I'm going to disagree. Big West isn't a well-funded conference. Dealing with the travel expense if definitely non-trivial. The NIT has it's own sources income (although I don't know how it works or how much is involved.)

The travel situation is the killer for having a decentralized tournament. Hawai'i is certainly demonstrates the difficulty. As does Davis.

If the conference winner isn't known until the last game and has to host the tournament beginning on Tuesday the teams are going to be working really hard to find rooms. I don't know if there are local motels like the one in "Survive and Advance" that had the mirrors on the ceiling but there might be some sub-optimum lodging.Or some really expensive choices in Sacramento. In the case of Hawai'i the problem is both lodging and air travel. I don't think the Big West can fork over for every team to travel on charter and the airfares for commercial would be expensive. Lodging might be rather hard to come by on short notice.

Having the conference tournament in SoCal at least put the games close to most of the schools.

And, frankly, having the tournament in the gambling center of the US reeks of problems. I'm old-fashioned about this but it's just too easy to get a player to tip the scales in subtle ways.

Thanks for looking. I enjoy sharing.

Here are a few shots from the game:

CSUN @ UCD men's basketball

I can't find the replay on ESPN+ ????

This was a terrific game to watch. My wife came away feeling that the "big calls" (or lack of them) went strongly against the Ags. I know for certain there was a no-call on Pepper toward the end of the game that was so utterly blatant...well, does not good to argue over calls.

We are over-matched consistently in the lane. Learning not to foul where there's no more to be done is a lesson the Ags haven't learned very well this season.

I'm concerned with Fuller's loss and hope he might return next week? I thought he was out during the shoot-around before the game but then he wasn't dressed.

Need to shoot free throws better - that's for sure!

Here are some shots from the game:

UC Santa Barbara vs UC Davis at Hamilton Court

Really glad to see so many of the subs get substantial playing time. They got quality minutes playing together. I think everyone scored.

It doesn't have to go that way however - the virus could have mutated into something more lethal and still very transmitted. Less likely but still a real possibility. If SARS had been as transmissible as COVID we'd be totally screwed right now.

I'm all for getting the bench as many minutes as possible right now. After scoring 2 points with 11% shooting, the Tritons are actually outshooting the Ags 28 to 26%. Looking forward to a 2nd half with better ball movement.

Here's a link to photos from the Hawai'i game

Hawai'i Men at UC Davis

I'm hoping that Jen will elect to play the bench more. We're not going to win the conference but if we want to win the tournament we'll need to rest our starters more than we have to this point. I suspect we'll be in the "play-in" portion. So the team needs to win 4 straight in 5 days. We need more of a contribution from the bench to make that happen. And we need to stop tossing the ball away. Argh! the TOs are killing us.

What a fabulous game to watch! We came home and racked it up on ESPN+ to view again. Screw the Olympics! Okay - we watch some of that later.

In the 2nd half, when Hawai'i had pushed the lead to nearly 14 Les took out Pepper. There was a conversation between them - not heated, Les wasn't agitated - but then Pepper walked down the bench looking despondent and I worried the team had lost faith. Ha! Teach me!

I also loved hearing the women's team doing their whoop-whoop while the Ags were on defense. And a huge thumbs up for their being at the game. They must have come directly from arriving on the flight back from the islands.

I found Bob Williams' insights on player rest to be fascinating.

I totally agree about the officiating. Another case of brain transplant at the half. One of the officials was part of the crew that did the Long Beach game and he lived down to that standard. There were a LOT of high elbows. I think I have photos of some. Going through the pictures now. Was so into the game in the 2nd half I forgot to take pictures so I missed some of Manjon's incredible drives to the hoop.

Wow - what a game.

Anigwe was wearing some sort of belt with red LEDs on it when he came out of the locker room at the half and had it on every time he came out of the game. Maybe one of those stimulator things? He definitely looked pained during his appearances in the 2nd half.

The Beach did a fine job of taking Pepper out of the game in the 2nd half. I'll have to watch the video to see what was happening.

Looking forward to being in our normal seats on the 1st !

We’ve slipped a lot this year. I’ve watched most of the women’s teams play now (thanks ESPN+) and feel we’re in the 2nd division (in old-time baseball talk.) There’s just no bench. And so many turnovers. We caught the 2nd half when we returned home from the men’s game. Not happy viewing.

The Ags will have to bring their very best game to stay with The Beach on Saturday.

I’m sorry to be so negative but I’m not seeing progress with this team. I’m not sophisticated enough to say why or what’s wrong.

We’ll, I found last night’s game incredibly entertaining - also frustrating for all the reason expressed by others. I’m also happy with the new lighting which really makes a difference. I haven’t looked at the video of the game but I’m betting it’ll make a difference.

What I’ve noticed is how our inside game just died toward the end of the game - many of the shots were, well, acrobatic, but not easy to make. The Beach will present the same problem.

The free throw shooting was awful.

I liked seeing so much of the bench in the first half. They weren’t stellar but I enjoyed seeing them and feel they didn’t hurt us.

I still can’t get over how quick Manjon is. Damn, he can slither through amazingly small openings.

Frankly, not a great week for the Aggie women. Yes, they had two good quarters against UCSB but the final quarter, and the four quarters of the CSUN game were not the kind of basketball expected.

To me the team looks slow. Against two very quick teams we've done poorly. The Beach will be an even great test. After the starters we don't show much depth and even less quickness. I'm concerned. Given the play we've seen in conference I'm not confident at all that the Ags can finish in the top four.

I see from an e-mail (and conversation with the ticket folks) that fans willl be allowed to attend the Saturday women's game should they actually occur. However, court-side seating and seating within the first three rows closest to the court will not be allowed. Those seats will be moved. Also, no eating or drinking inside the facility - masks must remain on at all times.

Hopefully there might be a game. Bakersfield seems to be going through a rough patch with the COVID thing. This omicron variant really does seem to be nearly as bad as measles in terms of how easily it spreads. Fortunately the vaccinated seem to handle it pretty well unless you have, what do you call it, co-morbidities?

Anyway - stay healthy out there.

Just a BIT late but...here's a photo sequence of Manjon driving the lane for a totally amazing bucket. I don't know how he did it. You can run through the sequence using the non-very-obvious arrows to the right and left of the photo's pane.

Manjon Drives the Lane against Portland

I was pleased to see the team pull itself together in the 2nd half of the game. Loss of a point guard hurts as does poor situational awareness by the Ags. The tendency to make passes as if there were no opponents or to force passes when there's no way the pass will be completed continues. Some of this is good coaching by the opponents who have figured out the basics of the Ags' offense and come up with some defensive strategies. But other times it's just poor discipline.

Svanholm had a reasonable game. I thought Hall was absolutely HAMMERED throughout the first half and well into the 3rd quarter. This seemed a rougher game than the Washington State game.

QUESTION: I've heard conflicting reports about games that were cancelled/postponed. Will they be made up or not?