MBB UC Davis (5-3) at Idaho State (7-5), Sunday Dec. 21, 3 pm, on ESPN+

Toke69

Pocatello is a familiar place to football fans. In the Big Sky, the basketball team is in the middle of the pack, a spot they are used to. This season, they were projected to be 5th in the conference. Head Coach Ryan Looney is in his 7th season and brought a 68-112 (.378) record with the Bengals this season. The series stands at 1-3 with the only Aggie win coming the last time they played in 2020, the COVID season. They’re pretty tough at home with a 5-1 record, although the opposition has not been strong to include lower division schools Montana Western, Park University Gilbert and Justice College. They also crushed CSUN 82-50. On the road, they’ve lost to some pretty good teams, such as Santa Clara and Utah Valley. They also lost to Seattle, 74-83, in Seattle, so there’s some basis for comparison there, given that the Ags came close to beating the Redhawks.

Idaho State has a good frontcourt with forwards Caleb Van De Griend (6’8”, 14.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and Connor Hollenbeck (6’7”, 13.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg) the two leading scorers. Van De Griend does not start but comes off the bench for Evan Otten (6’11”) and is on the court a lot more. Hollenbeck is their 3-point threat as he hits 41% beyond the arc. They run a three guard backcourt with Jamison Guerra at the point with Martin Keheil and Lachlan Brewer. Chiek Sow, a 6’7” guard from Senegal also gets a lot of minutes. Their 5 leading scorers account for about 75% of their 74.5 ppg. Statistically, they match up very evenly with UC Davis. For example, they shoot 46.1% as do the Ags and they from the floor and 32.8% from 3 compared to the Aggies 33.3%. Given that this is an away game, I tend to think the Ags might be hard pressed to win this one. UC Davis is 1-4 in away games so far.

DrMike

This would be a big victory - Les didn’t schedule easy coming out of finals so it would be great to salvage one win before the tuneup next Sunday vs Pacific Union.

Toke69

10-10 at the first media timeout. Ags are playing pretty well so far at both ends. Otten already out for ISU. I can see this game going either way.

Toke69

Oddly, the Ags are making good on a lot of the old-fashioned 3 point play ( 4 in 4 chances), while the Bengals are making good on the long range 3 point play. Ags now lead 23-15 midway through the half. I like the way the team is hustling and playing very physically. The arena seems to have the same structure as Health Center. I thought I was watching a game in Davis except for the tiger and the colors.

DrMike

38-29 with 3:30 in half. Playing well except for 3 pointers (2-11). Les has played 11 guys so far; Franklin gave them a nice spark. Plating much more aggressive.

Toke69

This has to be the best they've played all season. They're moving the ball very well, hitting 57% from the floor and 100% from the free throw line. Nine of the 11 Aggies have scored. It's a good thing they've got a lot of depth, because the game has been filled with fouls so far. Hope they can keep it up in the second half.

DrMike

Up 50-35 at the half. 2-10 from 3 ( both by Chappell),; decent shooting there are we would really be in good shape. Most aggressive I’ve seen us on offense getting good shots in the paint. 9-10 from FT and 3-10 turnover difference is the story of the half.

BlueGoldAg

This is as good a first half that the Ags have played this season so far. 9 of 11 players have scored and no one has more than 7 points. Now that's spreading the scoring around! The ball movement and passing on offense has been great.

DrMike

Offense has slowed down alot in second half - I think they are clogging the middle snd not respecting our deep shooting. Still up 12 with 12 to go

Toke69

Getting too close for comfort now with 7 minutes left and Ags lead cut to 5.

DrMike

Their 11-23 from the Arc got them back in. They got a frosh with zero 3’s and he is 3-3. 84-78 4:22 to go.

Officiating in the second half has been really tight. Rocek is gone

BlueGoldAg

The officiating is ridiculously bad especially on those calls where the offensive player initiates the contact under the basket when the offensive player simply jumps into the defender on the shot and gets the foul every time. Impossible for Rocak and Chapelle to play defense under the basket.

Toke69

We got this one! (Despite the refs.) Nice the way the Ags were able to stave off Idaho State down the stretch. If they can play this well in the Big West, they'll be in the mix.

DrMike

Some big buckets and good defense (and sideshow Bob coming back down to earth) snd we put away a really nice win!

MTBAggie

Unp next are the Pacific Union Pioneers? An 0-10 NAIA team...

BlueGoldAg

BlueGoldAg

We scored 50 points in the paint to the Bengals' 20 and we only had 6 TO's for the game. Really good to see the Ags "weather the storm" in the second half. We haven't seen much of Cyril Franklin Jr this year but he had 10 points in 16 minutes on 5-6 shooting. Nice depth for the Ags!

eastbayaggie

↪BlueGoldAg

Holy crap! I was about to write the exact same thing about Cyril, but you beat me to it!

