Big West play resumes with the Aggies travelling south (the usual direction for conference away games) to take on the Roadrunners. Bakersfield’s 0-2 start could be deceptive given that their losses were to UC Irvine and UC San Diego. On the other hand, to quote Greg’s substack: “the Roadrunners have the softest non-conference schedule in the Big West with their opener at Cal being the only game against a team that ranked better than 200 in NET last season.” Thus, their 6-6 record might not be that impressive. On the other hand, the last time the Ags faced the Runners on their home court they got beaten badly 75-56. It also took the Ags OT to beat them in Davis. On the other other hand, they have not played since they lost to North Dakota State on Dec. 23.
CSU Bakersfield’s leading scorer (15.5 ppg) is Jemel Jones, a Juco transfer who was a two time NJCAA II All-American. Returning starters are guards Corey Stephenson (13.9 ppg and hitting 60% of his treys) and Marvin McGee (13.0 ppg) and forwards Tom Mark and Fidelis Okereke, although Mark has been missed their last four games. Their best big man is probably the 6’6”Okerekek who had 1.5 blocks per game. They do have a 6’” center in Shakir Odunew, a JC transfer who has logged only 10.6 minutes per game so far. Another transfer of note is C. J. Hardy who was the California JUCO player of the year at West LA.
Bakersfield is a tough place to play on the road and the Runners are always very athletic. I hope having Mani back will help us have some better offensive consistency. However, the Aggies have been up and down so far this season so it's hard to know what to expect.
They have two Marvin McGhee brothers- III and IV. I wonder if, growing up, their mother would just yell a number when she was mad at one of them ?
They have a G/F named Jaden Alexander. His height is listed at 6'5, but maybe he tells people there was shrinkage ?
It seems that Bakersfield has a big problem recruiting players who want to stay 4 years. Only 2 of their players are not transfers, and they are freshmen so they may just transfer out once they've had enough of that city. Of the transfers only 1 isn't from a community college. A JUCO all-star team, just like in the D-II days.
Fouls are starting to accumulate on both sides. Oddly officiated game so far. Guys are getting killed without a call, then something where no one seems to understand the call.
Both Mani and Sansgter looked a lot better against CMA, but I guess that shows the difference in quality of the opposition. I'm betting we don't see Mani again in this one. Seems like Rocak wasn't in the game as much as usual. Wonder if he's okay?
Blue collar, physical basketball game...refs have been very inconsistent...allowing lots of rough play and then calling touch fouls...not a pretty basketball game to say the least...
Don't think much of the Roadrunners TV guys. They're about the worst homers in the league asking for fouls on the Bakersdfield players. One of them was calling Rocak "Mani" in the second half. They also have made a bunch of mistakes on the number of fouls on Aggie players.
Man the refs are really changing this game. Also, this year you really don’t know what you’re gonna get. One day it’s this incredible team that can beat a GCU and another day it’s just brutal to watch haha
Can’t knock down an open shot. Both Leo and Connor are struggling when we do have a shot. Ugly game. Roadrunners are so physical it makes for a frustrating game
Ags shooting has really tailed off so that they're just about even now around 35%. It's clear that UCD is not comfortable playing in this kind of game, both last year and this year.
Got it down to 3 then some big mistakes (Sevilla foul on desperation 3, bad possession). Back up to 7 with them shooting and and-one after a frustration foul by Leo (who landed hard and hurt himself)
Tamba was a non-factor in this game (4 pts. no rebounds) until the end, but the rest of the team failed to give TY much offensive support with Sevilla's 10 and no one else in double figures. Ugly game, ugly place to play, ugly commentators and even their PA announcer was trying to rattle TY's foul shooting.
Les was not a happy camper in the post-game interview. He said it was a very physical game but they were more physical and we were on the receiving end of it and "we say that the team that hits first wins." He did not like that we only had 5 assists and said that "our offense was awful."
I've said it before, but the Aggies have trouble playing team ball on offense. They only had 5 assists but that is not unusual. They had only 5 against Pepperdine. In fact, with the exception of the Oregon State game they have single digits in assists i every loss this season. Between that, the lack of rebounding at both ends and poor outside shooting (4 of 21) there's a lot of blame to spread around. Things will only get harder Saturday vs.CSUN.
I think the low assist numbers last night had alot to do with our inability to hit the open 3 and the roadrunners crashing the offensive boards - I can only recall one fast break basket.
I think one thing I take away from the OSU, Pepperdine and Bako games is that our starting lineup is too small and lets opponents get in that first punch. If Sevilla is struggling with his shot, his lack of size outweighs his contribution on the offensive end. I was a bit surprised we didn’t see Chappell when our bigs got in foul trouble, or even before that when Mani couldn’t contend with their front court.
We were shooting well below 20% from 3, and around 50% from the line for the bulk of the game. That hurts. Add in the 12 offensive boards in the first half, and that’s not a winning formula.
that was weird when the PA guy lost his mind trying to get the fans to make noise during the second free throw….especially since he started that by ‘reminding’ the band that they can’t play during a free throw.
Also thought it was kind of chickenshit to have the student section sitting right behind our bench.
That group behind the Aggie bench was there deliberately, making a lot of noise during the timeouts to interfere with the coach's instructions. It's consistent with the Bakersfield brand of sportsmanship. Extra glad there's only one more visit there. Hope they never schedule them again for anything.