That's a good point, Russ. Last year's team struggled after losing Trpcic at the point. It really showed just how important Trpcic was to the success of the team during her time as an Aggie.

Loss of taste is associated with Covid, Finn. My sister-in-law lost her sense of taste and smell from Covid for 4 months before it started coming back. She said the only benefit of that was it stopped her from snacking so much. :rofl:

It interesting how Covid affects everyone so differently. My wife just had mild symptoms for 5 days and was over it. I'm in day 13 right now and, although I finally tested negative yesterday, my energy is zapped and I'm still really tired. It's a nasty bug for sure!

Good question. We went through an amazing string of BW titles and I think most of us knew that wouldn't continue forever. We struggled last year despite having a veteran team and I don't think anyone saw that coming. The coaching staff brought in some experienced, new players this year but the team is struggling to find consistency again.

This was an uncharacteristically poor game by the Aggies. The wheels simply came off the cart
.
I'm sure the players and the coaches are disappointed with how the season is going so far. I'm sure that Jen and her staff will find a way to get this team going again.

The official attendance last night was only 749. Wow...that's a shocking low number for a game against one of the best teams in the Big West. It's got to be a bit of a let down for the team to be playing in a nearly empty building at home. I sure hope we put a few more fans in the seats against Bake tomorrow

Post-game comments from Coach Les and Coach Turner:

From Les:

“I didn’t like our performance at all,” said a disappointed Aggie head coach Jim Les afterward.
“We didn’t play physical or aggressive and a team like Irvine preys on that. We gave up 88 points, which is not how we like to play. We have some issues we need to correct with our consistency.”

“If we can correct some things, I think this team has a chance to be pretty good,” noted Les, pointing out that the expanded Big West schedule stretches to 20 games this winter. “The good part about the Big West is that you can get your butt kicked one night and then you have 48 hours to go at it again.”

From Turner:

“That was a great win against a team we have tremendous respect for,” said Irvine head coach Russell Turner.

“I’m always nervous until the game’s over, but we’ve had two tough road wins now, so I’m very pleased. UC Davis has a spirit that I genuinely admire and that comes from their coaches and spreads to their players. They always fight and they’re never out of it.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/basketball-uc-davis-men-2/

I don't think it could get much worse for the Aggies than this. Irvine crushed the Ags 67-38.

The Aggies did not make a single basket in the entire 4th quarter and only scored 6 points in the 2nd and 5 in the 4th. They shot 22% for the game including only 2-23 from 3 and had 20 TO's to boot. Wow...

Heck of a rally in the final 2 minutes by the Aggies. There's no quit whatsoever in this team but we had no answer to Irvine's big man, Leuchten. As Toke stated earlier, a lot of BW teams have a 7 footer and we're not going to match up well with those teams that have great size.

We're 1-5 in the last 6 games. We really need to get on a winning streak if we're going to have any chance to be relevant in the conference late in the season.

Ooof...I'm late to game...thought in started at 7. I think I still have Covid brain fog!

Well, unfortunately, I'm going to have to watch this one on ESPN+. I finally tested negative for Covid after 12 days of feeling like crap but I still not back to my normal self by any means. This bug kicked my butt and sapped my energy big time but I feel like I've turned the corner today. My wife and I will be there in spirit though. Go Ags!

I watched some of Vanderbilt's win over South Carolina tonight and Ezra had a great game and scored 23 points. His highest game at Davis was 27. He has really adjusted to the higher level of competition in the SEC.

Same to you CA Forever and also to all our AST Forum members. I wish you all good health and prosperity in 2023 and here's hoping for lots of continued success for Aggie Athletics.

I remember that showboating on the Hawaii bench during that game also and I've seen that going on with the Hawaii players in some of the other games we played in Hawaii. I just think their coach just doesn't really care about that level of discipline and so he allows it or just tolerates it. It seems like our games with Hawaii are generally high intensity and have the potential to get a bit chippy.

I think this is a huge game for us if we are going to make a legitimate statement that we can be one of the contenders for the BW title. On numerous occasions, I've heard Coach Les say that we need to win and home and steal a few on the road to be a contender. We've lost a few games now which could have gone either way. We need a good win over a good team right now and this would be a great opportunity for us to get back on track.

I remember a game some years ago in Hawaii where the fans really got out of hand. At one point, they started throwing stuff onto the floor and it stopped the game and the refs issued a warning to the crowd. Les hustled his team off to the locker room at the end of the game without the two teams shaking hands because he was concerned for their safety of the Aggie players.

Our defense in the first half was about as good as I have ever seen us play defense. We forced Hawaii into 13 TO's in first half which was outstanding. However, the problem was that we were unable to turn those TO's into points on the offensive end. You know that your offense is struggling when you force 13 TO's but still trail by 2 points at the half.

That was JoVon McClanahan who is only 5'10 and was the smallest player on the court. He scored all of his 23 points in the second half. His clutch shooting sealed the deal for Hawaii.

That's a tough crowd in Hawaii!

Ags fall 74-66. I thought it would be a dogfight and it was. We were right in it right up to the last 2 minutes. Hard fought game by both teams. Hawaii's length on defense gave us a lot of problems and, as a result, our offense never really got into a rhythm. We needed our defense to be solid in order to keep us within striking distance and our defense came through on that point.

Great game by Anigwe. He kept us in the game with his offense in the first half when we couldn't buy a basket. Beasley also had a very nice game. Pepper struggled getting his shots to fall but he never quits and made some key baskets down the stretch. Johnson looked frustrated. I think he's trying too hard to make something happen on offense at times and ends up turning the ball over.

We showed that we're going to be a tough out in the BW against anyone. I can't wait to play Hawaii when they come to Davis in February. I think we'll win that one.

This has been a physical, blue collar basketball game so far. Dominating, tenacious defense by both teams. Anigwe has kept us in the game on the offensive end.