Toke69

Final stats show that the Aggies shot 60% for the game, mostly due to the way they were able to score in the paint. The trey shooting was disappointing at 4 for 16, but that was offset by all the 2s. What was also impressive was the Aggies 25 rebounds to the Bengals 28, considering the height disparity. The solid play of the Aggies also shows in having only 6 turnovers to 15 assists.

BlueGoldAg

The post-game, radio interview with assistant coach, Stan Nosek, was excellent. He talked about how they feel it takes 10 games before you really know the team and the players know each other. He felt that the Ags showed their offensive confidence in the first 4 games of the season but then it went missing for a while and the players lost some of that confidence and the offense had its struggles but came back in the Seattle game and today. He also said they have been challenging the players to find the Aggie style of play which he calls "Aggie DNA" and it means "disruptive, non-stop aggression" and we played with that today especially in the first half.

I thought it was interesting when he said that a scorer like Sevilla will often have a tough time finding an opening for his shot in the first half against good teams and that he's learning to have the patience waiting for the game to loosen up and then finding the right time to assert himself. He said Sevilla did that tonight and he thought that this game was the best he has ever seen Connor do that. He also had praise for CJ Franklin. He said they saw his ability this summer but it's just taken a bit of time for him to get it going again. He said CJ is very athletic, long and good defender who can get to the rim and has a nice mid-range shot.

Nosek is impressive. He could be a good head coach somewhere if he wanted it.

DrMike

I was very impressed with Franklin. For a player who has had almost zero playing time, he was confident and in control. Got to the bucket very well.

We could use that boost in confidence with Omar and Stokes. Both are talented, but they don’t seem very confident right now. Stokes could really help with points around the bucket, Omar from the outside.

I fear our Achille’s heel with be lack of depth at the center spot. We give up too many second chance points in the paint, especially with Niko on thd bench

Oldbanduhalum

I fear our Achille’s heel with be lack of depth at the center spot. We give up too many second chance points in the paint, — DrMike

It feels like you could copy and paste this post every year.

eastbayaggie

Les has a philosophy that a team can never have too many guards. I just wish he has the same philosophy with centers.

DrMike

↪Oldbanduhalum

it would amazing if Noudjihidi could provide some solid defensive minutes to spell Niko. Last year, I thought Borra would be back to be that guy, but never recovered physically.

Yesterday, he were getting beat inside by guys without a ton of size - just physically willed their way to the hoop. I think that’s why we were so successful in the paint offensively - they didn’t have run protectors like we’ve seen from teams like Oregon and Colorado (even Seattle)

Oldbanduhalum

↪DrMike

I Agree about Noudjihid. The few times I've seen him on the court you can certainly see why he is a "project". But a few minutes here and there during the OOC portion of the schedule would seem to make sense for his development. And I guess whatever is keeping Ylan Essis on the shelf is probably season ending? Having another 6'8" 220 lb interior player would have been nice.

On the plus side, having both Daughtery and now CJ coming off the bench certainly adds to our wing depth. I liked what I say from CJ and Daughtery adds another bench scorer.

DrMike

During the broadcast. They mentioned ISU opened big sky play vs sac so I thought I’d check on the final four bound hornets. Currently sitting at 4-7 with 3 D2 wins and another against perennial powerhouse Presbyterian. They play CSUN tonight. Hopefully Dr Shaq can get their ship pointed in the right direction cuz they’ve run out of D2 schools

BlueGoldAg

I fear our Achille’s heel with be lack of depth at the center spot. — DrMike

Verbalcommits.com shows that we have an offer out to Ryan Hunt who is a 7 foot sophomore at Eastern Arizona College. He's from Perth, Australia. He is only averaging around 5 points per game so, like Noudjihidi, he appears to pretty raw and more of a defender but, generally speaking, we don't get high scoring big men with the more guard heavy style that Les likes. Hunt already has 11 offers including us, UCSB, Maryland, TCU, North Dakota, Manhattan, Bowling Green, UT Arlington, Southern Utah, Indiana State and Charlotte.

https://www.verbalcommits.com/players/ryan-hunt

I think Chima was the last elite big man that we had whose offense could take over a game. Les generally looks for big men who are strong defenders and rebounders first and foremost which isn't a bad strategy at the mid-major level. Look at the remarkable success of UCSD last year where the team was built around elite guards and forwards and, even with a new coach, they seem to be doing the same this year too.