Burns might be sick. Lots of bugs going around.

It was kind of a strange game with Wright scoring 28 of their 34 first half points. He really quick and he was on fire in the first half.

I listened to Les on the post-game, radio interview. I can understand that he wasn't thoroughly happy with how the Ags played and that he's concerned about the defensive breakdowns we've had in the past 3 games. However, considering how we've been playing without one or two starters lately, I think this team has done done really well. It sure would be nice to see us at full strength before the season is over.

Other final scores in the Big West tonight:

Irvine 70 Santa Barbara 59
Riverside 88 Long Beach 76
Fullerton 76 San Diego 73
Bakersfield 70 Poly 62

Very sparse crowd. I Hope don’t let that affect us.

Vegas has us as 11.5 point favorites tonight. I think thanks overly generous since we will be without TY and possibly Beasley as well.

That was probably the play. It's true, basketball is a contact sport.

My biggest pet peeve regarding the contact is how often the defensive player is called for blocking when the offensive player initiates the contact by jumping into the defensive player. Unless the defensive player is set like a unmovable rock and the offensive player hits him like a ton of bricks, the defensive player usually gets called for blocking foul. I think it puts the defensive player at a distinct disadvantage. It's generally a bang-bang play and a tough call for the officials but it generally favors the offensive player.

I don't remember all the details exactly. I'd have to watch the replay of the game to see if I could catch it again. It occurred during a change of possession and SB was heading up the court so there was just a fleeting moment that you could see it in the upper right of the TV screen since the camera moved quickly to follow the action.

It looked like an unnecessary push by the SB player and, if I remember correctly, it occurred about midway in the first half. I can't even tell you which Aggie and SB player were involved but agalum seems to think Johnson was the Aggie player involved.

An Aggie and a SB player were on the floor and, as the SB player was getting up, he pushed the Aggie player away. It wasn't overly flagrant but did look unnecessary and could have easily been called a foul. Les wasn't happy with it but the ref thought it wasn't a foul.

The nightly news on KCRA channel 3 in Sacramento did a piece on the "brawl" as Del Rogers, the KCRA sportscaster, called it and he made it look like only the Aggies were at fault.

While showing the video of the "brawl," Rogers essentially summed things up by saying that TY Johnson and an Aggie coach were given suspensions for their actions. He said nothing about Andre Kelly starting the whole thing by blatantly knocking Johnson to the floor or that Kelly was ejected from the game and given a suspension by the league also.

Then Rogers went on to say that the "benches cleared and punches were thrown" which did not happen at all. That statement is 100% false. No players from either team left the benches and no punches were thrown.

This was a very inaccurate piece of reporting that made the Aggies look bad and made the whole incident look worse than it was. So much for truth in broadcasting...

I'm not sure the refs even saw the saw the shove that knocked TY to floor when it actually happened until they reviewed everything at the monitor. If the refs had seen Kelly's flagrant foul and TY didn't react, they would tossed Kelly and TY would have been shooting technical foul shots. Pretty hard not to react when you get leveled like TY did though.

I remember seeing another Aggie getting shoved pretty forcefully by an SB player while the two of them were getting up from the floor. There was no call and Les erupted. He was talking to the ref during a TO just afterwards and the ref seemed to acknowledge the shove but thought it was a no-call. I couldn't tell which SB player was involved but the ref obviously felt it was just incidental contact.

I think your summary of the whole incident is a very fair assessment and, honestly, I don't think any "bad blood" is going to carry over into the next game in Davis. I'm just hoping we can play as well as we are capable of playing and, if we do, it could be a very good basketball game.

As Mike noted, TY is an emotional player but not in a bad way. Like many talented, highly competitive athletes he plays hard and with emotion as any coach would want him to and, if anything, he seems to me to be pretty hard on himself. I wasn't surprised by his reaction when Kelly floored him. I think he's got a little bit of "Chicago street ball in him" and he reacted quickly in the heat of the moment even though Kelly towered over him in size.

