I wish we still had our wrestling program.

It's always fun to watch both of the twins when they are on the floor at the same time. They have a certain chemistry where they just seem to intuitively know what the other twin is going to do.

I was impressed with the ball handling skills of the Aggies. The Cougars full court pressure didn't really create a problem for the Ags. I think I only saw 2 or 3 steals for the entire game that were caused by WSU's pressure defense. The Aggies did have a few too many unforced TO's mostly of the variety of an errant pass to a position on the court. I think some of those can be attributed to not having everyone on the same page. The Ags played an up-tempo game and, when you push the ball like that, you will turn it over at times.

There's always room for improvement: cut down the TO's and continue to work on winning the battle of the boards but, overall, it was a great performance by the Aggies.

Morgan Bertsch redshirted her freshman year. I'm not sure if anyone else did.

More and more we are seeing college basketball teams, both men and women, with very international rosters. WSU has 2 players from Australia, one from Serbia, one from Bulgaria, one from France, one from Portugal and one from Greece. They also have 3 players from Hawai'i so they cast a wide recruiting net!

(Y) The big difference was the Aggies 3 point shooting. They were 17 of 32 from downtown compared to only 4 0f 14 for the Cougars.

The Aggies get their revenge against WSU as they get their first win of the season against a PAC-12 team. This game was not as close as the final score.

Four of the Aggie 5 starters scored in double figures led by Morgan Bertsch with 19 points and Rachel Nagel with 16 on 6 of 7 shooting including 4 of 4 from 3. The Ags shot 48% overall, 53% from 3 and 82% from the line. This is a very deep team with a lot of weapons and they got 23 points from their bench. The Ags also had 23 assists and that is a sign of a veteran team.

Nina Bessolo is much improved and plays with a lot of energy. True freshman, Cierra Hall, plays with a lot of poise for a freshman. She has the athletic ability to step right in and play at the D1 level and has the potential to be terrific player.

The Ags return to the Pavilion Sunday to take on the Waves of Pepperdine at 2 pm.

Great game Ags!

72-50 Ags at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The biggest differences in this game so far is the 3 point shooting for the Aggies and being very active on defense. We were 10 of 15 for 67% from 3. The 6'0 true freshman, Cierra Hall, is very athletic and plays with a lot of poise for a true freshman.

Aggie Athletics just officially announced the signing of Damion Squire.

“The coaches were genuine, I feel my skills fit the system well, and I really appreciated the family atmosphere. I was impressed by how high the energy was during my official visit and practice, everyone wanted the best for one another. This was the best fit for me,” said Squire.

His bio is pretty impressive.

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/110917aai.html

I'm looking forward to that one.

Go Ags!

Coach Les has said, "We are just swimming in their wake." They could be very special this year since they lost only one back-up player and they have gotten even deeper. Their goal is to make it into the NCAA tournament and win some game. They'll be exciting to watch this year and deserve to be supported by Aggie fans.

You just don't see the kind of transferring in and out of programs in women's basketball like you do in the men's game. Women's BB at the highest levels is different than the men since it has not succumbed to being a showcase for the most elite players who hope to play in the NBA someday. There isn't a great amount of opportunity for women BB players to go pro and make a good living at it.

Consequently, the women tend to take in consideration a bigger picture for playing college basketball and put more of an emphasis on academics and the quality of their education for career opportunities and the overall college experience.

The pool of the very elite women's basketball players is much smaller than for the men and most of those elite players are recruited by the perennial powers Connecticut, Notre Dame, Baylor, Tennessee and Stanford etc. After those major, power programs there is more parity among schools that are developing good programs, like UCD, so Jen Gross can entice players with the qualities of UCD and the fact the program is on the rise.

It's also not uncommon that there are character and ego problems among elite athletes at the "win at any cost," big programs." That can create team chemistry problems with other athletes who have never been an pampered, elite athlete.

A player like Jordan Allen would be like family with the Aggies and you can rest assured that high quality character and academics would be the required on a Hawkins coached team.

I know that comparative scores are essentially meaningless but it can be fun to speculate from comparing how two teams fared against common opponents.

The Aggies demolished Bethesda in an exhibition game 111-56 and, last night, the poor Flames visited Pacific and got steamrolled 84-49. So, comparatively, the Ags won by 55 and the Tigers won by only 25. Another interesting comparative stat is that the Ags led 56-20 at the half whereas UOP was up 42-24 at the break. The Aggies largest lead was 45 points at 69-24.

So, it means little, but, hopefully, these comparative stats give us some indication of the relative strength of these two teams...but, as we all know, there's a reason we play the games and on "any given day"...

I know JT is working in the front office for the Kings. Not sure what Lawrence is doing. Brynton Lemar is playing pro ball in France and I saw where he was doing very well. I think Darius Graham is back in Sacramento working with young people. What a great group those 4 were.

Yes, we'll be at the Causeway too! I think that will be a very tough game also but, as we all know, it is never acceptable to lose to Sac!

Thanks, Oldbanduhalum, nice recaps! We lost a lot from last year's groundbreaking team. I know it's way early but how would you say these two teams compare in terms of talent? From your recaps it sounds like this team is work in progress at this point. It also sounds like Coach Les was pleased overall with the team's overall effort.

I expected TJ Shorts and Delvion Jackson to be the two knew players that might have the most chance at jumping right in and getting significant playing time. I hope that one of our new bigs John, Underwood or Russell, will come along nicely and be able to contribute in the paint.

The Aggie Athletics website does not have any stats for the game. Do you have any about the stats for individual scoring etc? Did anyone have a hot hand shooting?

We'll know a bit more when the Ags take on UNC on the road next Monday.

Keep it coming Oldbanduhalum. How did the new players do?

I'd like to know too. There is no coverage at all...not even live stats so we'll have to wait until Oldbanduhalum gives us his thoughts. The UC Davis Basketball twitter page posted a pic saying the Ags were up 36 at the half.

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

Coach Les is pretty good at finding diamonds in the rough...