There was that 3 game period where Pepper was held to single digit scoring. If it weren't for that drought period he would have probably become the highest scorer in Big West history. He still has a chance but it's probably a long shot...

...and Les says he's even a greater person than a great basketball player...

Awesome news! He most absolutely deserved it. He's one of the greatest Aggies ever to wear the uniform!

Pepper started all 31 games and averaged a league-leading 20.5 points per game during the regular season to lead UC Davis to a third-place finish in The Big West with 14-6 conference record (19-12 overall). The senior guard also topped the league in three-pointers made per game (3.0) and free throw percentage (.923), and had 19 instances of scoring 20 points or more. Pepper is currently 75 points of becoming The Big West’s all-time leading scorer (Lucious Harris, LBSU, 2,312 points, 1989-93). The Selah, Wash. product joins the likes of TJ Shorts II (2017-18) and Corey Hawkins (2014-15) as Aggies who have won the conference’s top individual award.

https://bigwest.org/news/2024/3/12/mens-basketball-2023-24-all-big-west-teams-and-award-winners-revealed.aspx

Back in the day, the campus was small, 8000+ students, — Toke69

I just saw that UCD had 115,349 applicants for the fall of 2024 which is a record high.

He's been at Long Beach for 17 years.

Wow...I've heard some of The Beach fans over on the Big West Boards calling for his head but I didn't see that coming. He recruits some high level talent but this year's team really did underperform in conference play and finished with 5 straight loses. That was probably the nail in the coffin. Bob Williams considers him one of the best coaches in the conference.

Click on the image to enlarge it.


https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/ncaa-conference-tournament-basketball-betting-odds-picks-2024

I think we got a pretty good draw when you look at the teams we might end up playing in our first game.

I remember that. We must have been at the same game. He used to stop his feet so hard that I thought he might break a bone while he was nervously be chomping on a white towel. Occasionally, he would jump up in exasperation and throw it the back over his head and high into the crowd. He was certainly a colorful coach!

He also had an eye for a pretty girl too. I was at Mr B's one evening with a coed friend who was as cute as they come. Ham was sitting at another table all by himself having a drink and smoking a cigarette. As he got up to leave, he walked over to our table and introduced himself and we began chatting about the Aggies. He said we were going to build a big, first rate basketball arena and great things were in store for Aggie basketball. Finally, as he was about to walk away, he stopped and turned around and looked at me and said in that raspy voice of his, "She's a keeper. I can tell by that twinkle in her eye."

Dang, the prices have gone up!

I'll be up at Northstar through Friday skiing with my son. Hopefully, I'll arrive home in one piece in time to watch the Aggies on Friday night.

At my age, skiing has become a risky business but I still love it even though I have two relatives in Colorado who have suffered serious a broken leg that required surgery already this year. They're still young enough to heal up and return to the activities they love to do...probably not so much anymore with me. I'm hoping the family, Colorado skiing curse doesn't spread to California though!

Are you going to Henderson, Mike?

As for the ‘game’, I was a bit underwhelmed. — DrMike

Did any players stand out for you? Was there anything else in particular that looked impressive or not so impressive? How big was the crowd?

2/09 Scores:

Aggies 88 Long Beach 78
Riverside 81 Santa Barbara 64
Irvine 81 Fullerton 71
Hawai'i 74 Bakersfield 57
San Diego 92 Cal Poly 87

Final Standings:

Long Beach has the ability to be the best rebounding team in the conference. They may be but I don't know for sure. They have size, length and quickness and they are aggressive on the boards. I noticed that they were often able to get a rebound or tap the ball out to a teammate even when we had several players in good position. They're simply much longer and athletic in the interior than we are and it makes it really tough for us inside. I'm glad our 3 balls were dropping along with our FT's or we wouldn't have won this game.

Samba's leg had support around his knee. I'm hoping he'll be good to go in the tournament and Les just held him out to give him more time to heal up.
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That would be really great. Mani has tremendous potential and Borra is making good progress. It would be a luxury to have all three of our big men back for another season.

There's no team in the Big West that plays defense any better than the Aggies. The communication and switching on defense today was outstanding. Our ball movement on offense and our shooting percentages were excellent too. We're a tough team to beat in the conference when we play like that. It's fantastic that we're peaking right now.

Long Beach is a scary team because of their length and athleticism. Their wins over Michigan and USC earlier this year showed what they are capable of. I really don't want to play them again in the BW Tournament.

I saw that Norris was out of the last game with a boot on her foot. Who else was booted up today?

I think Milling had a career high (?) today. — Toke69

Milling had 27 against his former team, Nevada, on the road in Reno this year.

The Ags are playing at a high level right now and they are getting good contributions from the bench also. It's great to see Milling heating up from downtown in the last couple of games. Mani got in for 8 minutes and he looked good in the paint with 4 points and a blocked shot. You can see that he has a lot of potential to develop into high quality player.

Long Beach is such an athletic team with length and quickness. They dominated us on the boards 39-24 and 19 of those were offensive rebounds which led to 15 second chance points for them. We don't match up well with the size and length that they have so we have to shoot a high percentage to beat them and it was our 3 point shooting and FT shooting that offset their scoring in the paint. We were 10-16 from 3 and 24-27 from the line compared to 3-16 from 3 and 17-23 from the line for The Beach.

I really didn't like us starting to work the clock with so much time left. We were up 19 with 8 minutes to go when Les had the team slow down and work the ball late into the shot clock. That worked for a while and we still had a 19 point with 5:50 to go. Then LB started pressing and double teaming and we still tried to work the clock and we lost our offensive rhythm and committed some TO's and the lead fell to 10 with 3:18 to go.

The team has really turned things around after we went through that skid of losing 4 out of 5 games. The last 3 wins over Hawai'i, San Diego and Long Beach were all solid wins and now the team can carry that confidence and momentum into the Big West Tournament. It won't be easy but we just could win it and go dancing.