Feels like the Aggies are back to playing at the top of their game after that 5 game stretch in which they only won one. Good timing! Both Kane Milling and Ade Adebayo have stepped up recently to complement Johnson and Pepper. I think Milling had a career high (?) today. On the other hand, it's amazing that the Beach had a 19-4 edge in offensive rebounds (39-25 overall) and still lost by 10

With 17 points today, Pepper now needs 75 to break the record. If the Ags only have two more games, it seems very unlikely since his career high is 32 (I think). If they can get one national tournament game, he would then need to average 25, which is not implausible.

I've been pretty hard on the Big West TY commentators all season, but the two for Long Beach are among the rare pair who are as good as Scott Marsh and Bob Williams. They are clearly in favor of the Beach, but are also objective and not prone to a lot of hyperbole, cliches and mistakes as some of the others have been.

Mani got in as part of a twin towers with Borra. Saville also got some time. Ags looking pretty good. Beach has 8 offensive rebounds, Ags none and it's keeping the score close.

If the Ags lose in, say, the finals to UCI, who will get to be in the NIT if they don't get the NCAA bid, then it seems to me that the Ags might get an NIT slot, but I don't know much about how the NIT makes it decisions. If that happens, Pepper would get 4 more games. If none of the above, I wonder if the school would accept a bid from the CBI or the College Insider tournaments to give Eli a shot at breaking the record. (Yeah, it seems like cheating, but he's already played a whole lot more games than any of the other scoring leaders. It's like Caitlin Clark beating out Pete Maravich while playing in something like 40 more games, plus having the 3 point shot.)

An improbable evening.

A gritty stand by the Ags after coming out for the second half making only one shot until Ade scored with 12:07 left. Pepper was clutch from the foul line. I think the shot by DeBruhl was huge, not only for the points but for the momentum. It took the air out of the Tritons sails and gave the Ags a lift. UCSD never got closer than 4 after that.

Does anyone else find the commentators as annoying as I do? They are showing more bias than most and the play by play guy really likes to milk the drama.

Down by 15, the Tritons started getting into the paint, but they didn't close the gap by much. I look for them to do more of that and to get Bryce Pope more shots. He was only 3 of 6 for the fist half and leads UCSD with 9 points, but we know all know how prolific he can be. I liked the way the Ags matchup zone confused San Diego, so I hope we see that more often or, if Pope starts to go off a box and one.

Good start! Aggie's D is really tough.

You're right. Nothing wrong with my math, just my logic. Only one event has to happen, so it's either we win or the Beach loses then we clinch, which makes it a 59.6% chance of our not clinching, so a 40% of clinching.

ESPN gives UC Davis only a 16% chance of winning. At the same time, it gives the Beach a 71% of beating UCSB. If I remember my probability calculation correctly, this means the odds of the Ags securing the second seed tonight are 4.6% (assuming ESPN's analytics are also correct).

Thanks

I can't remember if the Big West Tournament is only on ESPN+ or will be televised on something like ESPNU. Anybody know?

Poly will have lost 38 consecutive Big West games. I wonder what the Division 1 record is for any school in any conference in that regard? I couldn't find it on the internet, only that Towson State has the longest overall losing streak: 41.

Unfortunately, one Beach win and one UCD loss could happen at the same time. Meanwhile, CSULB plays a still struggling UCSB at home while the Ags have to travel to both San Diego and Long Beach. If I were a betting man, I'd say the odds are long on us getting the 2 seed. On the other hand, if the Ags bring their A game I wouldn't be surprised to see a SoCal sweep.

So we need to root for the Anteaters on Saturday then hope that the Aggies can at least split their last two road games (or that the Beach loses to both UCI and UCSB). If Pepper is back on track, I'm optimistic.

It looks like the Ags have clinched at least a 3 seed.

Did I hear Scott Marsh say that Long Beach had two key players out tonight?

Great to see Pepper break out on Senior night! Does this clinch at least a four seed?