Aggie crowd full of love for Fullove

60-56. 60-56. 60-56. Those two numbers are all that Santa Barbara has to hang out, because they just got thrashed.

The night began with a nice dinner at Chilis and ended with a thorough thrashing of UCSB on national TV. I'll address dinner later because I'm just dieing to get to the game. BTW, I'd love to hear a report of what the broadcast was like on ESPN2.

As I settled into my seat about 20 minutes before tip-off, I could tell it was going to be an electric night. The student section was full to overflowing and there was energy in the air you could feel. If you want to say anything about the Aggie fans, you can say that they know how to bring it when the cameras are rolling. Had the game been close, there's no telling how loud it could have got! We may have rattled 'em, but they only got a whiff of what the Spectrum could have been.

The story of the game has to be shooting percentage. UCSB came into the game the 2nd best shooting team in the league and the top shooting team from behind the arc. The Aggie defense rose to the occasion tonight as they completely shut down the Gauchos. UCSB shot a dismal 35% from the floor and a pathetic 24% from three-land. On the other hand, the Aggies shot 51% from the floor and 32% from three. When you combine that with the rebound margin of +13 for the Aggies, it means UCSB got smashed!

The Aggies were clearly the better team. It's hard to find a place tonight where the Aggies didn't outplay UCSB. We had more energy, especially off the bench, we played smarter and shared the ball extremely well. We had 19 assists compared to 9 for UCSB and those assists translated into a lot of easy looks inside. We did send UCSB to the line quite a bit, and to their credit they hit enough to keep from being totally humiliated. Without the charity tosses, it would have got real ugly, really fast.

Brandon Fullove takes the award for bone-head play of the game. He got tangled up with Des at halfcourt and both guys ended up on the floor. In the act of untagleing, Fullove took a cheap shot and bought the attention of the rabid USU crowd for the rest of the night. Every time he touched the ball the crowd booed and every shot he missed brought cheers and jeers. It was clear the crowd got in his head, because his response to the attention was to force his play. He finished the game shooting 3-12 and 0-5 from three. I think in retrospect he's going to realize that he really hurt his team.

The 7 point lead at halftime for the Aggies got cut to 5, but it was then that Cardell Butler came out of his shooting slump. He drained a nice 5 footer after missing his first few shots, then responded on the next trip with a 3-pointer. We scored again and then Nelson found Evans on a press-breaking dunk off a length-of-the-court pass. It was a 9 point run that gave us a 14 point lead and UCSB never got closer than 11 from there. The final tally was the Aggies winning 75 - 59.

The Players:

DP played a solid game, but I thought he was pressing a little too much. I think he was possibly a little too aware that the cameras were rolling and he wanted to perform. He finished with 15 points on 7-14 shooting and grabbed 6 rebounds, so it's not right to come down hard on him. He didn't hurt the team. I thought his scoring early in the game really got the Aggies going. I like to see hime work more inside, but when he makes that jumper, it sure opens up the middle for Harris, Nelson and Johnson for rebounds and easy put-backs.

Spencer Nelson came to play, logging another double-double with 13 points (4-4) and 12 boards. He played 20 minutes due to some foul trouble, but no one on either team fouled out. His energy is very contagious. He got a lot of points early off the boards. While DP is a real talent, Nelson is turning out to be the heart and soul of this team. What a bonus to get this kind of play and leadership out of a Sophmore! I think that Nelson may be our best player next year... if it's not Mark Brown.

Mark Brown played another strong game. He didn't try to score much until the 2nd half, but finished with 9 points, dished 8 assists and committed his first (and only) turnover of the weekend. UCSB gave us a lot of 3/4 press and Brown took it in stride. Mark led the team again with 31 minutes. His calm under pressure seems uncanny. Mark Brown is taking better charge of the team every game which I attribute to his starting to really grasp the system.

Nate Harris had a chance to come in when Nelson got some fouls and he picked up right where Nelson left off. Harris finished with career highs 12 points (6-6) and 7 rebounds, playing his best game so far as an Aggie. He was a real big part of our inside dominance early. Nelson had 8 points when he left and Harris added 8 of his own in no time. We've got 3 1/2 years more of watching Nate, and I'm thinking I'm going to relish every minute of it. Our post game seems to be set through 2005!

