The two statements that might be fair are that we have some of the best individual talent in the Big West and that this team is has one of the highest peaks, in that on a day the shots are falling the Ags are capable of beating anybody in the conference.

I remember last year there were several games where we struggled on offense but got bailed out by Lemar turning into Steph Curry for five minutes at a time. We'll need those kinds of offensive spurts from the shooters again down the stretch when teams key in on Chima.

More likely a sample size problem than a realtimerpi problem. Gauchodan from the Big West forums also has us #22 in RPI.

If we come into the tournament with 3-6 losses I could see a #13 seed; didn't Irvine have that the year they were a bucket away from beating Louisville? More likely though if we make it to the tournament we have closer to 10 losses because of growing pains and get #15 or #16 again.

Without knowing what the TV revenue situation is like, MWC offers relatively little non-monetary benefits to fans outside of FBS status anyway. It's still a one-bid conference in basketball these days and I think offers fewer sports than the BWC (no Men's Soccer). The TV contract is mediocre, with late games on an obscure network that can't be streamed. And then for the sports you do have you're locked in to playing some pretty unexciting schools -- home games against Utah State and New Mexico don't particularly make people clamor for tickets.

The Big West needs to get better, but this is the place for us.

My impression of WSU from the game I watched is that they play fast and shoot well -- the Ags absolutely have to improve on offense to stay in what might be a shootout.

I remember the commentators were joking that WSU only even came close to running out the shot clock once the whole game.

I think it is tied to height but not a direct correlation.

My observation, at least at this level, is that there's much less height variation than on the Men's side of things. If it doesn't vary as much then it often isn't as big of an advantage, which means that in WBB you probably get fewer players who make it this far on length and physicality alone. So the fundamentals like shooting have a higher baseline, especially for the post players. I doubt the gap is as big or even there at all for the guards.

Before today's game our RPI was 33, but it's probably going to keep falling due to SoS. Far and above the best mark in the Big West.

http://realtimerpi.com/rpi_bigw_Women.html

Long-term they might be scary to recruit against. (I say this both as a UCD and SDSU fan.) Great brand name and a campus literally on the beach. At minimum they offer the same goods that UCSB does.

Yeah sounds like an error to me

79-53 Aggies final. Can't hit threes in the first half and still win by 26. Unreal.

I think the Seattle coach was upset that a transition foul wasn't called and left the bench to yell at the ref. It was off camera though so that's conjecture based on the scuffle right before.

Huh I wonder why it's so inconsistent.

Aggies up 59-39 at the end of the third.

37-22 Ags at the half. The game got chippier in the second quarter and the Ags did a good job forcing Seattle to play physical and ultimately getting the Ags into the double bonus early. Redhawks don't really have an answer for Bertsch and Anderson.

Hmm no, it's working perfectly for me

17-13 at the end of the first

Watching the SDSU/Sac game and Sac has 14 (!!!!) at the half

They look like a very sloppy basketball team, but maybe the late tip-off and SDSU's size are getting to them.

You beat me to it. I've seen a fair share of football, basketball, and soccer games and this feels like the first time I'm seeing a major Aggie team put just plain better players on the floor than the opponents. The revenue sports have had individual stars in the last few years and have excelled in specific areas, but I can't recall any team having such a big talent advantage across so many positions.

The cool part is how this is sustainable -- a team built around Bertsch, Hall, Bessolo, and the Eatons could conceivably win the Big West next year. And who knows what kind of talent is waiting in the wings.

My irrational fantasy for the future of MBB is that the Ags get popular and reputable enough that the Golden 1 Center is actually necessary for marquee OoC games due to capacity concerns at the Pavilion. Won't ever happen regularly but I could see it happening maybe once if the program keeps improving and someone like Gonzaga comes to town.

Really is annoying that a team with two undefeated home records in the last three years can't consistently draw even 3000. I'm sure there will be a boost this year for casual fans and season tickets but something has to be done to get the students to turn up.

I think the Ags win tonight but it will be close and anything can happen in a rivalry. Other players have to step up because Chima can't carry the offense every game. (Relatedly, isn't that what happened to UCSB the year we won the regular season? I remember reading that Alan Williams had the flu or something.) Won't be able to even listen but hopefully I can check the halftime score.

No question we improved. But there was pretty much nowhere to go but up.

We're partly just seeing regression to the mean. The last three years of Gould were probably an underperformance -- swaths of injuries to key players don't help, and last year we literally gave a game away when a return guy unnecessarily fielded a punt -- so the likeliest thing regardless of the staff was some improvement by a win or two. Maybe we can credit the staff for not hindering that improvement.

100% the better team won yesterday imo. As Riveraggie said, the game was lost when y'all got 31 points ahead.

It's nice to wonder if we could have pulled out some miracle, but really doesn't change the big issue

Actually I watched that with hs friends once; it was plenty entertaining at least

Real Steel is my flick for tonight. Too bummed and tired to go to the SDSU game.

I agree, the offense is an improvement, both in stats and style. It's much more fun to watch than previously, or at least the peaks are. I guess that's good for recruiting, attendance, and donations, but I'd rather take more Ws running the option or something if it came down such a decision.

The youth is a good point. It'll be interesting to see how everyone develops and how the staff fills in gaps when given more time to recruit into the new system. TT's underutilization is something I guess maybe I could've included in my list of ah, grievances, but we don't really know how all these guys compare in practice.

My vibe looking at the whole thing is that this is a team that had the ability to get around 7 wins that got 5. By the numbers that's an improvement and maybe we'll grow a bit but I really don't care for being a potential 8-win team that consistently gets 5 or 6 (we won't always have such a favorable schedule). And that's the path I see right now which is why I'm frustrated.