Closer to home and joins Brianna Turner.

Despite not shooting the ball at his usual proficiency level, Eli Pepper was named the Big West Player of the Week. He's such a great all-around player that, even when his shots aren't falling at a high percentage, he's contributing with rebounds, assists, steals and tough defense.

DAVIS, Calif. — UC Davis senior guard Elijah Pepper has been announced the Big West Men's Basketball Player of the Week for his efforts during the week of Jan. 29 - Feb. 4, the conference office announced on Monday.

The Big West's leading scorer, Pepper averaged 20.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game en route to another 2-0 week for the Aggies.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/2/5/mens-basketball-pepper-named-big-west-player-of-the-week.aspx

2/03 games:

Aggies 59 Cal Poly 52
Long Beach 85 San Diego 76
Irvine 93 Hawaii 68
Santa Barbara 70 Bakersfield 59
CSUN 76 Riverside 70

Current Standings:

FROM HEAD COACH JOE PASTERNACK

"I thought we struggled defensively in the first half. The main thing is our turnovers; we have a problem with them and had 16 in the game. When we played them last time at their place, we also had 16 turnovers. Credit to them, Davis did a great job and they are a really good team. But we had 10 turnovers in the first half, and that really destroyed us. I thought we played them even in the second half, but unfortunately, this is a two-half game. You have to defend for a full 40 minutes and take care of the ball and rebound."

https://ucsbgauchos.com/news/2024/2/2/mens-basketball-gauchos-rally-falls-short-against-uc-davis.aspx

Yikes...this game had a total of 44 TO's between the two teams: 23 for Poly and 21 for the Aggies. Turner had played the full 40 minutes but only scored 3 points and was only 1-10 shooting. That's the lowest point total for her that I can ever remember...it may well be her lowest ever...

I've heard Jim Les say that good teams find a way to win even when it's ugly and, man, that was an ugly basketball game. Connor Sevilla came off the bench after TY got injured and he saved our butts by shooting 4-4 including two clutch 3's to stop the bleeding while we were close to squandering an 18 point lead. Teams are finding ways to make things very difficult for Pepper. We really need Milling to find some offensive continuity. Oh well...it goes in the W column...

25-23 Aggies in a ugly half of basketball. I'm glad our defense has been pretty good because our offense is nowhere to be found yet. We better come out and play much better in the second half because you know that Poly can smell blood in the water.

All tied up at 26 at the half.

Poly currently has a 28 game Big West Conference games losing streak and you know they would love to get that monkey off their backs.

Poly will be very hungry and I'm sure they will bring a lot of energy and fight to the game. As DrMike noted, they have had their offensive struggles this year but they've also been quite competitive in many of their conference losses. They also took Oregon State to the limit in Corvallis when they lost to the Beavers in double OT.

Man, Poly has fallen on hard times in both football and basketball.

The 25 point loss to the Aggies was their worst loss of the year but they're capable of upsetting any team in the conference. 5 of their 10 conference losses have been by less than 10 points. They've been playing much better since they lost to us.

After reading that, it does make good sense to have a waiting period.

Huge 3 pointer by TY...HUGE!

Honestly, I think San Diego may be the best team in the conference this year. They're blowing teams out at the moment. I really don't like the NCAA rule that makes teams ineligible for post-season play when they are moving up to D1. I feel like any team that wins the conference or otherwise deserves to be in the tournament should be eligible without a waiting period.

Eli has a incredible motor. Teams are hounding him with their best defenders and he's fighting to get through double and triple teaming defenders at times. Away from the ball, he's in constant motion working hard to get open and in rhythm for a shot. He forced up some awkward shots in the second half that didn't fall but he was still playing great defense, getting key rebounds and dishing out beautiful assists.

I agree that the double T was bunk. There was nothing egregious by either DeBruhl or Mitchell...just some smirking gamesmanship...nothing angry or aggressive by either. The ref overreacted. The officiating crew allowed the game to be physical but it didn't seem to me to be getting out of hand by any means. Just good, tough basketball.

Leo is an emotional player and he plays with his hair of fire. You gotta love that he gives you 100% every second he's on the floor. That said, I think his emotions get the better of him at times. He's been talking to the refs a lot lately when he feels that they missed a call involving him and he can get discouraged with himself when his shots aren't dropping. Nevertheless, he's become a very good 6th man for us.

I thought the T on Rocak for taunting was questionable as well. He had just forced Pierre-Louis into a missed layup and grabbed an aggressive rebound as Pierre-Louis hit the floor. Rocak look down at him while he had the ball but it certainly didn't look like he was taunting at all. We were up 17 at the time and we had a chance to stretch the lead even further but the T stopped our momentum and the Gauchos started chipping away at the lead.

I feel like TY has really matured a lot over last season. Last year, his emotions got the best of him too often. This season, he's been letting things slide and playing on rather that getting confrontational and he's really settled into being an outstanding all around player. He often sparks the team offensively when we need an boost and his defense is tremendous.

2/01 games:

Aggies 79 Santa Barbara 69
Hawaii 76 Fullerton 68
Bakersfield 82 Long Beach 76 in OT
San Diego 83 CSUN 62
Irvine 73 Cal Poly 59

Current standings:

I just realized I was posting about the game in the wrong thread. I'm gettin' old... :rofl:

Great defense by the Ags when they needed it . They forced 16 TO's which included 10 steals. It was a very physical game and the Ags hung in there when the Gauchos kept making runs.

The Aggies won the battle of the boards 31-25 and that included 9 offensive boards. Pepper and Johnson both had 24, Milling 10 and Rocak had 10 to go along with several blocks which was huge since the Ags were playing without Adebayo. Tamba stepped in for Ade and did a really good job. Great team win!

Edit - wrong thread.

Edit - wrong thread.