Sam Manu, Niko Rocak, Kane Milling, Ade Adebayo, and Elijah Pepper will play their last game tonight at the University Credit Union Center. The graduating seniors are supposed to address the fans following the game.
Hawaii comes in 4-1 in their last 5 games and spanked the Aggies 87-70 in Hawaii. The Ags did not have an answer for McKoy who has been averaging 19/game. At Hawaii, Mckoy had 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Go Ags!
Huge game for the Aggies. Need to get back on track and play really good basketball in these final 3 games so that we have some positive momentum heading into the BW Tournament.
The Ags should have no problem getting emotionally up for this game. The team will want to send our 5 seniors off with a win in their final game at home and the Ags have a good rivalry with Hawai'i. I expect this game will be a real dogfight and I think it will be a very physical game. The Ags will need to come out aggressively from the get go, seize the home court advantage and get the crowd into the game.
The predicted rain could keep some of the fair weather, Aggie fans at home but I'm hoping the magnitude of this game and the chance to see our seniors for the final time will motivate majority of them to make it to the game regardless of the weather. Our seniors deserve to be sent off with a big, appreciative crowd.
Hawai`i has swept UCD at least 4 times since both teams joined the Big West. When the Rainbow Warriors first joined, I thought they would dominate since it was a step down from them from the Mountain West and teams like Utah and Brigham Young, but they've never done well on the road and that has been their Achilles heel. Hope that continues tonight.
I like the promotions they have going tonight. It's a Team Aggie event so there will be food and drinks for the Team Aggie donors. Honoring the seniors before the game is always a nice tribute for the players and their families. I believe this is the first time that the seniors will address the crowd after the game also. I think this is a great idea also. I hope we have a good crowd and the students show up.
Rocak is listed as a junior so he must be graduating early? Looking at all these impact players graduating makes me wonder about whether we’ll see TY next year.
The Honoluly paper had some nice quotations from Coach Les and underscored the importance of the game for both teams, noting that Hawai`i i has--as of pre-game--a mathematical shot at the two seed.
Pepper is still struggling from outside, but he still got 10. He and TY are the difference in the game, but Ade now has the energy that had been missing recently. In fact, the whole team has energy, which shows on the boards. They have 4 offensive rebounds to Hawai`i's 0. Only 2 turnovers to Hawai`i's 7.
This was a really good win for the Aggies. Great game, great crowd and energy in the building...a perfect send off for our seniors. Eli and TY with 30 apiece! Wow...can anyone remember if we've ever had two players with 30 points apiece in a game?
There was an OOC game in 2012 where Hawkins had 30 and Sypkens had 28, is the closest I could come up with with some hasty Googling. Which just speaks to how crazy an accomplishment it is -- we're talking about two of the best shooters in school history having near-career nights on the same night, and even they couldn't get 60 between them.
The sequence with Pepper’s four point play, followed by a 10-second violation, punctuated with another Pepper 3 was as loud as a I’ve heard the Pavillion in some time. Then Plough came out during the following time out to fire up the students, and the fun continued! Considering that came just after Hawaii’s run to cut it to 4, that sequence was amazing.
Almost as exciting was the 8-0 run, fueled by forced turnovers, to start. Team looked fresh and energized again!
Bako beat UCSD - let’s replicate that and hope Irvine beats the Beach Saturday.
On the island, they were 12-20 from 3; last night, 6-20. That’s a big swing. Several of those were desperation heaves as the shot clock was expiring. We also held McKoy to 9 - he was clearly frustrated. I thought our two bigs and Ade did a nice job (even though DaSilva went for 20). Les was gushing about the defensive effort and smarts.
The sequence of Pepper's impossible 3 from corner with the foul followed by the 10 second violation and then another Pepper 3 was one of the great moments in Aggie basketball history. I couldn't believe Pepper was even able to get that shot off with 6'8 Da Silva draped all over him.
How about TY dropping 30 also? He has grown so much since he came here. He struggled to keep his emotions in check last year and teams took advantage of it and tried to get under his skin and it affected his play at times. He's playing with a quiet confidence now and he led the Aggies in scoring during Pepper's recent 3 game drought. He's fearless, has great quickness and his defense is tenacious.
Throughout the game, our defense was a thing of beauty. Everyone was working so hard. Les does a great job of rotating players in and out and giving them a blow because it takes so much energy to continuously play defense that hard. We forced several shot clock violations and a several desperation shots as the shot clock wound down.
I loved it when Tim Plough came onto the floor and led the crowd in a Go Ags cheer. He got the crowd energized even more. Les and the players talked about how the team feeds off the energy from the crowd. In the radio post-game, Pepper said that the crowd reaction after he makes a 3 is the best feeling in the world.
This game was a great example of how much fun Aggie basketball can be when we have a good crowd that gets into the game. So much fun!
What a game to watch! Pepper's epic 4-point play began when he landed at our feet - I looked up to see the ball slip through the net, saw Pepper's jubilant gesture and the Hawai'i players consternation. It was, perhaps, more "in the game" than we were quite prepared for.
This was the very best of the Ags this season with fierce defense and rebounding. And a crowd the team deserved - just not as many as I could have hoped for.
They've nabbed at least a first-round bye. Now for a statement against UCSD and a decisive game against Long Beach. I think the team will remember the drubbing they received against the Tritons.
I hope the momentum form the Hawai'i game will carry over to the San Diego game. I remember that Les said the team was extremely disappointed in how they played after the blowout loss to the Tritons in front of the largest home crowd of the season.