I think that having Borra out has hurt this team more than I was previously thinking. Like DrMike said, he's a big body and he has really bulked up in the off season. He was making a lot of progress last season and expect he would be having a bigger impact this year.

He would be a big defensive presence in the post and, on offense, teams would have to pay attention to him in the paint which would free up players like Mani and Chapelle play more on the perimeter where I think they are more effective currently with their good shooting. Having Borra out has put a lot of pressure on Rocak to play extended minutes and has forced Les to use Mani and Chapelle in ways that aren't their particular strengths also.

Why didn't Jac Mani play? — movielover

Could be a lot of reasons...everything from being under the weather to not being able to defend against bigs in the paint without fouling. He had 4 fouls in the first half of the Bakersfield game and teams are taking advantage of him in the paint.

Mani was was only medically cleared play in the last 3 games so he's still working to get up to speed physically and he needs to get more experience playing but it's tough to give him minutes until he can defend better. He has a beautiful 3 point shot. He and Chapelle have a lot of similarities in that they can both shoot the deep ball but are still learning to play tough inside, rebound and defend without fouling in the paint.

There's a lot of conference basketball yet to be played and Les has a knack of getting his teams into the thick of things even when he doesn't have the overall talent of the top teams but I'm not sure that he has the horses this year to do that. Not having Borra is certainly a big factor but I'm not sure it would be making a drastic difference. He'd certainly be a big body in the post and would give Nico some support but he has not shown that he is an offensive threat and we really need some inside scoring

Les is an excellent coach and he makes great in-game decisions and adjustments. His teams always play very hard and no coach in the Big West gets more out the talent he has each year. However, I hate to say but I don't think he's getting in done on the recruiting end though.

Generally speaking we have really good guards but not great bigs and we have really good on ball defenders but not great rebounders. We also seldom get good production offensively from our biggest players and, this year, that is a glaring problem for us.

In 2026 we'll be playing much tougher competition in the MWC. Les is going to have to step up his recruiting to the next level including bringing in talented big men or we'll be bringing up the bottom of the MWC.

I'm not sure we will cover that spread. We could lose by double digits if our offense and rebounding continue to be anemic.

I'm not feeling very optimistic about this game. The following is from Gauchodan's Big West Substack Column:

The Matadors (10-4, 2-1) return home after tying a school record with 17 threes at Cal State Fullerton. CSUN was unconscious in the 1st half in jumping out to an insurmountable 60-26 lead. Unusually, Northridge is 2-0 in conference on the road but 0-1 at home. The Matadors are scoring 82.4 points per game and holding opponents to .379 shooting from the floor.

The Aggies (8-6, 2-1) have the opposite profile in conference, winning both of their home games and losing their one road game Thursday night at CSU Bakersfield. TY Johnson topped 20 points for the 8th time this year and is averaging 20.2 ppg. The problem for UC Davis is finding additional scorers. Thursday night, the 2nd-leading scorer (Connor Sevilla) had just 10 points. Sevilla, Pablo Tamba, Niko Rocak and/or Leo DeBruhl need to augment Johnson for UCD to be successful.

https://bigwestbanter.substack.com/p/saturday-showdowns?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3137908&post_id=154123025&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Wow! That puts things into a rather concerning perspective...

Brennan Marion has been on a recruiting stampede. 247 Sports is currently showing 23 high school commits and 24 transfers. This is an astonishing number of commits and it makes one wonder what is going to happen to many of the players on the team who played for Andy Thompson and still have eligibility left.

It now appears that Marion will be letting players go to make space for his new recruits. This is starting to look very similar to what Deon Sanders did at Colorado when he became the head coach there and then immediately cut a whole lot of the current players to make room for all the players he was bringing in.

https://247sports.com/college/sacramento-state/season/2025-football/commits/

Teams like us who do not have a lot of interior size generally need to have good 3 point shooting to make up the difference against teams who are strong in the paint. Shooting 31% from beyond the arc won't cut it for us and it's uncharacteristically low for an Aggie team especially when you consider that Les puts an emphasis on elite guard play.

We've got our problems right now for sure. We lack the size and physicality we need to compete in the paint with teams that are bigger and stronger in the interior than us. Rocak does an amazing job for his size but he takes a beating and hasn't been able to do much offensively. Mani and Chapelle are more stretch 4's than bangers in the paint and they have a tough time defending big, strong players down low. Tamba helps out scoring inside and getting on the boards but he's been taking a physical beating too.

Our poor outside shooting compounds these problems and puts a lot of pressure on our defense to keep us in the game. You can see the frustration in the players when the shots are not dropping and then they start pressing too hard trying to make something happen.

I won't miss playing in Bakersfield once we start play in the MWC!

Les was not a happy camper in the post-game interview. He said it was a very physical game but they were more physical and we were on the receiving end of it and "we say that the team that hits first wins." He did not like that we only had 5 assists and said that "our offense was awful."

We only have to play down there one more time next year.

Ags lose 75-64.

I won't miss playing Bake when we start playing in the Mountain West. This is just street ball and the refs are just adding fuel to the fire...

This game has turned into street ball game.

Blue collar, physical basketball game...refs have been very inconsistent...allowing lots of rough play and then calling touch fouls...not a pretty basketball game to say the least...

Thanks for your excellent write up about this game, TR67! The Aggie WBB team deserves a good following here on our forum. The Ags have come together nicely this year and certainly look like a team that could be a frontrunner in the Big West. Go Ags!

Bakersfield is a tough place to play on the road and the Runners are always very athletic. I hope having Mani back will help us have some better offensive consistency. However, the Aggies have been up and down so far this season so it's hard to know what to expect.