That's for the updates, Russ. :up:

By comparison, we played CS East Bay exactly one year ago to the day and won 94-41. It's going to take some time for this team to come together...the loss of the Twins and Morgan is huge...

It seems like this team could be vulnerable to being harassing, pressing defenses from what I hearing from this game and the last exhibition.

Keep the posts coming. I'm interested to hear how the team looks in their second exhibition game. I wish they had some radio and/or live stats coverage...

I had a chance to talk quite a bit with Coach Les at the MBB season ticket pick-up event yesterday evening and you pretty much nailed the reasons we don't have that many OOC home games. I asked Jim if having only 4 pre-conference home games was by design. He was very open and candid and said that we have difficulty getting teams to come here to play.

He went on to explain that scheduling is all about RPI and finances. Teams are always looking to keep their RPI's high and, since, in the last few years, we had a good home winning record, teams started shying away from coming to Davis for fear of getting beat and lowering their RPI.

When I asked him about scheduling home and home series with UOP, Santa Clara, and St Mary's etc, he said we want those games but they just won't do it. He said part of the reason is that Gonzaga puts a lot of pressure on the WCC teams to schedule a lot of home games because they have a better chance of winning at home and that helps them keep their RPI's up. That that makes the Zags look better when they play those teams in the conference games. Again...money and RPI's...

Another obstacle that the Aggies have is that the Pavilion is not administered by the Athletics Department and it is booked first come first serve. So, if Les is negotiating with a team to come to come Davis, he can't hold a date on the Pavilion calendar waiting for the team to confirm. He has to have firm commitment from another team for a specific date and then hope that date is available before he can reserve the Pavilion. So, for example, if a possible opponent is has a couple of dates they are looking at, we can't hold those dates for the Pavilion until a deal can be worked out. It's simply first come, first served at the Pavilion.

Interestingly, this is also the last year in the contract for the Causeway game to be played at the Golden One Center. He said Kevin Blue is working on it but, at this point, there isn't a new contract yet. Jim would like to play Sac in a home and home if the Golden One Center game is no longer available but, when he suggested this to Sac State, they said they really don't want to do that.

On the upside, Les is happy to see the conference expanding next year when Bakersfield and San Diego come onboard, and that will automatically give us two more home games each year.

I really enjoyed talking with Jim. He's open and easy to talk with and is genuinely interested in talking with Aggie fans. He only spoke briefly and, in general, said that he thinks everyone will really enjoy this year's team. He said everybody is working hard and there is a really good team chemistry and he's also really pleased with his recruiting class.

I'm excited to see how this team comes together. I don't mind being picked near the bottom of the conference by the media. You know Les will have his team playing with 100% effort and I think we just may surprise some folks. Go Ags!

That's an outstanding analysis of each team in the Big West. I like it that he sees so much potential in Squire. I think that TJ was the perhaps the best PG ever to wear an Aggie uniform so replacing him is a tall order. We'll really need Squire to shine for us and so I'm happy that the author likes what he sees in him.

The author's reference to the 2014-15 team that lead the nation in 3 point shooting took me down memory lane. I don't think we have that kind of deep firepower this year but Mooney and Gonzalez have shown that they can catch fire. We just need more consistency from both of them.

Thanks for the link; it's an excellent and informative article about scheduling. One paragraph that stood out to me was the one that talked about "over scheduling" and ending up with a demoralized team. I think that happened with us last year.

Playing a tough schedule that includes many pre-conference road games in order to "toughen up" the team makes sense in a one bid conference like the Big West where winning the Big West Conference Tournament is the only way to get to the Big Dance. A lofty overall record won't get you a second bid in the Big West so it's the conference games that matter the most for sure.

However, the problem with playing lots of road games and only a 4 home games in the OOC schedule is that it does nothing to get the fan base excited and familiar with the team. Then we generally start the conference with a poor record and the many fans have already lost interest. I think there needs to be a better balance in the Aggie pre-conference schedule; a schedule that challenges the team on the road but also brings some excitement to the Pavilion during the OOC games.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/10/29/mens-basketball-senior-spotlight-rogers-printup.aspx

Awesome video. Every potential recruit should be sent a link to it.

I think you've make some solid points about our scheduling and it would certainly be nice to UOP and Santa Clara on a regular, home and basis.

Totally agree.

It would be nice to start off the season with a W and it's always hard to win in the road. I haven't been able to find anything about our two scrimmages either.

One interesting thing that I did find though is that UOP has 16 out-of-conference games scheduled this year and 10 of them are at home whereas we have 16 OOC games but only 4 at home and two of those are against NAIA teams. I don't get it. We never seem to have a really strong OOC home schedule and I don't understand why. You would think that teams would be just as happy, if not more so, to play in Davis rather than Stockton by comparison.

Any thoughts as to why we have such a lousy OOC home schedule and seem to have such a hard time getting teams to come to Davis each year? Travel to Davis would be easier than getting to Stockton and, IMO, Davis is a nicer and more interesting place for teams to visit as well.

Do you think that Les intentionally schedules road heavy? He has said that early road games are an opportunity for the players to "bond together" and the adversity of travel and playing away serves to "toughen up the team." But, 4 home games with two of which are not all that interesting...?? That kind of scheduling certainly won't get fans all that excited about the Aggie basketball...

:up:

I hoping we will spoil Sac's party. It doesn't appear likely on paper but I have a feeling that the Ags will be a big underdog and very inspired.

Hill is right alongside with Aaron Best if that's the case.

According to the Massey ratings we have the 3rd strongest SOS in the FCS this year and we finish with Sac who has the #1 SOS. There will be a bunch of teams who will get in the playoffs because they have a better overall record from playing a much weaker schedule. We should be selected if we win out and go 7-5. However, I don't think we will get selected if that happens simply because it's rare for a 7-5 team to get in regardless of have tough their schedule has been. We're terribly beat up and playing for Pride now.

That's complete bush league by them. I think we're making some pretty good heated rivalries besides Sac and Poly: EWU runs up the score last with their coach's "leave no doubt" arttitude and now this celebrating by Weber and their fans when an Aggie is possibly seriously injured...no tit for tat... just cleanly beat the crap out of them the next time we meet...

I was also taken aback by the players and the fans reaction. Yes, it was a extremely hard, clean hit and they recovered the fumble but to continue celebrating while he was lying motionless was very poor sportsmanship.

Did you notice that Hawk and the Aggie coaches had to go out on the field and round up some of the Aggie players at the end of the 3rd quarter and get them off the field? It seems that they were not happy with the WSU players jumping up and down and celebrating wildly with their coaches? Not sure what was going on there...

Jaylin White took a viscous hit on the kickoff to start the second half. It looked like he was momentarily unconscious and was lying motionless on the turf. It was good to see that he was able to walk off the field slowly. It was a scary hit. He got absolutely pancaked. I hope he is ok.

Jasper Friis would be a great addition if we could get him. He sounds like a academically minded young man who intended to major in applied mathematics. Aggie athletics and academics go hand in hand so I hope he takes a good look at our program. He also retweeted the tweet from Cal's TE McCallan Casties who is transferring to the Aggies so we are at least on the radar.

https://www.californiagoldenblogs.com/cal-football-2019-season/2019/10/3/20897936/california-golden-bears-football-jasper-friis-wilcox-greatwood-curhan-saffell-transfer-portal

https://twitter.com/yaspertime?lang=en