at UCSB last week. They opened a double digit lead by shooting over 70% in the second half before barely hanging on for the win which was their first in 25 games played at UCSB.

What impressed me the most was that, although SB clearly had the edge in talent and size, the Highlanders were extremely disciplined and deliberate and they stuck to their game plan beautifully. They knew they couldn't get in an up and down game with SB and win so they slowed it down and worked the ball until they got a good shot and then nailed it. They were also doing a great job on the defensive boards. The only downside for them was a high number of turnovers which they managed to negate with their hot shooting. They will certainly be a tough out when they come to town on Thursday evening.

I think this game will be a very evenly matched contest. Our defense will need to be energetic and aggressive for the whole game in order to prevent the Highlanders from getting on a prolonged, shooting hot streak like they are capable of and we'll need to continue our remarkable rebounding while shooting a good percentage. We're getting some very good contributions from Rocak, Milling, and DeBruhl off the bench right now and we'll need that to continue as well.

The Ags are playing some of their best basketball of the year right now so this game should be a battle royale.

Keep the momentum going!

I see your football photo, my son played in 1998

Fanduel has Riverside as 5 1/2 point favorites with about 75% chance of winning. Pretty bold statement about the Highlanders. Gonna take a really good 40 minutes to keep the win streak going.

5:00 tip-off - late lunch at Raisin’ Cane for us before the game! Should avoid the usual late afternoon traffic on 680/80 and get home reasonably early

I;ll have to watch it about an hour after it starts due to a scheduling conflict.

33-28 Highlanders at the half. We’ve had some good ball movement but are having trouble getting the shots to fall. Riverside is a tough matchup for us inside when they go big.

Hard to find anything "wrong" with the way the Aggies played. It was close the whole second half, back and forth and UCR happened to be ahead at the end. I note that neither Borra nor Mani got in the game to counter the Highlanders bigs, so Coach Les must have little faith in them. Ags got 34 rebounds, only 2 less than UCR.

This was a great game between two very good teams and a tough one to lose at home though. UCR is an impressive basketball team with good size and depth. After watching them beat SB and then seeing them today, I think they are a bona fide contender for the BW title...right up there with Irvine and UCSB.

I caught some of the radio, post-game interview with Les and he said that we had a couple of defensive mistakes in the final two minutes that really hurt us. He said they knew Pullin likes to drive to the right so they talked about forcing him to go left on that final possession but we allowed him to go to the right and make made the bucket. He also said that we have to stop going into the half behind.

In other BW games today:

LB State 72 Fullerton 67
UCSB 72 CSUN 52
San Diego 71 Cal Poly 64
Irvine 76 Hawaii 68

That reverse ‘layup’ after an air ball (somebody lost their guy) and an uncontested tip in off a hurried shot were killers, as was the desperation 3 at the end of the shot clock. A stop on any of those and maybe it’s a different outcome.

Last few games we get in a hole late in the first half (tonight after a great opening 4 minutes). Can overcome that vs CSUN or UCSD, but these guys are good.

Anigwe got us back into it and sparked the team (and crowd). Game was there to win.

Decent crowd, good energy. Need a good effort vs an improved Poly to keep momentum

Anigwe has really developed into a wonderful basketball player and he's a pleasure to watch.

I think we can play with anybody in the league but we have to find a way to win these close games.

One head scratcher from last night. Down 3 coming out of the 4:00 media timeout with the ball. We run a designed high pick and roll with Ade which didn’t end well. They got the rebound and a bucket to go up 5. Seemed an odd time to isolate Ade even with their bigs in foul trouble.

Post-game comments from Les:

“We wanted to force them to the left at the end, but he managed to drive to the right, which is his strength,” said a disappointed Aggie head coach Jim Les afterward.

“We had a couple of defensive lapses there at the end that ended up being the difference. We have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot at the end of the half and the end of the game.”

“The nice part about this is we have about 12 hours to think about this one and then we get back at it with Cal Poly,” Les added.

“If we can learn from our mistakes and get better, we can be a pretty good basketball team.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/basketball-uc-davis-men-3/

Marsh and Williams were both curious about that play. They both want Ade to be more confident in his offense, but that seemed like a strange time to push it.

Williams frequently mentions the need for Ade to put the ball up more often because not ding so means that defenses sag off on his team-mates. I'm sure that Jim Les understands that and has probably pushed Ade to show more offense. Even trying a 3-point shot at the start of the game would help. And here I speculate: Maybe Les gave Ade that play BECAUSE the Highlanders would least expect him to be shooting at that point?

I can only assume they thought Riverside would double Pepper and leave Ade a clear path to the hoop. Didn’t work that way

It is unfortunate that Ade struggles so much to score. He's so athletic and strong and is a fantastic defender but he just seems so unsure when he has a chance to score.

I'm a big fan of putting ball in the hands of your ace playmakers when the game is on the line and give them a chance to create a play and make a bucket and/or get fouled. That's exactly what Riverside did and it won the game for them.