I missed the game. Sounds like the Aggies pretty much cruised. Thanks for the updates Russ

I'm with you on everything you said. If at the beginning of the season, I'd have probably predicted losses at beach (though I might have gone the other way on this one), at UH, and at UI. Even home to SB I might have guessed a loss. So I'm not really surprised at the results. It's the upcoming games at UCR and Poly that are almost must wins. And a good showing at UCSB would help too.

I thought Saturday's game was one of the stranger games that I've seen from the Ags in a while. First, the coach sat two of his senior starters on the bench for most of the second half. I get that Schneider (5 2nd half mins) can be inconsistent, but Goode (3 2nd half mins) is a guy that the coach usually brings in to settle down the defense. Second, Les usually does not stick with a lineup that is not playing good defense, even at the expense of the offense. I don't know the exact amount of time, but he used TJ, Mooney, Gonzo, Printup, and John/Neufeld lineup for a large part of the second half when the game started getting out of reach. I kept waiting for Siler and Garrison to come back in to try something else, but it didn't happen. Third, I get that Les might of liked Printups' defense on Purchase, but it's asking a lot of a guy that has only averaged 13 mins/game (and a lot of that in clean up time) to all of a sudden produce in crunch time.

So, was Les trying to match up with Hawaii and thought these players truly gave us the best chance of winning? Or was he sending some sort of message to his team by sitting two senior starters? Or something else? I've watched probably 90% of the games that Les has coached here at UCD and this was truly one of the more oddly coached games.

she was ice cold at Csun. Rotation looked good though and she kept firing. So hopefully she’ll get back in the grove at home.

Ags playing exceptionally well. This team is showing a lot of maturity

With Ahmad, Alman and Rowe csuf can get hot and beat anyone. But 21 pts is surprising.

UCD wins 60-49. Ags pretty much controlled the game after the first qtr. Good road win

I think you’re right with both Csun playing zone and us using both bertsch and stobbart together. Just read the enterprise preview and it alluded to both those things. Should be interesting to watch

Man they could really shoot from the outside. It was definitely an exciting team to root for! I think that's the squad that turned my kids from causal into hardcore fans, who still stream the games even though they are both along ways from Davis.

As for Saturday, Ags will definitely need to stay aggressive on defense and get some easy buckets in transition. If we have to rely on our half-court offense, than Mooney/Schnieder/Gozalez will need to be on from the outside to open up some lanes to drive.

Go Ags!

I always figure the game @Hawaii is a loss, regardless of the records, although we generally keep it close. I imagine we'll play good solid defense, and perhaps the new 4 guard small lineup is effective enough to pull out a win. As BGA said, we'll need our A+ game.

The Hawkins game was in '13 where he scored 40 pts on 10-14 FG (8-9 3PT and 12-12 FT). One of the most impressive offensive performances I've seen. Oh, and he pulled down 12 rebounds! Amazing.

I should add Aaron Murphy to the lists of "bigs" for next year. He's listed at 6'6" in his bio, but several places have him at 6'7", and he is definitely an inside guy. Here's one quick write up that I've seen:

The 6-7, 215-pound power forward averaged 10.5 points and 6.8 rebounds a game last season for the Crusaders and he’s improved both averages in 2018-19. Rugged around the basket with a nice touch, Murphy accepted a full ride to UC Davis.

Add in the fact that our Bigs next year (let's say anyone 6'7" or over) consists of Matt Neufeld (starting now and shows signs of a decent inside game), Jonah Underwood (basically no minutes this year though he puts on a pretty good dunk-fest in warm ups) and Oliver Gehrke (6'7" recruit from Sweden). That's it. I know height isn't everything, two of our better inside players, Chima and Josh Fox, were both listed at 6'6", but still, barring any JC transfers, that's an incredibly thin front court. With a huge returning group off of a championship title, this was supposed to be the year. Yes, we might still be able to turn things around and finish in the middle of the pack, and maybe win a game or two in Anaheim, but it's currently very frustrating.

From today’s service.

I had a good piece of pizza and a beer, but that's probably not the bright spot you're interested in.

We played with energy, and for the most part, took care of the ball. Mooney got a lot more minutes, and shot well, at the expense of Squire. I thought our defense played well for the most part...several of the UCSB 3's were well contested, but our defensive rebounding was dismal (gave up 12 offensive rebounds to UCSB). There was a pretty good crowd and a decent buzz in the pavilion, but that's in part because of a good Gaucho turnout. No real aggie pack to speak of. The students that were there were sitting most of the night.

Overall, it just felt like we were beaten by the better team. Outside of Shorts, and Schneider at times, we have no one that create his own shot. So we are going to have trouble with athletic, well coached teams like UCSB.

Those "short" slumps seem to be a trademark of this program. Even the championships teams we've had consistently went through periods where the offense went into hiding. The good teams have had the defense to weather the storms (this team does not), or able to turn on the offense and get back into games. Last night UCSB was able to defend the interior well enough without double teams so that the long wings could guard our shooters on the perimeter. That forced us to either shoot contested shots, or step back even further to get some space. Our shooters aren't good enough to do either of those things well on a consistent basis. Last year, John at 6'8" could hit the 3 even if covered. He made a lot of critical shots last year and that confidence carried over to others. There was a point last night where we were down 3 (I think...maybe 5) and John missed a fairly open 3, UCSB hits a 3 and you could feel the energy drain on the Ags. It just seems like we aren't able to hit that critical shot (or make that critical stop) this year.

Bring on Poly!

not shooting particularly well but Morgan is doing her typical damage

Thanks for the in-depth post. It's very much appreciated.

I was at the game last year in Davis when UCSB couldn't be stopped. I forget what the final score was, but it was as good a beat down as the Ags have suffered in conference at home in a while. Of course, the Ags redeemed themselves down in SB later that season (good thing I don't bet or I would have lost everything in that one). This years game probably comes down to pace. Can the Ag's defense keep the score low? Can the Ag's offense avoid those 5 or 6 minute droughts where it looks like we've never played ball before? It's the second half of a DH with the women's team, and it's "Greek Night" so there should be a decent turnout. Ags need to defend the home court!

So a couple of thoughts after a day of decompressing

• Do we see Mooney in the starting lineup instead of Squire? We started slowly in both halves of the beach game, and with the way Joe is playing right now, not just his long range shooting but also his drives to the basket, maybe he has earned the start.
• I know there is no such thing as a "must win" game in January, but it sure would be nice it the Ags defend home court on Thursday against UCSB. It's a brutal schedule to start conference play, but we need to start winning some of these close games (UA, IU, Beach, UCI). UCSB would be a good confidence building win.
• I don't know how this happened (hard work, obviously), but Garrison Goode has gone form a completely awful FT shooter, to pretty good. It was so hard for him after his freshman year, that he actually started shooting FTs left handed. Now, he's shooting at 71%, better than Mooney and Shorts.
• Mooney and Shorts need to make more FTs!!!
• I may have missed it, but anyone know why Gonzalez was out for all of UCI and most of the Beach game, but then played the final minute or so? I'm guessing he's hurt but they brought him in to just foul down the stretch, but wasn't sure. Boy, one more good shooter might be the thing that really tips the season in a positive way.
• Looking forward to four home aggie basketball games in the span of three days (DH on Thursday and Saturday).
• Go Ags!

Yeah it was a long shot once he started getting higher profile offers.

It's very very sad and has shaken me and those who I know who live in, or have a connection to, Davis. RIP Officer Corona.