I really liked our energy, hustle and defense in the first half although our perimeter shooting was not good. EWU's zone gave us problems offensively in the second half and we couldn't buy 3 point shot. It's tough to break a zone down against a team with superior height inside when you can't hit from the outside. Then there game got ragged in the final 10 minutes with lots of fouls and poor FT shooting.

We have not shown that we can hit the 3 so far this year. We are 12 of 47 for 25.5% from beyond the arc. We're going to see a lot of zone until we can establish that we can be dangerous from the perimeter.

I feel like we have more depth this year and can get some solid contributions from the bench. It's nice to see Murphy getting minutes. He's battles tough inside. McGill is coming along nicely this year and he looks like he could become and inside/outside threat. DeBruhl is young but you can see the talent is there. He plays hard and he's going to continue to get better as the year goes along. He'll be able to give Manjon a breather and we'll be able to have a different look with both of them in the game on occasion.

We finally saw BJ Shaw for a couple of minutes today but Cameron Ba hasn't played. I'm not sure what's going on with those two.

We've got work to do but a 2-0 start is promising.

Five resignations counting the spring,,,that a lot of unhappy coaches who were originally hired by Best. EWU might be better served if Best resigned...

:rofl:

I’m at the game. The Aggie defense have been outstanding. Very aggressive with active hands and the help is there when a player gets beat. Impressive.

The feeling I get from the quotes from Hawkins and Coombs is that they know it going to be very tough to beat EWU but, if we can keep it close, then we have a chance. They both realize just how explosive EWU's offense can be and how good EB3 is.

I think this is a game that could get away from really quick if our defense simply can not contain EB3 and get off the field and allow our offense to not always be playing catch up. The Ags have never beaten the Eagles (0-9) and we will need to bring our best effort of the season plus a bit of luck to finally win one against them.

Hawkins on Barriere and EWU:

Dan Hawkins says Eastern Washington quarterback Eric Barriere may well be the most productive football player in the
country at any level.

“He’s the best player in the FCS and maybe all of college football,” said the UC Davis head coach. “He’s arguably the best player I’ve ever coached against, and I’ve coached against five Heisman Trophy winners. He’s super explosive and throws a very accurate pass. He’s also a gifted, gifted runner and is tough to handle.”

“They have been the gold standard in our conference for a long time,” Hawkins added. “They always are at or near the top and they have won a national championship. It will be a challenge to try to stay with them. If you beat them, it will be close.”

“Our guys continue to show up and work hard,” he said. “They’re obviously mindful that this is a momentous game for us, but I still think we haven’t played our best football yet. We just have to figure out a way to slow down their offense and somehow break serve.”

That task falls to UCD defensive coordinator Matt Coombs, who notes simply, “We’ll have our hands full for sure.”

Added Coombs, “Barriere is as good a player as there is around. You have to be smart if you pressure the passer because he is so elusive and can hurt you with his feet. He’s really smart and great at diagnosing where your coverage is coming from.

“It’s a great challenge, but our guys have worked hard to put themselves in a position to play in these types of games. They’re excited for the opportunity.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggies-preparing-for-the-eagles/

San Jose State beats Fullerton on an 8 foot jumper at the buzzer 78-76. Tough loss for UCR after coming back from 16 down to tie the game in the final 2 minutes.

UC Riverside upsets Arizona State 66-65 on JP Moorman's 3/4 court shot at the buzzer. Moorman is a SR 6'7 transfer from Temple. Riverside looked solid the whole game. Great win for the Big West.

Thursday games:

Riverside at Arizona Stater 6:30 pm PAC12 Network
Fullerton at San Jose State 7 pm Mountain West Network
Northern Colorado at Hawaii 9 pm ESPN+

Friday games

EWU at UCD at 2 pm ESPN+
NDSU at Cal Poly at 2 pm ESPN+

Hawai'i 97 Hawai'i - Hilo 67

UCSB 119 San Francisco State 65. This is the most points scored by the Gauchos since 1971.

Amadou Sow and Josh Pierre-Louis, who is a 4 star SO transfer from Temple, each had 25 points apiece and the Gauchos shot 63% for the game.

Long Beach State 94 Idaho 89 OT

I've been watching a little of SF State at UCSB. Man, the Gauchos are loaded with size and talent. Pasternack really goes after Power 5 level talent each year and lands of few 3-4 star transfers. I think they must be favored to win the Big West again this year.

I heard him say that a couple of times also. It is true that it can be more difficult to rebound shots that miss badly and clank off the iron at odd angle and air balls and we did put up a few of those. However, they had every chance to get the rebound just as we did and that's not the reason we rebounded evenly with them: we just worked hard on the boards and it paid off.

You and I hope about 10,000 more Aggie fans at least!

Jim Les' teams are built first and foremost on defense. He likes to say that when the shots aren't falling, defense can keep you in the game and last night was a good example of that especially early in the game. USU was red hot at the start and we got down double digits real quick. Then our defense turned them over several times and we went on a 15-0 run to take the lead.

We had a tough time penetrating their defense. Manjon generally carves his way through the big men in the paint and but they clogged up the lanes and made it tough for him. They had size inside and they collapsed whenever we got into the paint. It was just very tough going inside for the Ags. Of course, that opened up the perimeter for us but we didn't shoot very well from 3.

Neither team shot the ball well but we made the shots down the stretch when it counted the most. Again, it was our defense that kept us close enough to be in a position to win.

Milling kept us close in the first half and we got to see that he's going to be a deep threat for us with his quick stroke from downtown. I would imagine that he can be streaky like most good long ball shooters but, when he's hot, we'll want to get him the ball and let him light up the nets.

USU is a very good basketball program. They've been in the NCAA Tournament 23 times including the last 3 years in a row. Last years teams had some impressive stats. The were #2 in the nation in rebounding margin of +10 per game, #7 to total rebounds per game at 41, #10 in defensive FG % .390, #13 in blocks per game at 5 and #16 in scoring defense at 62.3 ppg.

That's a very good defensive team but we went toe-to-toe with them on the boards, 41-41, despite their distinct height advantage. I attribute that to our positioning blocking out, athleticism and just plain toughness.

If we can continue to at least stay even on the boards while playing tough, lock down D, we could be a tough out in the Big West this year. The defense is generally always ahead of the offense in the early season so I'm think we'll see the offense improve as the season progresses.

I just watched the last 10 minutes again. That was a gutsy win for the Aggies in a tough environment. The Ags made the big plays at crunch time. This really gets the Ags off on the right foot. Let's keep it going against EWU. It would be great to beat them on the basketball court Friday and then send them home with a loss on the football field on Saturday!

I thought McCann was a great coach for us when he was here. I was sorry to see him leave.

We've got a great opportunity to prove ourselves in these next two games and these games will determine whether we deserve those high rankings or not.

EWU loses two close games and Best fires his OC. Why am I not surprised? Best likes to run up the score if he has a chance and we've been on the receiving end of that in the past. It would be a thing of beauty if we can add to his misery this Saturday.