1/25 scores:

Bakersfield 64 CSUN 56
Fullerton 54 Cal Poly 51
San Diego 66 Riverside 65
Irvine 72 Long Beach 61
Santa Barbara 78 Hawaii 61 (UCSB had a 26-0 run in the first half when Hawaii didn't score a single point for over 10 minutes.)

Current standings:

He does sound like an Aussie.

Great interview with Pepper. He turned down a "big time offer from a big time program" to play here in his final season and graduate from Davis. That's something we don't see much of anymore with players jumping from program to program via the portal.

This is great news for baseball. I didn't know about the Pioneer Baseball League or the Yolo High Wheelers. Here are links to the the High Wheelers website and the Pioneer League website:

https://highwheelers.com

https://www.pioneerleague.com/landing/index

Rocak was huge in the win over Irvine...6 blocks against the kind of size Irvine has...amazing...

We all know that Les builds his teams primarily around great guards and our roster often does not have the size that we see each year with teams like Irvine, Long Beach and Santa Barbara for example.

Bob Williams made an interesting comment regarding Rocak when he said, "He's my kind of big man. I didn't really care if my big men didn't score much. I wanted them to be physical, rebound, make FT's under pressure, set good screens and play their rear ends off and make everybody else better." He went on to say that the coaches at Santa Barbara and Irvine want different things out of their bigs than Les does.

He also mentioned the Rocak was a walk-on and was a great steal for the Aggies. I'm sure he's on scholarship now but I didn't know he was a walk-on. I thought we picked him up through the portal.

It's never really clear whether a bad game by a really good shooter like Eli Pepper is due to his being cold or due to the defense. — Toke69

I've been watching the ESPN+ replay because I really enjoy hearing Bob Williams' comments during the game. He's a great basketball mind and he adds so much the broadcast for us fans with his insight into what's happening on the court and what the coaches are doing during the game. He commented that Les and Turner are two of the best coaches in the Big West.

He mentions that these are the two best defensive teams in the league and both teams play defense very hard. He also noted that Irvine likes to play 10 deep so they can keep up their defensive pressure throughout the game.

Turner had his team focused on shutting down Pepper. If you watch the replay and focus on Pepper you can just how hard he had to work in order to get a halfway decent look. Irvine dogged him constantly with double and even triple teaming him. They played him very physical with chest-to-chest defense, lots of bumping and hand checking and he often had to fight through double and even triple teaming to try and get a halfway decent look. He did not shoot the ball particularly well overall but I think most of that was due to the constant defensive pressure that Irvine put on him for the whole game. He's tough as nails but all of that physical play had to wear him down some and that had to have an effect on his offensive game. I think we'll see more teams defend him that way for the rest of the season.

Rocak had a great game overall. He defended Irvine's talented bigs really well and was blocking shots on players who had 4 inches on him. He's has improved immensely this year. I'd like to see him become more consistent in hitting that mid-range jumper that teams are giving him. Teams are clogging the paint to prevent TY and Eli from driving the ball and, if Rocak can start hitting that mid-range jumper with some consistently, teams will have to come out and defend it and that should help open up the lanes to the basket.

The last 3 wins by the Aggies were all tough, tense battles but they found a way to grind the wins. This team plays very unselfish basketball and has a lot of heart and that bodes well for us. It won't be easy by any means but Les has his team playing at a high level right now.

I noticed that former Aggie Garrison Goode was in the stands cheering on the Aggies. He really grew into an excellent player during his time as an Aggie.

Wow...your photo clearly shows that Tamba got whacked hard across his arms. How could the official on the baseline not call that? It's very clear that Tamba got fouled hard and there's no players blocking the view.

Aggies take over sole first place after their win over Irvine:

1/20 games:

Aggies 54 Irvine 52
Bakersfield 65 Cal Poly 53
San Diego 67 Hawaii 61
Fullerton 73 Santa Barbara 69
Riverside 82 CSUN 63

Niko Rocak proved to be a true anchor all-night for UC Davis, setting a program record for most blocks in a game with six. Rocak ranks first during conference play in blocks, recording 2.1 per game, and stands alone as the only player to be averaging more than two per game during the first month of Big West action. Offensively, Rocak battled all night and was responsible for a pair of emphatic slams that provided life to the home crowd.

After the game, Johnson spoke in depth about his unwavering confidence with the game on the line. "Big-time players make big-time shots in moments like that," Johnson said. "I work so hard in and out of practice so much and manifest the ability to make those type plays, and lately it's been coming through so I'm going to stick with it."

UC Davis coach Jim Les also praised Johnson's performance and leadership today.

"We have confidence and a lot of faith in putting the ball in his hands to go and make a good decision with space."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/1/20/mens-basketball-johnsons-game-winner-leads-uc-davis-past-uc-irvine-54-52.aspx

So apparently they didn't call a foul on the Irvine player when Tamba went up for the layup.

Still not sure what happened with the Tomba T - I thought they were debating an Irvine flagrant on the drive. — DrMike

Just prior to the official review, the announcer said that there was a foul by Irvine's #11 (Tillis). After the review, Tamba ended up with a T and didn't get to shoot any FT's. I have no idea what happened. Luckily, Irvine missed both of the FT's.

I saw that these two teams have played 17 games against each other that were decided by 3 points or less.

The defensive intensity by both teams was incredible and the officials were letting them play otherwise we would have had 50 fouls. I really appreciate great defense and I think we just saw the two best defensive teams in the Big West battle it out.

Great basketball game. Great crowd and a really fun game for the Aggie fans! I hope they'll come back because this team is playing their hearts out and deserve to be supported.

The Aggies 5 game winning streak is over as they got thumped today at Irvine 79-61.

They’re defending Pepper really well. Nothing coming easy in this game.

49-48 Aggies with 3:37 to go. Rugged, physical defenses by both teams.

27-25 Aggies in a game dominated by the defenses. Ags need to clean up the TO’s in the second half.