We finished the game with 5 guards on the floor and 3 of them had 4 fouls. Thank God the game didn't go into a 3rd OT. We cold have ended up playing 2 on 5!

My calls for printup were answered too (from the other thread)! Happy to see him make the most of his minutes!

Well they showed us on sports center but we didn't make the top 10

As the creator of this site, I thought you should know that the "Terms of Service" text is no longer accessible.

A quote from Bruce Weber - Head Coach Kansas State;

"The biggest thing, and the hardest thing, to judge is the heart. You can have the athleticism, you can have the skillset, but if you don’t have the heart and if you’re not a student of the game, then you don’t have the complete package."

More than anything, the players on this Aggie team have HEART...

For anyone who wasn't able to watch the game and for all the fans who just want to see the game again, you can watch the entire game replay here:

http://www.espn.com/watch/_/id/3252368/uc-davis-vs-long-beach-state-m-basketball

My dad, son, and I were at the game. It was terrific. It is interesting to hear Les say that the play was for Shorts to go to the rim, because my dad and I agreed that the only choice there was a three to win or lose. If we had only tied it, we had three players with four fouls, and likely would have finished the game 3 on 5 in triple overtime. Not sure how Beach didn't force Shorts to his right...he killed them all night long.

That was heart and coaching...Les is not warm and fuzzy, but he definitely outcoached Monson last night.

I'm still riding high after that win. Hope Chima comes back soon because we could be a froce by the end of the season.

This game sort of makes it easier to see who starts next year.

It looks like four of the starting positions are locked with Shorts, Schneider, John, and Goode.

I'm not sure who will replace Onyebalu. I thought it would be Delveion Jackson, but he has been conspicuously silent and absent lately. I'm just as concerned about Jackson as I am about Chima.

I'm curious to see how good Gonzalez and Strom are.

Maybe some one else posted this but I thought this was a great clip. Never seen the coach this happy.

https://mobile.twitter.com/BigWestMBB/status/960192918089752577/video/1

Nice post, SoCalAg. My wife said the same thing about Les out coaching Monson in the game. Les knew that Monson was probably going to try and double TJ if he got the initial inbound pass and designed a play with that in mind.

If you replay the video of the final 6.9 seconds it looks like LB was set up in a 2-2-1 zone press alignment with 6'8 Jordan Roberts and 6'3 Deishuan Booker guarding the area in front of Joe Mooney who was going to inbound the ball. Monson was betting that the Ags would try get the ball to TJ and let him take it to the rim. He wanted Roberts and Booker to double team and trap TJ if he got the ball. Les thought that might happen so he let TJ be a decoy as he raced in front of Booker and Roberts. As that was happening, Mooney made a deep pass into Printup while TJ was curling around those two defenders and was flying up the left sideline. Printup then made a nice pass to TJ who was now at full speed and the rest is history. Really smart coaching by Les and brilliant execution by the Aggies!

I love that video!

Here's a classy post-game interview with LB Coach Dan Monson and a brief interview their star player, Gabe Levin, who scored 45 points:

https://youtu.be/3ct1Wd42GiE

I wish we had post-game videos like this after each game.

Comments from Coach Les after the game (excerpt from the Davis Enterprise):

(Regarding Moneke's suspension)

“It’s indefinite right now,” explained UCD head coach Jim Les, who added he didn’t know for how long. “And the release kind of speaks for itself. What I like is these guys didn’t hang their heads. I talked to them about the foundation of our culture. It’s tested when you have adversity."

“And I thought it was tested,” Les continued. “It brought our guys together, not broke them apart. And that tells you the character of this team.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/heart-stopper-at-long-beach-won-by-aggie-men-despite-monekes-suspension/

Some recognition for these guys stepping up:

Garrison Goode - career high 14 points including 8-11 from the line and 6 boards. It was so great to see how aggressive he was in the paint. Chima was out and he really stepped into the void.

Rogers Printup - 13 points on 5-7 from the field and 3 boards.

Siler Schneider - 27 points on 10-17 from the field and 7-7 from the line and 4 rebounds.

Michael Onybalu - career high 11 boards.

Total team win!

spot on!

where Goode’s free throws has progressed too is just amazing.

The video shows Monson at the very end then cuts to a different one of Shorts final drive and shot. I am grateful for the highlight video but the Long Beach interview was not there. I'll find it on YouTube, but wanted you to know.

Thanks Toke69. I fixed the link. I had to do a different copy method to get the link to work. Strange...never had that problem before...something was wonky with the first link.

Goode gets better and better. Reminds me more and more of JT. Onybalu’s contributions have been under the radar all season. Does the little stuff winning teams need that often goes unnoticed.

This was the most assertive that I've ever seen him on offense and I hope it continues. I've always been a bit puzzled as to why he seems to struggle so much when it comes to scoring the ball. Chima goes out and all of a sudden Goode steps up....

It seems like he needs a couple of easy buckets to loosen up and get some confidence. Free throw shooting is a great sign especially in a game like that

If you are like me and can't stop watching the last shot, here is another angle from the crowd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iQHXlZv0Ns

UC Davis' RPI rating is now 83. Time to start wondering what their seed might be if they make it into the NCAA tournament?

I think it's far too early, Toke69. We still have 7 conference games to play and 2 of those are against UCSB who may be the odds on favorite at the moment. We may also be without Moneke for who knows how long...? Then there's the brutal Big West Tournament which will decide who goes to the NCAA tournament. We're still a one bid conference so even if we win the BW title we won't go to the NCAA tournament unless we win the BW tourney.

I'll entertain this question.

UC Santa Barbara has similar RPI as UCD's. Their RPI is 87.

According to the following link:
bracketmatrix

UCSB's average seeding is 14.60. One would anticipate that tournament upsets from other mid-major conferences would push UCSB closer to a 14th seed than a 15th seed. This should be similar to UCD's situation if we were fortunate to win the Big West Tournament.

It's fun to speculate and I'd be happy if we were a 15 seed. A 16 seed has never beaten a #1 seed but eight 15 seeds have upset a #2 seed.

I would say best case we’d be looking at a 14 seed. But realistically we need Moneke back to have a good shot at winning the Big West tournament. The road win vs Beach w/o him is reassuring but 3 games in 3 days w/o him would be brutal.

Then if we somehow win the BWT, no Moneke basically removes any shot we’d have at all in the tournament. Keep in mind a 15 seed plays top 10 competition. Les’ teams are gritty and no doubt overachieve but he needs tools to work with. Chima causes mismatches against almost any opponent. Let’s hope he’s back soon.

You're absolutely right about the impact of potentially not having Chima for the BW tournament. The win over LB and Lamar without him says a lot about the character of this team but we're a different team without him and it would be a huge loss. I'm hoping we'll see him back on the floor soon.

Assuming that the Aggies can make the tournament (huge assumption, I know), anything would be better than a 16 seed, especially as a play-in team.

Honestly, I would prefer a play-in game than a 16 seed also. Playing a #1 seed is pretty much a guaranteed trouncing. Last year we were all delighted to see us win the play-in game and we got a ton of national publicity from it.