Aggies off to a good start hitting 50% from 3. and a 24-12 lead. Disappointing crowd, though.

Hawaii suffered an injury very much the way UC Davis lost TJ. The starting point guard, Drew Buggs, hurt his ankle, missed two games and only got back into action last week. Hawaii's coach has stressed interior defense, which has been weak lately, but I don't know that he'll be that concerned about the Aggies interior offense. On the other hand, Hawaii does a good job of perimeter defense, so if the Ags are going to win, I think they need to have good ball movement around the outside. It would be great if Schneider, Mooney, and Gonzalez can all get hot at once, which I don't think has happened this season.

Does anyone know what the Big West tie-breakers are for seeding purposes? We split with UCSB so if both teams are 9-7 is Gauchodan correct in seeding the Ags 3rd?

I didn't know about Gauchodan's posting, so I take all the blame for my analysis, but I do have to admire what he did. Seems like a lot of work. I like the Ags to beat Hawaii at the Pavilion. Not so sure about a neutral site after seeing how Hawaii matches up with Davis when they beat them by 20 out here. I have to admit that having the Aggies get to the NCAAs is a real long shot no matter what.

I wasn't able to watch the game, but judging from the box score, the Ags did a nice job defensively, holding Fullerton's scoring duo of Allman and Ahmad to 12/28 on field goal attempts. Can someone who saw it, add anything to my speculation?

We generally assume that when a critical player, i.e. TJ, comes back from an injury all will be well, but in my experience, a well honed team requires some time before they can mesh well again, even if it has not been that long a break. I hope that after the last loss to UCI, the Ags will be back in rhythm. It would be great if Siler can play as well as we know he is capable of playing. His play was noticably poor against the Anteaters

TJ looked a bit tentative, but that's to be expected. movielover summed it up pretty well. The entire team seemed to be out of synch, but then, lots of credit goes to the Anteaters who played very solidly. They outrebounded the Ags 44-22. The back-up forward, Elston Jones, was very hot with that unusual shot-put style shot: 6 of 7.

As for TJ, I suspect that Jim Les didn't want to tip his hand one way or the other to avoid helping Irvine prepare. The other possibility is that TJ is still day to day and no one knows for sure. Wish I could get to the game. I've never attended a televised game at Davis live. At least, I'll get to watch it.

Any news about TJ? No excuses for the losses, but I can't help but think that those would both have been Ws with him healthy.

For what it's worth, Hawaii lost to Cal Poly and lost their starting point guard, Drew Buggs, too. It's the equivalent of the Ags losing TJ. Whereas Buggs is less all-everything, the rest of the team is less likely to pick up for his loss. If UC Davis can pull this one out tonight, they will have a better shot at the 3 seed.

The Anteaters have only one game remaining against a Big West team in the upper half of the league: UC Davis. It is very unlikely that they will lose any games except the one against the Aggies, so Zander is absolutely right. It would be best for the Ags if TJ gets healthy and they can capture the 3rd seed to avoid playing UCI until the finals of the tournament. Their toughest challenges will be Hawaii and UCI, but if they can win one of those home games, at least, they can finish 10-6. They would likely overtake Hawaii which has 3 games on the road of their last 4, but for the third seed, they need to beat out the Gauchos. So much will depend on TJ getting back.

I'm missing the game, but the second half seems to be going well for the Ags. What seems to be the problem with TJ? He's out of the game?

Gonzalez and Mooney hitting from 3, but I wonder if Schneider has lost confidence in his shot? He passes on some open looks and the ball does not look good coming off his hand.

Does anyone know why the students aren't coming to the games? When I was there, it was SRO every night, whether it was a weeknight or not. Some of the Big West schools are predominantly commuter campuses, but Davis?

I think it's time to give Jim Les some credit for shaking up the lineup to get out of whatever slump the team was in. If the team continues to win and winds up, say, in third place, he will have done a great coaching job.

What a great game! I was not ready to see the Ags upset UCSB down in the Thunderdome. I don't think I've ever seen a performance with more heart than what TJ did tonight. The Gauchos had no answer for him and he kept getting knocked down, literally, and getting back up. Nice contributions from Mooney and John. The only disappointment was Schneider who had fewer points than turnovers and fouls (Has anyone ever heard him get called the "Red Rifle?") and the high number of missed bunnies (Ags could have won by double digits). I think this bodes well for the rest of the season, especially the playoffs. This is the team I saw last year.

They got sloppy with the ball in the second half (10 TOs), but I'll take it. Neufeld is getting pretty good with that short hook shot. I wonder if coach Les will continue to start the SPGMN combo.

Schnieder seems to be playing smarter.

BlueGoldAg: Thanks!

I don't see anywhere on BigWestTV that the game is being streamed? It seems to only have audio.