They need to get on the marketing right now...notify the sororities and fraternities and swamp the dorms with information. Pump this one up in the community too. Every one of the previous ESPN games in the Pavilion has been an awesome collegiate atmosphere.

Spot on. Les has made me a believer in the defense first and foremost strategy. Defense can keep you in the game even when the offense is struggling. Our defense is really good right now and our offense is getting better with each game. Good shooting is often as much mental as it is physical talent. Good shooters can get in a mental rut and it affects their stroke when the shots don't drop. When shooters get in a groove their shots are more natural and fluid and their confidence grows. Mooney and Gonzalez are great examples of that right now.

Les comments on the game:

"Everyone is playing really hard on the defensive end of the floor and bought in. We are receiving contributions from a lot of different places and this team is playing hard," said head coach Jim Les. "And they are playing together.

"Holding three teams in a row under 60 points in our league, which has some really good offensive players, is a unique feat."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/2/13/mens-basketball-uc-davis-returns-home-extends-overall-win-streak-to-four-games.aspx

Haha...give it couple of months....

Here's another vote for Bob Williams as the color commentator for the Aggie radio broadcast. Scott Marsh does a nice job of the play-by-play call but Williams really adds in-depth insight into the finer points of the game. The back and forth discussion by Les and Williams in the post-game was outstanding and we've never had that kind of knowledgeable, basketball analysis before. It was really interesting.

Bob was talking about how well the Aggie defense had played and noted that there were only a couple of times were they lost focus and broke down. He noted that, at one point, Les called timeout and "got their attention" and they got right back on track. He also said that there was a point in the game where CSUN knocked down a few 3's to keep within striking distance and said that happened because the Ags were getting the wrong matchup at the time.

Williams has a sense of humor also. At one point he was joking with Les about how intense Les is during the game and said it would be something to see Les and Russ Turner (Irvine's coach) going at it in the cage together (referring to an MMA fight ring). Pretty funny stuff...

Fullerton beat Long Beach 85-82 tonight to move into second place in the Big West with a 7-3 record two games back of Irvine.

One stat really jumps out to me; we had 20 assists on 27 made baskets...wow...that's a team playing as a team! I also thought we did a nice job defending Lamine Diane. He scored 20 and pulled down 9 boards but both totals were under his averages. He was 8-19 from the floor so we made it tough for him to get his points.

We've now won 4 straight...amazing what a couple of wins will do for the confidence of a team...

"I am very honored that Chancellor May and Kevin Blue believe in Aggie football, the progress and direction we are headed," said Hawkins.

To continue the program's #AGScension, numerous members of the Aggies' coaching staff are being promoted to new positions. Quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator Tim Plough is being elevated to the role of associate head coach; offensive line coach Tim Keane will be become the program's new running game coordinator; Jerry Brady and Cody Hawkins will each be named assistant directors of football operations and recruiting in addition to their position coaching duties.

"As we continue to improve and reinvent our program, we continually try to recognize our staff's talents and utilize them accordingly," added Hawkins.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/2/13/football-coach-hawkins-signs-extension-assistant-coaches-promoted-following-championship-season.aspx

Awesome! I hope we keep the entire coaching staff together. They've done a fantastic job so far.

That was a solid team win by the Ags. Northridge is a very athletic team and we defended them about as good as you can. So good to see Mooney and Gonzalez draining those 3's too and Matt Neufeld's offense is really coming along. What a pretty, post-up hook he has.

We were listening to the post-game interviews on the radio on the drive home and it was really great listening to Les and Bob Williams discuss the game. I think Williams should be sitting alongside Scott Marsh for every broadcast. He adds so much insight from an experienced coaching perspective. He told Les, "You've got a good team right now that's on the verge of becoming a really good team."

Defense will decide this game.

Bob Williams is at nearly all the Aggie games sitting court side. I think he must live in the area now.

Hahaha...it's gotta be Metta Peace III or would that be Metta Peace II?

They did that last year and a lot of students came and ate and left...some stayed but too many just left. I can't remember who we were playing.

Tongue in cheek piece from Bob Dunning's Enterprise column:

AGGIES TO PAC-12? … so, I was calmly reading the sports section of The New York Times, the second-best newspaper in the country, when I came across a story titled “Another Season Comes and Goes While Pac-12 Struggles to Keep Up.”


It’s rare for The Times to do in-depth pieces on West Coast football, so I took the bait and delved into an interesting piece about money woes in my favorite conference … the Pac-12, as the name suggests, is composed of 12 universities, each of which has an athletic director running the show.

In this long and detailed piece, not a single current Pac-12 athletic director was quoted, but I did come across this: “Kevin Blue, the athletic director at California-Davis, who was previously a senior associate AD at Stanford, said the SEC and the Big Ten ‘are setting the market’ for coaching salaries.”

If you live east of the Rockies, the logical assumption here is that UC Davis has finally been offered membership in the Pac-12, making it now the Pac-13 … if that’s not confusing enough, how about that “California-Davis” reference? … the NY Times should know better … we are not California-Davis or Cal-Davis or Cal State Davis or Davis State or Jerome C. Davis A&M … we are UC Davis — Pac-12 member-to-be

https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/dunning/bob-dunning-singing-the-praises-of-dixon/

Beach volleyball first practice in the new sand courts:

Awesome! We'll be playing Irvine and a full house will certainly help motivate the team. The previous ESPN games in the Pavilion have been amazing and the crowd was electric. We took Irvine into OT in the first game before losing but I think we'll win this one.

Couldn't agree more. I can be critical of Les at times when he lets his emotions get the best of him but, time and time again, he proves that he is indeed an outstanding coach. This has been a tough year for the Aggies and, like you say, if they finish in among the leaders in the Big West, this might be one of his best coaching efforts in his 8 years here when you take into consideration the difficulty this years's schedule, the injuries that have sidelined John and Gonzalez for long stretches and lots of competitive losses with little to show for it in the win column. He currently has them willing themselves to find ways to win in spite of all of the adversity they have faced this season and that say a lot.

Coaches comments:

Jim Les: "The guys made big plays down the stretch: they were diving on the floor for loose balls, made big shots, battled for rebounds and made big free throws. This was a complete team effort," said UC Davis head coach Jim Les.

"These guys faced adversity, looked it in the eye and kept working. They stuck together, faced the challenge as a team and now good things are happening for them."

"We turned to AJ ... and said 'next man up.' And he was more than ready to go. He gave us some great minutes and great production," said Les.

Les added, "everyone refused to lose and gave a great effort. This is a game that could propel us throughout the upcoming weeks."

Joe Pasternack on TJ and the game: "He was the Player of the Year in the conference last year and he's still one of the best," said Pasternack, regarding the way Shorts II impacted the game. "They are the defending league champions and they're playing like that now."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/2/10/mens-basketball-defense-leads-aggies-to-61-57-victory-at-ucsb.aspx