Santa Barbara 77 Hawai’i 71 - Final. Hawai’i is such a different team on the road.

32-27 Riverside at the half.

Off to another poor start…cold as ice, getting ponded on the boards and no offensive flow…

Remember that his extra year was the Covid year though.

Be sure to let us know how these meet ups go if you get to attend a few.

Pepper is now 181 points away from becoming the all-time leading scorer in Big West history. Getting to #1 is not impossible but it is unlikely. At this point we have 6 regular season games left and at least one game in the BW Tournament so he'd need to average 26 a game to surpass Lucious Harris for the #1 spot.

I wonder what the "Finding joy with the ball coach - Peets coffee North Davis" is all about?

I watched them beat Irvine and they were shooting lights out from 3. The final score was much closer than the game actually was. Riverside was up by 20 late before Irvine made a run in the final couple of minutes. They'll be tough to beat if they shoot like that again. Pepper may see a box and one from every team we play from now on too.

The Ags dropped their opener to Seattle 7-6.

My wife and I were listening to the post-game on the radio on the drive home as well and Les said he didn't have a whole lot to say to the team in the locker room after the game. He said that the team was doing most of the talking with each other. He also mentioned that this is the second game in a row where we have not come out with the energy and aggressiveness we need at the start of the game and you know that will not sit well with Les.

I'm sure the team is frustrated right now and it's showing. We got blown out by San Diego in front of the biggest crowd of the season, got scorched in Hawai'i in front of a boisterous crowd and then couldn't finish the comeback in this game after taking the lead by 4 with 5 minutes to go. The Riverside game will be a gut check for us. We have a tough schedule ahead and we need to turn the frustration into energy and determination going forward.

Seven out of the last eight games between the Aggies and The Beach have been decided by 5 points or less and last night was another really good, tough game.

When LB gets it going, like they did in the first half, you can see how beating Michigan on the road was no fluke for them. They have so much length and athleticism and they use it well around the basket. Like Dr Mike mentioned, they have players who can create their own shots and they were draining them even when they were tightly contested.

They were killing us on the offensive boards in the first half also although we did much better in the second half. There were a lot of times when we had a several players in good position for the rebound and they would simply out leap us and snag the rebound with their length and bounce.

We had quite a few blown layups throughout the game and each miss added up against us in the final tally. Missing the easy ones is going to happen at times. You just can't have 4 or 5 of them against a good team like LB.

Teams are trying all kinds of defensive strategies to try and slow down Pepper. He's seeing a lot of double and even triple teams and they're playing him very physical. He's getting bumped and pushed around a lot away from the ball. The box and one shut him down in the last 5 minutes of the game and I think we'll see that defensive strategy used again against him again by some teams in our upcoming games.

Rocak continues to get better and better. He's the most improved player on the team in my opinion. He's made great progress in scoring underneath the basket with good ball fakes rather than rushing the shot and getting it blocked. I hope he'll continue to work on that mid-range jumper teams are giving him. They'll have to come out and defend him if he starts knocking a few of those down.

There are no gimmes in our schedule ahead and 4 of the next 6 games are on the road. Hanging on to the #2 seed is going to be very tough.

Yes, we missed a bunch of bunnies and FT's also. Aboubacar Traore only shoots 59% from the line but he hit 4 critical FT's in the final minute too.

Pepper passed Greg Grant to become the second leading scorer in Big West history behind Lucious Harris.

2/15 scores:

Long Beach 78 Aggies 74
San Diego 61 Santa Barbara 46
Hawai'i 80 Cal Poly 51
Riverside 81 Fullerton 73
CSUN 76 Bakersfield 71

Current standings:

No kidding...

The Aggies made a valiant effort to come back from 19 down in the second half to take the lead by 4 with 5 minutes to go but, ultimately, fell short when they could only score 2 points after that until the end of the game. The game was lost in the first half though as we seemed to have a hard time adjusting to their length, quickness and athleticism and were down 17 at the half.

The Aggies got thumped by The Beach 78-52. The Ags trailed by 30 points 59-29 after a miserable 3rd quarter.

46-30 Long Beach at the half. Impressive performance by The Beach. They’re long, quick and extremely athletic. We’re in a heap of trouble…

Long Beach State is led by dynamic scorer Marcus Tsohonis as well as the trio of Aboubacar Traore, Jadon Jones, and Lassina Traore. Recognized for their wins in the non-conference against USC and Michigan, the Beach use their physicality to initiate contact for free-throws and to try and win the rebound battle every night. The Beach rank 14th in the nation in free throw attempts per game while both Traore's lead the conference in rebounds per game. Long Beach State enters the contest with a record of 15-9. The all-time series between the two programs sits at 13-25 with the Beach holding the advantage.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/2/14/mens-basketball-aggies-set-for-vital-two-game-homestand-host-long-beach-state-and-uc-riverside.aspx

Well, the Ags get soundly beaten and the 49ers lose the Super Bowl in OT. It’s been a lousy weekend…