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UC-Davis at Hawai’i, Midnight Eastern, OC Sports/free streaming at bigwest.tv
The UTR Game of the Day heads west tonight . . . very far west. We are escaping the snowy east coast and visiting Honolulu for a matchup of two of the top teams in the Big West conference, UC-Davis and Hawai’i. The UC-Davis Aggies have been one of the biggest surprises in early conference play, sitting at 4-0 in the Big West and 14-3 overall. They have already picked up a win over Long Beach State, a team we thought capable of running away with the Big West this season after the 49ers toughed out one of the most difficult non-conference schedules we have seen in recent history. The Aggies did the exact opposite, failing to challenge themselves much before conference play started, but at least building up the wins. This has led Davis to 14 wins already, tieing the school’s highest win total since moving up to Division I just over ten years ago. Tonight, in Hawai’i, they go for the school record.
The Rainbow Warriors will be looking to bounce back after struggling out to a 1-2 start in Big West play. They were surprisingly good out of conference, building a 12-4 record there. This included wins over Pittsburgh, Colorado and Nebraska. Hawai’i appeared to be in trouble heading into the season as the program was under NCAA investigation and their head coach was relieved of his duties on the eve of the start of practices. Benji Taylor moved up from his assistant position and has done a truly remarkable job keeping the team together and playing solid basketball during a season that could have been a complete disaster. He will try to lead his team to a win over UC-Davis tonight and keep the ‘bows right in contention as we move through the conference season.