Listening to Coach Les talk about the start of the CSUB game, it was interesting to hear that the team was kind of dazzled at the start, since most of them had never played in the Big West Tournament before nor had they faced the Roadrunners. Now that they have one game under their belt and they know the team they're facing, they should be in better shape. The trouble is the talent that the Gauchos have. If they are to beat them the Ags need to play a perfect game and a key will be to minimize turnovers and generally play smart. I also hope they can make more 3s than they've been making lately.

I'm too old to take finishes like this. Since the UC school finished 1-2-3-4 in the seedings, I guess it would be no surprise if the final four is an all UC affair. Bring on the Bruins! Ags finished 2 of 10 from 3-pt. Seems like their long range shooting has faded recently?

So much for settling down...

I think both teams will settle down in the second half. 3-point shooting might make the difference: whichever team gets hot to win.

Good to see the guys keep their composure after making all those turnovers and getting down by 10. They really stepped up on both defense and handling the ball. Also it's worth noting that both teams have the same number of rebounds at the half and both shooting over 50% from the field. Aggies can win this thing.

ESPN gives the Aggies only a 27.2% chance of winning. Does anyone know how they figure these odds? My guess (and it is a pure guess) is that they run computers simulations of the games, maybe thousands?

Versus Sports lists 126 FCS teams, but well over two dozen (including Sac State) have not played any games. I'm assuming those schools have cancelled football for this season. Versus also ranks the Aggies at #7. It's an interesting website https://www.versussportssimulator.com/FCS/rankings

Does anyone know how many FCS teams are playing this spring? It looks like some of them played a good part of their schedule in the fall. In fact, North Alabama in the Big South has played 4 games (so far?) all in the fall, whereas Kennesaw State the projected Big South playoff team played none. The whole thing is very strange this year, but what else is new?

Athlon Sports has UC Davis at #20. https://athlonsports.com/college-football/fcs-spring-rankings-top-25-power-poll-following-week-4-2021

I forgot to mention that the game will be on ESPN3.

When it fills to capacity (10,000) it gets very loud. The entire space was designed in the early 90s when Hawaii was in the old WAC where the arenas are of comparable size and the competition included Brigham Young and Utah. I've seen Hawai`i take down the likes of Michigan State, USC and Louisiana Tach when Paul Milsap was there.

ESPN has already posted the CSUB v. UCD game on its site. They're giving the Roadrunners a 73.2% chance of beating the Ags. I have to note that the Aggies have played only one other team in the other four top BW conference schools this season, UCSB. All the others have been against the lowest seeds, against whom we've gone 6-2.

I can't believe that I forgot the 2017 game. I've gone to every game and I tend to remember the Aggie victories. Now that CMT has reminded me of it, that was the game when Chima Moneke went off against Hawai'i and the local fans uncharacteristically made fun of him. I think that was also the game where Coach Les pulled the team off the court at the end because a fan threw something on the court.

I was at the one and only game in Hawai`i when UC Davis won here. I can't remember who was on that team in addition to Corey Hawkins and Tyler Les, but they came out on fire and the Rainbow Warriors didn't know what had hit them. The 9000 fans there fell into stunned silence and I risked my neck by continuing to cheer "Go Ags" at a volume that was quite audible. A disgruntled Hawai`'i fan behind me muttered "What's an Aggie anyway?" and I turned around and said "It's short for Agricultural." I felt a bit bad about it all since, as an employee of the University of Hawai`i, I had lots of friends and colleagues in the crowd. It still felt great when they won. Little did I know that I would not see another Aggie win for...shoot, I hope 2022.

Thanks CMT. I forgot about the play-in teams. Same logic applies since we haven't played the Roadrunners before either. Maybe worse, since it's been 13 years since we last played them. Series record is 11-29 for what it's worth. I recall seeing one of the losses back in spring 1974. More recently, they eliminated Cal in the NIT in 2017 and dominated the WAC the 5 years prior to 2020.

I think we all anticipated a split. I think this means that we'll face UCR in the second round. That's too bad in that I believe that the Aggies have an advantage from playing a team earlier in the season due to Coach Les' ability to make adjustments (as was in evidence today). UCSB is going to be a tough out for anyone.

Does anyone know who will televise the Big West playoffs? Will it be on BigWestTV or one of the networks?

Not sure what the Aggies are doing on the boards to eliminate the huge advantage that Hawaiii had yesterday, but I sure hope it keeps on working. Odd stat: Hawaii had no assists in the first half. Their 3 point shooting has also cooled off, but is now around their season average, but the UCD perimeter defense is a whole lot better too.

This bodes very well for the whole season. Ags visiting a team ranked #19 at theiir place in front of live fans and they win in convincing fashion.

That was almost too easy.