It's apparent that TY's not going to "back down" to anyone which could be a liability for him if opponents think they can get under his skin. There's a lot of little, irritating things that can go on between players during the game that, as fans, we really don't see happening and TY will need to learn to play on without getting too caught up in the heat of the moment. He has a ton of potential and is still growing into his role with the Aggies. Jim Les demands discipline and personal responsibly from all of his players and he'll provide sound guidance for TY as he continues to mature and grow as a young man both on and off the court.

Post-game quote from Coach Pasternak:

"Anytime you get 18 assists, you’re really sharing the ball," UCSB head coach Joe Pasternack said. "We shot 61%; basketball is a game of percentages, and the team with the best percentages wins. I thought our second half defense was great as we held them to just 40%. These factors are ultimately why we won the game."

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/big-college-basketball-brawl-between-rival-teams-leads-suspensions

According to a sensationalized Fox News article entitled, "Big college basketball brawl between rival teams leads to suspension," both players have been given a one game suspension by the Big West Conference. The Fox News title is way over the top but, then again, it is Fox News after all.

Kelly and Johnson will both serve an automatic one-game suspension, according to the Big West Conference.

"As we continually review with our membership, unsportsmanlike and unprofessional conduct is not acceptable and will not be tolerated," said Big West Commissioner Dan Butterly. "The health and safety of our student-athletes, coaches, officials, staff and fans is always a top priority in The Big West."

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/big-college-basketball-brawl-between-rival-teams-leads-suspensions

Unfortunately, the Big West will probably come down hard on everyone they find at fault in this incident in order to set an example. However, if an incident like this involved two Power 5 teams, I'm sure they'd just get a slap on the hand from their conference.

I should have muted it also. I could have saved myself some frustration and choice words I had for the color guy when I just wanted him to shut up!

Other Big West games on Wednesday:

Bakersfield at Poly 7 pm
Irvine at Santa Barbara 7 pm
Fullerton at San Diego 7 pm
Long Beach at Riverside 7 pm

Current Big West standings:

1. UC Santa Barbara 11-2 20-4
2. UC Irvine 10-3 17-8
3. Hawai'i 9-5 18-8
3. UC Riverside 9-5 16-10
3. Long Beach State 9-5 15-11
6. Cal State Fullerton 8-6 14-12
7. UC Davis 7-6 14-11
8. CSU Bakersfield 5-9 9-16
9. UC San Diego 3-10 8-17
10. CSUN 3-11 6-19
11. Cal Poly 1-13 7-19

Well that explains why SB was awarded FT's and a bench technical was assessed to the Aggies.

It looks like the official box score has been updated again. It shows that Kelly and Johnson were both given technical fouls and both left the game. The box score also shows a technical foul assessed to the Aggie bench but not what it was about. So maybe the technical fouls negated each other as far as FT's for either team and the FT's that SB took were for the bench technical called on the Aggies.

The announcers said that no players from either team left the bench and, if they would have, they would have automatically been ejected. So, since no other Aggies were given technicals or ejected, I have no idea what the Aggie bench technical was about.

The older guy who does the color for the SB play-by-play is hard to listen to after a while. His homer bias gets old quick. His comments when watching the replay of the scuffle between Kelly and TY were ridiculous. The replay clearly showed that the whole brouhaha started when Kelly knocked TY to the floor and then put his arms up in the air like he was innocent. The color guy's take on it was that "TY was the kind of player that can get under your skin" and that "he had been doing little things like hand checking and pushing throughout the game" as if to justify Kelly's obvious flagrant foul. He kept completely ignoring the fact that Kelly blatantly knocked TY to the floor to start it all every time the replay was shown again on ESPN+ while the refs were at the monitor trying to sort things out.

Other Big West scores tonight:

Long Beach 79 Bakersfield 69
Irvine 83 Riverside 64
CSUN 64 Poly 53
Fullerton 52 Hawaii 51 (Hawaii came back from 18 down in the second half and had 3 shots to win it in the final 6 seconds but none would drop)