Well crap! There must be a Covid issue in either one or both of the programs. There's not going to be much of a conference competition this year with the way things are going.

The Enterprise has published a lengthy and thorough article about the a possible student referendum to eliminate student fees that help fund Aggie Athletics.

If the referendum were to pass, UC Davis would lose about half of its $40 million per year athletics budget, with only a year or so notice before the funding is gone. “The campus would need to replace funds on an ongoing basis,” Topousis said. “An endowment would need to be established.” Because of University of California policies requiring that far more money be invested in an endowment than the amount withdrawn per year, UC Davis would need to raise more than $400 million to replace the funds generated by student fees. “The campus would not be able to raise those funds,” Topousis said.

As a result, UC Davis would either need to eliminate sports teams or dismantle other campus programs to replenish the athletics budget. Both options would involve laying off significant numbers of staff and student employees.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/news/local/showdown-looms-on-use-of-student-fees-to-fund-uc-davis-athletics/?utm_source=DE&utm_campaign=b1f9aa0047-Daily_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_be64fee185-b1f9aa0047-171004309

It's gonna be another strange season and that's if we end up with much of a conference season at all...

Long and slender at 6'4 and 175 lbs. I'm sure they'll have him in the weight room getting bigger and stronger if he commits. He currently has an offer from Redlands also.

I'd like to see MSU to bring the championship back to the Big Sky Conference. Go Bobcats!

Players today are not going to tolerate the "disciplinarian, borderline abusive" style of coaching nor should they. I think that it's a very good thing when coaches like that are shown the door as a result of players leaving their programs through the portal.

They had slight symptoms. Nothing serious at all. Being boosted seems to keep most folks from getting very ill.

From Cal Poly as a player to being drafted by the Eagles to being a legendary coach of the Raiders and then 30 years of broadcasting....what a life...RIP and thanks for the memories...

I fear that it's going to be a very disappointing season for many of the Big West teams. The Omicron variant is just so incredibly infectious. You can be boosted and strictly wear a good mask and still get infected. That has happened to a couple of friends of ours who are very conscientious and careful about being as safe as possible. I actually think that many of us will get it at some point regardless of how careful we're being.

I think we're going to see a whole lot more of these cancellations. The Omicron variant is just so contagious. A lot of people who have been boosted and are following mask mandates are still getting infected. Riverside, Irvine, Long Beach and now Hawaii have all been cancelling games. Who knows what the conference will look like this season...

We have friends who are boosted and extremely careful that just tested positive after traveling to North Carolina for the holidays with family and, unfortunately, some of the elderly family members have now caught it as well. Our friends are now delaying their trip home to help care for them.

Senior time... That's starting to get a little too close to happening!!

Apparently cloth masks are not very effective against the Omicron variant so disposable, surgical masks or N95 or KN95 masks are recommended:

As the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread, some experts say it's past time to reconsider your face mask options -- especially if you're still wearing the cloth variety.

"Cloth masks are little more than facial decorations. There's no place for them in light of Omicron," said CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, on CNN Newsroom Tuesday.

"This is what scientists and public health officials have been saying for months, many months, in fact," Wen added in a separate phone interview.

"We need to be wearing at least a three-ply surgical mask," she said, which is also known as a disposable mask and can be found at most drugstores and some grocery and retail stores. "You can wear a cloth mask on top of that, but do not just wear a cloth mask alone."

Ideally, in crowded places, "you should be wearing a KN95 or N95 mask," which can be as inexpensive as a few dollars each, Wen added. By having a better fit and certain materials -- such as polypropylene fibers -- acting as both mechanical and electrostatic barriers, these masks better prevent tiny particles from getting into your nose or mouth and must be fitted to your face to function properly.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/24/health/cloth-mask-omicron-variant-wellness/index.html

Ok...I'm in for $10 bucks more. We are now funded for another year. Thanks to everyone who contributed and Merry Christmas to all!

Of course there was also the famous, or infamous for some, Murder Burger that ended up becoming Redrum Burger.

We didn’t get anything off the bench — DrMike

Milling is averaging 6.5 ppg but after him there isn't much scoring at all. We are getting some good defensive efforts from the bench when they're in to give the starters a blow but not anything significant on offense. Of course, Ade doesn't score much either so we really rely primarily on Pepper, Manjon, Fuller and Anigwe and, when a couple of them go cold, we don't have much scoring punch.

Post-game comments from Les:

“I didn’t think we came out with the right mindset,” said Aggie head coach Jim Les. “I’m disappointed in our effort. We took some bad shots and just didn’t defend well when we needed to.”

Regarding Moses Wood the 6'8 forward who has played at Reno and Tulane:

“We knew he was a great shooter, but defensively we let him get open looks and didn’t have an answer for him,” Les added.

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/basketball-chilling-loss-for-ucd-mens-basketball-team/

The at men's cancelled game on December 28th at UCR will not be rescheduled and will go down as a no contest for both teams.

Each year we tend to be a team that plays stout defense but struggles often with inconsistent offense. Just about all teams have hot and cold stretches in games but, generally, it doesn't continue for long stretches time. We went cold after the first few minutes of the second half today and many of our shots were missed badly...barely drawing iron and way off target. It was surprising given how well we had been playing on offense coming into this game. Let's hope it doesn't happen too often in conference.

Ags lose 66-60.

We played pretty good basketball for 25 minutes and then rather poorly for the final 15 minutes. Manjon and Fuller couldn't carry the Ags for the whole game with Pepper cold as ice and not much help offensively from anyone else.

Manjon and Fuller are keeping the Ags in the game. Pepper can't find his shot though...