Good crowd today. Tough defense by both teams.

Where have I seen this before? Too many unforced turnovers and all the scoring by Pepper (9 of 11)

27-25 Aggies in a game dominated by the defenses. Ags need to clean up the TO’s in the second half.

49-48 Aggies with 3:37 to go. Rugged, physical defenses by both teams.

Well, they're still turning it over too much but they're making up for it by hitting the boards really well. Pepper in a bit of a slump, drawing front iron a lot as if he's a bit worn out.

They’re defending Pepper really well. Nothing coming easy in this game.

What a finish! We've been pulling out some gutsy wins!

Niko Rocak: 5 blocks, 8 rebounds and 2 steals. He is the MVP of this game, TY's last minute 3 notwithstanding.

It's probably faster asking this message board instead of googling it. Who wins the tiebreaker if UC Irvine and UC Davis tie at the end of the season?

Well that was a ton of fun!!

I like that we are winning the close games this year. Too many times in past years we did not. Based on our pre-season I did not think we would be doing near this well. Hope they can keep it up.

The school with the better record in away games is the higher seed. If there is still a tie, it comes down to a coin flip. (I'd like to say I remember this from a few year's ago, but I googled it.)

It's great to be in first place, but all credit goes to the team and coaches. I've written this before: it helps a lot in these close games that the team is full of upperclassmen all who were on the team last year. It's a rare luxury these days in college basketball. I think their ability to persist with poise and clear play is largely due to their experience. Here's hoping it takes them to the big dance.

check Irvine’s roster. They might have as much or more experience as us. Probably explains the battles we have.

Irvine depends on high school recruits probably more than anyone in the conference. I was checking the program today and they had something like 10 guys listed with a high school (as opposed to the college they transferred from). Greet program.

The official timeouts ALMOST drained the life out of the gym. Still not sure what happened with the Tomba T - I thought they were debating an Irvine flagrant on the drive.

I saw that these two teams have played 17 games against each other that were decided by 3 points or less.

The defensive intensity by both teams was incredible and the officials were letting them play otherwise we would have had 50 fouls. I really appreciate great defense and I think we just saw the two best defensive teams in the Big West battle it out.

Great basketball game. Great crowd and a really fun game for the Aggie fans! I hope they'll come back because this team is playing their hearts out and deserve to be supported.

Still not sure what happened with the Tomba T - I thought they were debating an Irvine flagrant on the drive. — DrMike

Just prior to the official review, the announcer said that there was a foul by Irvine's #11 (Tillis). After the review, Tamba ended up with a T and didn't get to shoot any FT's. I have no idea what happened. Luckily, Irvine missed both of the FT's.

Tamba shoved a UC Irvine player when both were out-of-bounds.

So apparently they didn't call a foul on the Irvine player when Tamba went up for the layup.

Niko Rocak proved to be a true anchor all-night for UC Davis, setting a program record for most blocks in a game with six. Rocak ranks first during conference play in blocks, recording 2.1 per game, and stands alone as the only player to be averaging more than two per game during the first month of Big West action. Offensively, Rocak battled all night and was responsible for a pair of emphatic slams that provided life to the home crowd.

After the game, Johnson spoke in depth about his unwavering confidence with the game on the line. "Big-time players make big-time shots in moments like that," Johnson said. "I work so hard in and out of practice so much and manifest the ability to make those type plays, and lately it's been coming through so I'm going to stick with it."

UC Davis coach Jim Les also praised Johnson's performance and leadership today.

"We have confidence and a lot of faith in putting the ball in his hands to go and make a good decision with space."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/1/20/mens-basketball-johnsons-game-winner-leads-uc-davis-past-uc-irvine-54-52.aspx

Here's what Tomba experienced. He was hammered. how there wasn't a foul called boggles my mind. This was a very physical game and it probably had the highest amount of energy expended per point scored of any game I can recall.

Tamba hammered as he attacks the bucket.

Click any image to enlarge.

