Tough defensive battle so far with very few fouls. The Bows average 50% shooting and they’re at 29% so far.

First time we’ve seen Marsalis Roberson play. Looks like he’s finally been medically cleared to play after he tore his ACL.

Very small crowd tonight.

I think we already have a pretty nice rivalry with Hawaii. It seems like both teams play very hard against each other and we've had some games that have had their "testy" moments in the past especially on the island. The Bows have a good following of loyal, rowdy fans and I remember one game where the game had to be stopped in the final couple of minutes when the fans started throwing stuff onto the court. After the game ended, Les just waved to the Hawaii coach and quickly herded his team into the locker room. I can't remember who won that one though...

From The Big West Banter by Gauchodan:

The Rainbow Warriors (12-6, 4-3) went 2-0 on their last trip to the mainland, defeating UC Riverside and Cal State Fullerton. This trip looks a little tougher, with a game with UC Davis up near Sacramento followed by a Saturday night clash at UC Irvine in Orange County. Hawai’i went 1-1 at home last week, getting routed by CSUN but turning things around with a win over CSU Bakersfield. The ‘Bows are shooting 47.6% on the season, tops in the Big West. That includes a league-best 49.7% in Big West games.

The Aggies (11-8, 5-3) had a successful trip to the Central Coast last week, winning at both Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara. TY Johnson has averaged 29.0 points over the last three games to raise his conference-leading scoring average to 21.2 points. Johnson is 3rd in the country in free throws and free throw attempts (8.5 per game). UC Davis is 12th in the nation in forcing turnovers at 16.1 per game.

We'll need to really bring the defensive intensity to the game tonight and make it very tough for Hawaii to shoot 50%.

Nice to have you while you were here. Feel free to come back and add to our conversations when you feel the itch again. Take care.

I was looking at our recruiting over on 247 Sports and I saw that we had made a couple of offers for 2026. The major programs start offering kids early in high school. I'm sure we'll need to start offering earlier than we normally have in order to keep pace with the new world of college recruiting..

Marion Brennan at Sac is continuing his recruiting rampage. Not only has he secured a ton of transfers for next year but he also has already made 49 offers for 2026 that includes one commit plus 13 offers out for 2027.

https://247sports.com/college/sacramento-state/season/2026-football/offers/

So the "transfer portal" is alive and well even at the high school level....is NIL next...??

It was great to see Rocak with 10 points and 10 boards to go along with his stellar defense. I hope we continue see more of that.

It looks like Poly's conference losing streak is the longest, currently active streak but it's not an NCAA recored. The following is from The Big West Banter by Gauchodan:

A small kerfuffle broke out on X Thursday night after Cal Poly lost its 45th consecutive Big West regular season game. Some guy posted that the Mustangs had tied the NCAA record held by Grambling State, which I had debunked the other night, and he tagged a bunch of mid-major college basketball accounts in the process. Cal Poly play-by-play man Chris Sylvester jumped in, basically saying, “Wut?” To clear things up, Cal Poly has the longest “active” conference streak and it’s the 3rd longest of all time. Colgate is 2nd at 47 (1984-87) and U. of Chicago lost 60 in a row 1940-46. The Mustangs (6-13, 0-7) weren’t expected to have this continue based on their non-conference body of work, but here we are.

https://bigwestbanter.substack.com/p/spread-out-saturday?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3137908&post_id=155069537&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Another 3-pt second quarter. Funky. — Russ Bowlus

All of those 3 points were on FT's also. The Ags didn't score a FG from the 3:30 mark of the first quarter for the next 17 minutes.

I think the thing that is most concerning about this game is that the Gauchos just simply outplayed the Aggies after the first quarter. They were more aggressive, more physical and more determined and the Ags got flustered, turned the ball over and couldn't make a basket. No coach wants to see their team allow that to happen on their home court.

Ags hold on and win 64-60. TY ties his all time high with 35 points.

TY makes them both...Ags up 4.

TY has 33 and is going to the line with 6.3 seconds to go.

62-60 Ags with 6.5 seconds to go.

Ags up by 1 with 1:48 to go.

Our 18 point lead is down to 7 with 12:05 to go.

29-17 Aggies at the half. Suffocating defense by the Aggies!

From the Big West Banter by Gauchodan. (Note: Stephan Swenson hit a buzzer beater 3 in each of the Gaucho's last two games beating Riverside and Cal Poly).

Every time you think the Aggies (10-8, 4-3) are finished they bounce back with a good performance. UC Davis shot just .414 at Cal Poly, but that was its best shooting outing vs. a Division I team in almost a month. The Aggies are 9-1 when they shoot 40% or better. UC Davis stays in games with its ball-hawking defense, which forces 16.3 turnovers per game. TY Johnson is leading the conference at 20.4 points per game.

Stephan Swenson, we are getting bored by your one-dimensional game. Tie-breaking, game-winning three-pointers from the left wing as the clock expires? Yawn. In all seriousness, it’s uncanny. It’s like Swenson has some song in his head that helps him beat the buzzer. The Gauchos (12-5, 4-2) have needed Swenson’s last tick heroics because they have not gotten consistent offense or rebounding from the rest of the team. One player who is red-hot again is Cole Anderson, who would be leading the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (.513) if he qualified (he falls short with 2.4 threes per game when you need 2.5). Anderson is 14 for 18 (.778) from distance over the last 3 games.

https://bigwestbanter.substack.com/p/swenson-the-timekeeper?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3137908&post_id=154997090&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=31ratq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email