Given everything this year, 10-8, a top half finish, and a trip to the semis is not a bad result at all. This program is far above the level it was at back when I first started at Davis

I am reminded of the San Diego State-Weber game where SDSU won 6-0 on FGs. This was an FBS team that beat UCLA the next week.

Weber's defense is terrifying.

Irvine wins by 9.

Not much to say I think. Aggies need to do what they've been doing and win the games they're supposed to on paper. There will be teams much tougher than Irvine in the NCAAT.

Edit: And I don't want to discredit UCI, they earned their place in the final and have had a very good season, and could definitely win tomorrow.

Watching this game I realized I'm not sure we want Cal Poly over Irvine, or indeed if what's going on in the game is even an upset. They're basically identical in Massey, and Cal Poly is actually ahead in NET rankings. Basically comes down to whether one thinks it's advantageous to play a team for the first time or play one that you've already played twice

Very understandable reason for missing an Aggie game. See if this one works:
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/a1dbff94-1c01-4aef-be66-78d1e37c0191#bucketId=1

Within 10 now, timeout Davis, but part of that was Stobbart sitting out I think. Her defense is suffocating.

Future Big West POY Harris getting quality minutes (I'm only half joking)

I was surprised to see Coach Gross go the double PG route but then I remembered that this program's arguable best season ever ran the twin lineup

And suddenly it's a 14-pt lead. Starters putting in work -- more minutes than I like to see with probably Irvine coming up tomorrow -- but they're showing why they won so many championshps

Riverside wins. So the chalk holds and it's an all-UC battle

I have three different teams playing elimination games I don't feel great about tomorrow -- and a day off -- so I'm prepared to just have an afternoon and evening of pure anxiety.

Literally would rather be playing Irvine tomorrow compared to this Hawaii team that made the Ags look very human

ESPN website should have it if your internet provider supports ESPN3. I found the second half pretty enjoyable

https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/1e67fe90-5e62-493d-9512-0b8e1c8f6c0b#bucketId=19763

I suspect it's a model based on their Basketball Power Index, which has Bake considerably above the Aggies. Per ESPN (emphasis mine):

"The College Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team's W-L record is to achieve. Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day's rest and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections"

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bpi/_/view/bpi

I was wondering why the venue looked familiar on screen and I realized it's where the EVO fighting game championships were some years

Tuning in for lunch break. Nice of them to have the second half start at noon.

Was happy to see a 16 point lead when I tuned in, but every minute the starters are in more might hurt later

Important to remember that the Gould years were entirely sandwiched in that ten year drought, so that was three years with next to no D1 wins (his first year, different story maybe). It's also just one particular metric you could choose. Hawkins took EWU to their limits twice out of the three times his teams played them. We also had an FBS upset in that that span and had a 1-possession loss to ranked Montana State in 2012.

So really I chalk it up to bad luck that we had zero ranked wins, but it was because of several years of mediocrity that we only had a few opportunities to play ranked teams close. But one better tackle in that EWU quarterfinal or just one more third down conversion in that MSU game might have been enough to get at least one ranked win, it was that close.

Yep. At the risk of sounding pretentious, the Aggie WBB program has the NDSU problem in conference -- this is basically the opponent's natty since they know perfectly well that a) there's basically no chance of a conference title without beating the Ags in regular season, and b) then it's literally likely going to be their last game in the BWCT. Hawaii brought something close to a postseason mentality game 1 IMO, and it showed.

Last figure I heard was 90ish teams are playing. So being Top 25 means being in the top 3rd or 4th of teams or so, which seems like it could be about right for the Ags after Sat

Ah, thanks for lending the better eye/memory.

Honestly I'm wondering if showing that look alone was worth the two innefectual plays. Forces Weber to prepare for it, and they also have to think about the yet-unseen situation where Tompkins passes, which his HS stats suggest is definitely on the table. And since they have two weeks to get ready for Davis, anything that cuts into their practice time has some benefit I guess.

Stats voters put us at 23. Idaho #27, just outside, by vote count. Somewhere in the 20-25 range sounds right to me. Not sure what I'll think about next week's rankings though if we lost to Weber; still can't tell how good they really are.

Edit: Also, HERO Sports thinks UCD is the last team into the playoff field now
https://herosports.com/fcs-football-spring-3-playoff-predictions-bzbz/

I think we had a couple of misdirection plays that I personally wouldn't call trick plays, but I guess they're craftier than what you usually see out of a pro-style offense or something. The one that was fumbled for a big loss may have been developing as a WR toss as well.

Like you said, there was that direct snap to Gilliam. Also Trent Tompkins subbed in as QB for a few snaps -- it happened fast and the announcers didn't catch it immediately, so I can't remember if they were showing a wildcat look or just giving HR a breather or something.

So it's easy from a Vandal perspective to look back and recall that a disproportionate amount of Aggie snaps first half were something unorthodox, and then one of them was devastating. If you're not used to seeing the Aggies each week I guess that stands out. But you're right, we really didn't get much off them after that Crawford pass.