Cardell Butler came into the game in a huge shooting slump, and the first half saw that continue. I think he missed 5 straight shots, but he wasn't forcing it and most were pretty good looks. He sure picked a nice time to break out of it, though, draining 2 threes and driving in to take a nice jumper. If he can start hitting from outside, he'll become practically unguardable. He should be getting to the line a little more. He finished with 10 points in 21 minutes.

Ronnie Ross doesn't shoot an amazing percentage, but it seems like he knows when to make the big shot. He silenced at least one attempt at a comeback with a nice 3 out of the corner. He hit 2-6, but it was enough to keep UCSB chasing him all night. His defense, which we don't talk much about, has become very steady. He's often giving up size, but he and Brown really dig and scrap and neither have been taken advantage of in size mismatches yet this year. That's a real credit to how hard they are playing. It's nice to know Ross can handle the ball and run the team enough to rest Brown.

Mike Puzey played reasonably well in limited minutes. The UCSB lineup was small and didn't lend itself to the Aggies going with size. He finished with 11 minutes, but 8 other Aggies got double-digit minutes so Stew is sharing the time around well. We're getting a lot out of the depth of this team and the deeper we get into the season, the better (and fresher) we're going to be because of it. I think Puzey has some big games ahead of him, I just hope they come soon.

TJ played nice, if maybe a bit quiet by his standards. His defense, along with Evans, on Fullove was stellar all night. he had 6 points and 4 assists in 25 minutes.

We went really deep on the bench and I think that no one disappointed. When you are playing on national TV, you know that everyone's family and friends are going to be tuned in. I thought the entire team made a good showing and the crowd was there to keep them up all night. I didn't really know what to expect coming into the game, but I can't imagine wanting more that what we got. Individual stats gave way to solid team play. It was our 2nd straight solid win over a good team. We earned the W 100%. Now it's time to take the show on the road again and make the rest of the league take notice! Aggies are gonna dance this year... gonna dance long and hard!

www.vadryn.com

Final	1st	2nd	Total
UCSB	29	30	59
Utah St	36	39	75

UCSB					REBOUNDS
PLAYER	MIN	FG	FT	3PT	OFF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	PTS
M Hull	32	5-12	2-3	3-8	0	3	0	0	0	0	15
B Fullove	28	3-12	1-3	0-5	2	2	0	1	0	1	7
C Cook	21	1-1	2-2	0-0	1	2	1	3	0	1	4
N Jones	23	3-9	4-4	1-4	3	6	2	0	2	3	11
J Atako	24	1-4	0-0	1-3	0	1	1	2	0	1	3
C Brown	16	0-2	3-4	0-1	0	0	2	1	2	1	3
J Davis	17	1-4	1-2	0-1	0	4	1	2	0	0	3
C Oliver	12	2-3	1-2	1-2	0	1	1	0	0	2	6
B Ward	7	0-2	0-0	0-1	1	1	1	3	0	0	0
D Wheeler	1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
B Whitehead	16	1-2	3-3	0-0	2	4	0	3	2	0	5
S Rainey	3	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Totals	200	18-52	17-23	6-25	9	24	9	16	6	9	59
Percentages: FG .346, FT .739, 3PT .240 Team Rebounds: 2 Blocked Shots: 1 (B Whitehead)

Utah St					REBOUNDS
PLAYER	MIN	FG	FT	3PT	OFF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	PTS
D Penigar	26	7-14	0-0	1-4	2	6	0	2	2	2	15
T Johnson	25	2-6	2-2	0-0	2	4	1	2	0	1	6
S Nelson	20	4-4	5-6	0-0	6	12	2	4	0	1	13
R Ross	23	2-6	0-0	2-6	0	0	2	2	0	1	6
M Brown	31	2-6	4-4	1-4	0	3	8	2	1	1	9
N Harris	22	6-6	0-0	0-0	0	7	1	1	0	1	12
M Puzey	11	0-1	0-0	0-0	1	2	0	1	0	1	0
M Stowell	3	0-0	2-2	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
C Butler	21	3-8	2-2	2-5	1	3	3	1	0	3	10
C Brown	3	0-0	0-2	0-0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
G Patton	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
C Evans	13	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	2	0	1	2
Totals	200	27-52	15-18	6-19	12	39	19	18	3	12	75
Percentages: FG .519, FT .833, 3PT .316 Team Rebounds: 0 Blocked Shots: 1 (S Nelson)

Technical fouls: None.
Attendance: 9,669.
Officials: Anthony Crozier, Dick Cartmell, Mike Schypers.