Hawai'i knocks off Fullerton in OT on the island so now it's the Aggies and UCI in front on the pack by 2 games with 2 to go.

Yor're spot on about the need to create a good fan culture. I've said this before, the men's and women's teams are doing their part; they're both in first place in the conference and playing some good basketball. Now it's time for the students, alums and fans in general to step up and help create a loud, supportive environment on a consistent basis in the Pavilion.

The men have a 9 game home winning streak going and the women have a 6 game home streak going. You really can't ask for much more as a fan and it's a ton more fun when the Pavilion is full and fans are into the game. Good players want to play in front of big crowds with a collegiate atmosphere and when potential recruits see big crowds at the Pavilion, they will be much more interested in choosing to come to UCD to play ball. Winning and supportive crowds are the ticket to growing a great basketball culture at Davis.

I would expect that the coaching staff has alerted any recruits they are actively pursuing to tune into the game.

It looked like all the food was from the residence halls. It was quite an extensive array of food items that took up the east side of the upper level in the Pavilion.

(Y)

My wife and I will be there for both the women's and the men's games. Remember there's Sudwerk beer and pizza available now in the Pavilion. I hope there is a good turnout for the women as well. They are playing great basketball right now and have a good chance of going dancing if they keep playing the way they are now.

That's a good point, Obda. Coach Les commented after the game that he felt like this was a "trap game" for the Aggies with all the hoopla about the ESPN game on Saturday. I guess I'm just overly optimistic when it comes to thinking that we're going to have a fan base that is typical of what you would see for a pretty good, mid-major progarm in the midwest. We'd have consistent crowds of 5000 or sell outs if that were the case.

I'd like to see that happen but I don't think it will unless we become the next Gonzaga.

I was disappointed with the crowd size also. The official attendance was only 1621. There was a Fanfeast going on also with lots of different kinds of food available. For some reason I hadn't heard about that and had already eaten before coming to the game. I thought it was a great idea and I wish more fans would have come out and supported the Ags and the Fanfeast.

I feel like the men's and women's teams are doing their part...both are in first place and battling for the championship yet we often draw relatively small crowds. I'm not sure what it will take to change the fan culture and have these teams consistently draw good sized crowds. The players and coaches are getting it done...the fans...not so much...

The defensive minded Aggies got offensive in tonight's win. They shot 61% for the game overall and 70% from downtown. The Ags were on fire in the first half and put up 56 points on 72% shooting that included 10-12 from 3. We had 91 points with 5 minutes to go and then got sloppy against the Matador's press and got out out of rhythm trying to take time of the clock and fell short of the century mark.

Brynton Lemar was flat out lighting up the Pavilion knocking down 8 of 11 3's and ended up with 28 for the game. Siler Schneider had a terrific game and pumped in 23 while Chima looked like his old self and added 19 to the offensive fireworks. Lamar joined the elite Aggie 1000 career points club and Darius Graham became one of 3 Aggies ever to have 400+ career assists.

The stage is now set for a big showdown in the ESPN game Saturday with Long Beach State. The Beach got upset at home tonight by scrappy Cal Poly so they will be fighting for their lives to have any chance at all in the conference race. If the Ags can continue their hot shooting on Saturday the Pavilion will be loud and rockin'. It should be a great game for Aggie fans in great atmosphere!

The chippy folks over on the Big West Boards say that it is definitely a league game.

I think some paid, alt-right agitator was just getting the liberal Bee to bite on some fake news. SAD!

I read in the Sac Bee today that our home game with Hawai'i will not count as a conference game. I thought it must be an error but I checked our official schedule and the game does not have an asterisk by it which would indicate that it is indeed not a conference game. Huh...?

I checked all the schedules and every team plays 16 conference games and our home game with Hawai'i is the only game which will not count as a conference game. I don't get it...??? :-|

Fullerton beat Irvine 56-54 on Wednesday night so the Ags and Irvine each have 4 losses in the BW now. If the Ags beat CSUN they will be tied with Irvine at 9-4 for first place in the conference.

The Big West Tournament is brutal. I'm not a huge fan of these post-season tournaments determining the team that goes to the NCAA. It works for the big power conferences because they send so many of their teams to the Big Dance that it often doesn't matter if you lose in the post-season tournament. So, for the most part, the post-season tournaments for the power conferences are primarily big money makers for the conference. But, in a one bid conference like the Big West, you can win the regular season title and then lose in the post-season tournament and you're out of the NCAA.

I wasn't able to watch this one. Sounds like it was a pretty good battle. Win #20 for the Ags.

What a great job Coach Jen Gross is doing with this program. A couple of weeks ago Coach Les complimented the women by saying, "We're just swimming in their wake."

Congrats to the Lady Ags on getting their magical 20th win of the season!

All the games are especially important now. The Ags want to be playing well when the BW Tournament is here and the higher the seed the better. My wife and I will be there as always.

Go Ags!

I hope Hexter at least keeps his regular position. He and Blue seemed to have hit it off and he gave Blue the green light on quite a few important decisions. It was also great to see Hexter attending Aggie athletic events and being so supportive. The new chancellor will certainly need someone like Hexter to help him get oriented to UCD and, hopefully, Hexter will get him on board with the direction that Blue is taking the program.

He sounds like a tremendously accomplished man with a great deal of success in creating opportunities to underserved students. Georgia Tech has a big time athletics program so lets hope he will be supportive of the future growth of athletics at UCD as well.

They are the team to beat in the Big West. As a whole, the overall strength of the Big West is down this year. I think if UCI were to win the BW Tournament that they would be a 15 or 16 seed at best and might even be a play-in team.

Irvine beat Riverside 79-60 to take over first place in the Big West. With Luke Nelson back in their lineup the Eaters are the strongest team in the conference and the odds on favorite to win the title.

The Titans lead wire to wire and beat the Ags 79-72 and the Ags head home with a disappointing 0-2 road trip. The Ags got off to an awful start once again and were never able to take the lead. They did make a run at it in the final 5 minutes going from 12 down to just 5 with 30 seconds to play. Then with a chance to cut the lead to 3 or 2 Mikey Henn threw a pass to a wide open Moneke but the ball went through Chima's hands and that pretty much sealed the deal.

The Ags were sloppy with the basketball and turned it over 20 times which led to 22 points off turnovers by the Titans. Brynton Lemar led the Ags with 20 and Siler Schneider chipped in 18.

The Ags will drop to second in the Big West or remain in a tie with Irvine depending upon the outcome of the game between Irvine and Riverside.