That's a great video and right on point. Thanks for posting it.

I think one of Les' strongest qualities as a coach is ability to find and develop overlooked players. He doesn't always land the most "highly rated" players and transfers who come in with glowing resumes already but he regularly finds players who just need some time to develop and are diamonds in the rough. SB and LB often go after and bring in some players with extensive, previous experience elsewhere and Irvine certainly has a reputation for landing and developing bigs.

I noticed that Les seemed to be particularly animated and upset with some of his players during the game last night. He was really barking at several of them when he subbed them out and they came to the bench.

I think Les is a excellent basketball coach and his teams are always highly competitive and disciplined and he certainly gets the most out of the talent he has. He is also very emotional and intense during the games particularly when he thinks his team is underperforming or being out hustled as was the case last night. It's frustrating when he sees his team making fundamental mistakes or being out played.

However, I'm not sure how effective it is for him to really grill a player in the heat of the moment when they come to the bench. Last night I noticed that, when a player was getting chewed out, they generally just looked away and took a seat on the bench. That made me wonder how much the player was actually taking in or whether the message was getting lost in the heat of the moment.

I'm think many of us know from our own personal experience in athletics or just in our own personal interactions at one time or another, that it's really hard to actually listen to someone and truly hear what they are saying when they are angry and are shouting. I also know that, as a coach, Les can't take a moment to step away and calm down since the game is ongoing and he wants to get something to change immediately.

I get it but I wonder if his players might better hear what he is saying if he wasn't so hot when he delivers his messages.

Post-game comments from Les:

(Regarding Pepper's 32 points) “We just didn’t give him much help,” said Aggie head coach Jim Les of Pepper, who now has 117 points in his last four games.

“Right from the get-go, Riverside was more aggressive and more physical and their effort on those 50-50 balls was greater than ours. Early on we had some good looks that didn’t go down and that affected us on the defensive end. We started the second half with that same lackluster effort.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/basketball-uc-davis-men-on-the-road/

It looks like this was a very nice for the Aggies.

I had to watch the game on replay. UCR had our defense scrambling around a lot and they just killed us on the boards. We got close but the Highlanders won this game from the start to the finish. I hope we play much better on Saturday or we'll be coming home 0-2 on this road trip.

I don't know, Mike, Robby has a groin injury and those can take a long time to heal depending upon the severity. Christian looked like he could barely walk after he injured his leg again in the Hawaii game. I'm hoping we'll see them back in action against Riverside but I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of them are still out.

How about that…awesome!

Other Big West Games on Thursday

Cal Poly at Irvine at 6 pm
CSUN at Bakersfield at 7 pm
Santa Barbara at Long Beach at 8 pm
San Diego at Hawaii at 9 pm

Current Big West Standings

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

Our defense is so much fun to watch and it was really good against Hawaii. When our shots are dropping as well, we are as good as anybody in the conference.

Aggies 57 Hawaii 47 - Final

Ags 44 Hawaii 37 after 3 quarters.

Solid first half for the Aggies as they take a 13 point lead at the half 35-22.

The student turnout was pretty good tonight. I do wish the crowd would get more vocally behind the team earlier in the game and not just when a the Ags make a great play or the game is on the line.

Other BW scores tonight:

Santa Barbara 68 Cal Poly 62 (UCSB pulled it out in the final minute)
Bakersfield 82 Riverside 76 in OT
Irvine 76 San Diego 60
Long Beach 70 Fullerton 67

Great, whole team win by the Aggies playing without Beasley and without Anigwe out for all but the first 9 minutes. The Ags shot 64% for the game and our defense was solid for the majority of the game. We got good minutes from everyone that played,

The Ags have won 7 of their last 9 games and those two loses were by 2 points and 3 points and they're winning despite some key injuries. This is a very good Aggie basketball team!

We shot 65%! Pepper has 25 and TY has 11.