I think you meant that it was the Ags fifth straight win over Hawai`i in Davis and I suspect that as close as it was last night, UCD will have a hard time winning out here. What has been especially great about the Aggie defense lately is the way they make the other team use a lot of clock getting the ball into the front court and forcing a lot of late desperation shots. That strategy was never more evident than last night.

Games of Jan. 23:

CSU Bakersfield (10-10/4-4) 71, CSU Fullerton (home, 6-15/1-8)
CSUN (home, (13-6/5-3) 86, Long Beach State (7-13/3-5) 76
UC Riverside (home, 12-8/5-3) 84, UC Irvine (17-3/7-1) 80 OT
UC San Diego (home, 17-4/7-2) 77, UC Santa Barbara (12-7/4-5) 63

UC Irvine showed vulnerability tonight in losing to the Highlanders in overtime. This has to be one of the big upsets in the Big West this year.

Aggies win 68-66 but it was even closer than the score given how easily Hawai`i could have tied the game at the end. TY didn't score as much as the UCSB game, but I have never seen a better clutch performance. A gutsy performance overall by not only Pablo Tamba , but Nico Rokak who had 9 boards and 2 blocks before he fouled out.

I had to take note that TY passed Mark Olson as the fifth leading scorer in UC Davis history, because I knew Mark over his first three years as an Aggie star, played a few pickup games with him. I still remember his first game as a freshman when he made a couple of spectacular plays and Bob Hamilton literally hugged him on the court.

Interesting that the Ags assist:turnover is 5:2 which means that almost half their field goals were assisted. I have to believe that their shooting percentage will improve if only due to regression to the mean.

I jinxed them!

Aggies shooting 58.3% over the first 9 minutes!

I was there and I think that was one of the two games the Aggies won. Ever since then, it's been a bit dicey to go to the games wearing my blue and gold.

The Honolulu newspaper has been making a big deal of this game, focusing on the move of both schools to the MWC. I think they might be trying to fire up a rivalry. Two front of the sports page articles about the game. Today they wrote about a conversation with Coach Les that focused on the MWC move and the high retention rate of the Aggies. The rest of the story focused on TY. Quote from Jim Les: "We want him to be aggressive. He's got an attack mindset. That leads to shots ad it also leads into creating opportunities for others." Finally, the article pointed out that the Aggies rebound 32.3% of their missed shots. I don't know how that stat stacks up against the league average, but it was noteworthy so it must be pretty good. Go Ags! Don't do what the Warriors have done lately.

Games of Jan. 18:

CSU Fullerton (6-14/1-7) 83, Long Beach State (home, 7-12/3-4) 67
Hawai’i (home, 12-6/4-3) 81, CSU Bakersfield (9-10/3-4) 70
UC Riverside (home, 11-8/4-3) 85, UC San Diego (15-4/5-2) 81
UC Irvine (home, 17-2/7-0) 101, Cal Poly (6-14/0-8) 71

The Titans surprise Long Beach to get their first conference victory. Meanwhile UCR had a halftime lead over the Tritons, 44-35 and held on for the second big upset of the night. Cal Poly played the Anteaters tough as we’ve seen them do all season, but UCI broke it open early in the second half. The Mustangs now have the longest active NCAA record for consecutive conference losses at 45. Bakersfield continues its perfect road record of 0-4.

Just saw the game and it's pretty clear who carried the Aggies in this one. Good to see TY get his mojo back, which we saw signs of up in SLO. Credit to the Gauchos, whose shooting was awful in the first half, for not folding and coming back from being down 18. Made it a bit too exciting down the stretch.

I'll miss this one live, but I'll be watching the replay later.

It was good to see TY hit those 3s. Hope it puts him back in his groove.

Games of Jan. 16:

UC Irvine (home, 16-2/6-0) 82, CSU Fullerton (5-14/0-7) 62
UC San Diego (15-3/5-1) 80, Long Beach State (home, 7-11/3-3) 54
CSUN (12-6/4-3) 83, Hawai’i (home, 11-6/3-3) 60
UC Santa Barbara (home, 12-5/4-2) 66, UC Riverside (10-8/3-3) 63

Only one surprise here and that was in Hawai`I, where the Rainbow Warriors couldn’t figure out how to keep the Matadors off the boards despite a big height advantage. I watched part of this game and Keonte Jones—the same guy who grabbed 20 against the Ags-- was jumping out of the arena. The top two teams continue to roll over the rest of the West. The Tritons held Devin Askew (who got 32 against the Ags last week) to 11 points in their mauling of the Beach at the Pyramid, while UCI didn’t allow a single Titan player to score more than 10. Those two teams play defense.

I feel bad for Cal Poly because their next game against UCI means they will set a new record. On the other hand, it was good to see the Ags shooting improve in the second half and hope it bodes well for UCSB. They really held the Mustangs with their defense. I mean 20 turnovers! Koonce only got 6 points and I can't helkp but think that Coach Les must have told his guys to clamp down on him. I noticed how quick they were to switch on him and how even the guards kept him from getting good looks.

A poorly played game on both sides so far. Cal Poly has mishandled the ball several times, although some credit goes to the the Aggie defense for the 10 Mustang turnovers. Cal Poly is only in it because they are 6 of 12 from the 3 point line. UCD has done well on the offensive boards, but not that many second chance points.

Shooting woes continue. Leo and TY have shot 2 of 13 after 15 minutes of play.

Cooper starting in place of Rocak. Coach Les must have wanted to shake things up. Maybe get more offense into his starting lineup?

It's an odd statistic that Pepper shot below the team average but that he was with the team during the three prior years when their shooting percentage was so much higher. This is especially surprising given that the guys who shot a better percentage them he did are around this year.
Could one possible answer be in the assists? Last year the three guards averaged 7.3 assists per game. This year it's 5.9.

The Pepper Effect?

The new logos are very cool, if I may use outdated vernacular.