My wife ran into Jen at school pickup today: "too many mistakes" was her quick summary of the game. — Russ Bowlus
“It feels great,” said Nicholson in an exclusive interview with The Enterprise. “I’m really excited to get this opportunity. I really enjoyed meeting with Rocko and the staff. I really love the people that are in place at Davis. Everything I know about the community is just awesome, and I can’t wait to be a part of it. I’m really excited to build something special. I’m super excited about it.”
“I’m just getting to know them,” Nicholson said. “The guys that are there are there because they want to be there. I know they want to make things better and that’s what I want to be a part of. It’s really wanting to build something and take pride in.”
“I like it,” said Nicholson of the Aggies’ diamond. “It’s got a great stadium, great place to watch a game.”
He spoke highly of UC Davis, which he described as “a beautiful campus.”
“It has a lot to offer for guys to develop,” Nicholson said. “Get them in the weight room and get strong.”
“I liked the fact that we got 15 (offensive) boards,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We took care of the basketball well and that was the difference.”[/quote
]“Jen and her staff do a terrific job,” VanDerveer added. “It’s really challenging to play against a team that does what you do (offensively). And they do it really, really well.
“But what we tried to do was not allow them to shoot threes, especially in the first half. And we did that.”
CLASS BREAKDOWN
OFFENSE (2): 1 running back, 1 tight end
DEFENSE (9): 1 defensive lineman, 4 linebackers; 4 defensive backs
SPECIALISTS (0): None
CALIFORNIA (11): 4 Sacramento Area, 5 Central Valley, 1 Bay Area
SIGNEES
Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown/High School
Zeke Burnett RB 5-10 205 Sacramento, Calif./Elk Grove HS
Tyler Henry DL 6-3 275 Vallejo, Calif./De La Salle HS
Riley Hernandez LB 6-2 235 Bakersfield, Calif./Liberty HS
Nakian Jackson LB 6-1 230 Stockton, Calif./Edison HS
Lamont Johnson Burrell DB 6-3 175 Sacramento, Calif./Sacramento HS
Coleman Kuntz TE 6-3 230 Beaumont, Calif./Etiwanda HS
Brock Mather LB 6-0 220 Ridgecrest, Calif./Bakersfield JC
Elias Mullican DB 6-1 170 Rocklin, Calif./Rocklin HS
Caleb Nelson DB 6-1 185 Roseville, Calif./North Dakota
Alex Rocha LB 6-2 200 Bakersfield, Calif./Bakersfield HS
Zelmar Vedder DB 6-3 175 Manteca, Calif./Modesto JC
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Jim Les said he wrote one word on the board before sending his UC Davis men’s basketball team onto the floor of legendary Gill Coliseum to battle Pac-12 foe Oregon State Tuesday night.
“Opportunity,” explained the Aggie head coach. “We have a great opportunity to do something special here.”
“This group of young men have truly high character and they deserved this win,” Les added. “We had a couple of tough losses earlier this season when we played well below our standards, but these guys stayed together and never doubted and practiced hard and paid attention to details. We executed at a high level tonight.”
“You don’t get many chances to win in a Pac-12 arena and I was really glad we could finish it after they made a run,” Les noted. “Our conditioning is really good. We didn’t get tired down the stretch. We were able to handle everything they threw at us and make some clutch shots at the end.”
“We have a number of guys who have been in a lot of close game situations and they have a lot of trust in each other. It was awesome the way they executed at the end,” Les explained.
“Ezra put us on his back tonight and took over the game,” Les added. “There’s a lot of history in this building and this is a game our guys are going to remember for a long time. It’s great when you play your heart out and get a W. When you have that kind of mentality, good things will happen to you.”
Oregon State head coach Wayne Tinkle, whose team was the Cinderella of last year’s NCAA tournament, said simply “No excuses. We lost to a very good basketball team. It’s disappointing obviously, but they just imposed their will on us right out of the gate in the second half.”