Attendance 2200.

2153 was reported for the UCI-UCD game. Best student turnout of the season and definitely the loudest crowd of the season. Hard not to be engaged with a game that was this close.

Wow...your photo clearly shows that Tamba got whacked hard across his arms. How could the official on the baseline not call that? It's very clear that Tamba got fouled hard and there's no players blocking the view.

Right. Not saying other teams don't have it, but it certainly explains why the Aggies are able to come through in the clutch. I agree with you that the officials really put a damper on the game getting a little OCD with the clock issues.

It's never really clear whether a bad game by a really good shooter like Eli Pepper is due to his being cold or due to the defense. Yesterday he was 3 for 11 with only 14 points. UCI had their best defender on him, but one way to tell that he was off was that he missed some wide open shots, plus 2 free throws. Most likely it was a combination of both the defense and his not being his best. Back when I was playing lot, I would occasionally (and not often enough) get the hot hand and no defense could stop me even guys with 6 inches on me. When I wasn't hitting, it was not due to the defense. WE can even see this at the NBA level with guys like Steph Curry.

It's never really clear whether a bad game by a really good shooter like Eli Pepper is due to his being cold or due to the defense. — Toke69

I've been watching the ESPN+ replay because I really enjoy hearing Bob Williams' comments during the game. He's a great basketball mind and he adds so much the broadcast for us fans with his insight into what's happening on the court and what the coaches are doing during the game. He commented that Les and Turner are two of the best coaches in the Big West.

He mentions that these are the two best defensive teams in the league and both teams play defense very hard. He also noted that Irvine likes to play 10 deep so they can keep up their defensive pressure throughout the game.

Turner had his team focused on shutting down Pepper. If you watch the replay and focus on Pepper you can just how hard he had to work in order to get a halfway decent look. Irvine dogged him constantly with double and even triple teaming him. They played him very physical with chest-to-chest defense, lots of bumping and hand checking and he often had to fight through double and even triple teaming to try and get a halfway decent look. He did not shoot the ball particularly well overall but I think most of that was due to the constant defensive pressure that Irvine put on him for the whole game. He's tough as nails but all of that physical play had to wear him down some and that had to have an effect on his offensive game. I think we'll see more teams defend him that way for the rest of the season.

Rocak had a great game overall. He defended Irvine's talented bigs really well and was blocking shots on players who had 4 inches on him. He's has improved immensely this year. I'd like to see him become more consistent in hitting that mid-range jumper that teams are giving him. Teams are clogging the paint to prevent TY and Eli from driving the ball and, if Rocak can start hitting that mid-range jumper with some consistently, teams will have to come out and defend it and that should help open up the lanes to the basket.

The last 3 wins by the Aggies were all tough, tense battles but they found a way to grind the wins. This team plays very unselfish basketball and has a lot of heart and that bodes well for us. It won't be easy by any means but Les has his team playing at a high level right now.

We all know that Les builds his teams primarily around great guards and our roster often does not have the size that we see each year with teams like Irvine, Long Beach and Santa Barbara for example.

Bob Williams made an interesting comment regarding Rocak when he said, "He's my kind of big man. I didn't really care if my big men didn't score much. I wanted them to be physical, rebound, make FT's under pressure, set good screens and play their rear ends off and make everybody else better." He went on to say that the coaches at Santa Barbara and Irvine want different things out of their bigs than Les does.

He also mentioned the Rocak was a walk-on and was a great steal for the Aggies. I'm sure he's on scholarship now but I didn't know he was a walk-on. I thought we picked him up through the portal.

He was definitely a transfer from Santa Barbara. I think that was the point of that comment, that he wasn't the right fit at SB and not what they were looking for, but that Les doesn't look for those same things in his bigs. And because of that, Rocak is fitting in at Davis.

https://ucsbgauchos.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/niko-rocak/599

Rocak was huge in the win over Irvine...6 blocks against the kind of size Irvine has...amazing...