The Aggies hit the road and travel to Northridge to take on CSUN at 7 pm tonight. The Ags beat the Matadors 63-56 just a week ago in the Pavilion in a game in which the Aggie offense just struggled to find a rhythm. CSUN will be hungry to knock off the Ags who are tied for first place in the Big West with Santa Barbara.
There is currently a log jam at the top of the Big West with 6 teams within a game of each other so the Ags need to win on the road against a team like CSUN. The teams that win at home and at least spit on the road will have the inside track to the title. Getting a win at CSUN will most likely be easier than beating Long Beach State in their house on Saturday.
Siler ended up with a hard to come by 15 points of 6-15 shooting but, as usual, his energy and competitiveness was great. It was hard to see him miss two wide open layups in a row in the second half though. The thing you have to love about him though is that he just will not hang his head and quit.
I thought we got some nice contributions from Joe Mooney with 11 points and some great hustle and timely baskets by Michael Onybalu. Garrison Goode defended well as he always does but, man, I sure wish he could make a few of those point blank shots from 4 feet.
Those 3 quick fouls on Chima in the first 5 minutes of the second half had Jim Les going bonkers. The 3rd foul was ticky tacky for sure. The official 3 feet from the play didn't see any foul but the guy 18 feet away blew his whistle. I hate it when an official calls a touch foul that did not put the offensive player at any disadvantage especially when the official right on top of the play didn't see a foul. Arrrrgh!
Those UCSB games will be huge. I'm not feeling up to doing a complete scenario analysis but if we sweep we're in a pretty strong place to win the conference (even with a random other loss somewhere) provided nobody else down the table wins out.
Man, replacing virtually the whole roster around Chima and still right in contention for the Big West. This program has come a long way.
3 point shooting wasn’t great (23%) and only 70% from the line ( several misses on front end of one-and-ones). A couple more 3’s and hit a couple of those front end FT’s and this would have been an easy win. 6 turnovers. That must be a season low.
Was hoping John’s hot hand last week would carry over but not so much. Mooney had one of his best games. Any Jackson sighting?
UC Davis (6-2)
UC Santa Barbara (6-2)
Long Beach State (6-3)
Cal State Fullerton (5-3)
UC Irvine (5-3)
Hawai'i (4-3)
CSUN (2-5)
Cal Poly (2-6)
UC Riverside (0-8)
Are you guys big fans of Jacksons game? I think he's young and I'd prefer to see him keep practicing. I personally want printup to get minutes before jackson at the moment.
Nothing against either player but I'm just thinking about our rotation.
Jackson is a very strong looking player but he is young and has not seen a lot of playing time so it's hard to really know how he will adapt to the speed of the D1 game. He certainly has the physicality to hold his own but, from the small amount of playing time he has gotten, he did not look particularly comfortable on the floor. I think Les sees a lot of potential for development with time particularly as a strong physical presence on the defensive end.
Rogers Printup has been hot and cold offensively this season. When he's feeling it he can knock down the 3 ball when he has a good look. His playing time has been limited also but he doesn't appear to be the type of player that can create his own shot off the dribble one on one. He also seems to be a step slow at times in keeping his man in front of him defensively. If his defensive skills improve then I think Les will give him more playing time.
Even if healthy, I don't think Jackson would have contributed much this season. Maybe a few minutes here and there, and maybe some time during the grueling BWT (hopefully all 3 games). But really, any down time he's experiencing now effects his growth for next year. With Michael graduating, we'll need someone in that defensive wing position (the Michael, L. White, A. Johnson, role). Mooney seems like he'll slot into the backup to Schneider, leaving Jackson, Printup, or freshman red-shirt Nelson (unless someone else is brought in). But plenty of time to obsess about that later, though.