Returning Backcourt Players:

Despite the departures of Sabel, Burns and Baker, the Aggies have a strong nucleus of returning guards, led by rising senior Nya Epps.

After two years playing behind Evanne Turner, Epps smoothly transitioned to starter. Already a formidable defender, Nya improved significantly in every offensive category. Epps broke the 20-point barrier twice, and ended the year as the team’s #3 scorer. Watching her interact with teammates on the court and on the bench, it’s clear that she’s begun asserting the leadership that the Aggies will need from her next season. Like Megan Norris, Nya needs to become a more consistent double-digit scoring threat next season.

Joining Epps in Jen Gross’ 3-guard, Princeton offense will be true sophomores, Ryann Bennett and Avery Sussex, and redshirt sophomore Sahana Kanagasabay.

Bennett played in every ballgame, averaging over 19 minutes a game. Solid defensive skills, unusual for a freshman, along with the ability to play both guard spots made Ryann one of the first perimeter players off the bench. Bennett put up more than solid numbers, played through some typical freshman miscues, and finished the season playing her best basketball at crunch time. Ryann should definitely move into the starting lineup next season. The only question is where.

Like most freshmen, Sussex was still mastering D1-level defensive skills, yet averaged right at 8 minutes a game. Very confident, Avery exhibited the passing and scoring abilities that attracted Jen Gross’ interest, Like Bennett, Avery can score at all three levels, and she put up decent numbers relative to playing time. Also like Bennett, Sussex is comfortable playing either guard position. Improvement on defense will likely determine if Avery moves into a starting role or comes off the bench.

Sahana Kanagasabay transferred from Providence, and saw limited playing time, in part because she backed up Tova Sabel (and the more experienced Clara Glad), and in part because she was coming off a knee injury that cost her most of her freshman season. Despite playing limited minutes in 14 games, Sahanna seemed an able defender and rebounder. Her speed and quickness were also apparent. If Sahana can progress into a solid option off the bench, it will further solidify the backcourt.

At this point, the development of Sussex and Kanagasabay seems crucial to what the Aggie rotation will look like next season. IF it goes well, the versatile Clara Glad is more available for minutes in the front court, where the Aggies are a little thin at this point. Either way, it will may influence what kind of players Jen Gross and her staff look for in the portal, or among late freshman commits, if viable prospects are still available.

Tomorrow: the incoming freshmen.

Front Court Returnees:

At this point the front court has quality - Megan Norris, and question marks. And a possible answer.

Three-year starter and mainstay in the post, Norris returns to Hamilton Court for her final Aggie season. As a junior, Megan showed improvement in most statistical categories, becoming the team’s #2 scorer. Importantly, she was often at her best in big moments: draining a 3-ball with less than 3 minutes left to give Davis the ultimate lead in the must-win final game at UCSD. Or her 19 point, 15 rebound road outing that fueled a 45 point, 2nd half rally to stun Idaho. Megan needs to become a consistent double-digit scorer next season, AND importantly, stay on the court.

Backing up Norris, Ally Fitzgerald brings a sweet shooting touch off the bench, and a wiggy back, which is one of the question marks. Fitzgerald missed games when her back flared up, and wore a therapeutic device while on the bench. She still upped her playing time over the previous year, improved her rebounding, 3-point shot, and scoring average. A healthy Fitzgerald strengthens the post next season, and possibly the following season. Since Ally played limited minutes in few games as a Colorado freshman, she could get a 5th year of eligibility. Working to get a healthIer back should be an off-season priority.

Theoni Tsami is the other question mark. Theoni redshirted her freshman year, and played for Greece in the U20 Eurobasket last summer, averaging 17 mpg, 5 rpg, 2 assists, and shot 38% from the field. A knee injury prior to the Aggies’ exhibition game cost her the 24-25 season. In her single appearance on Hamilton Court during the Aggies’ 2023 exhibition game, she definitely looked like a player to watch. Her return and development would really bolster the UCD front court.

Because Clara Glad has mostly backed up Tova Sabel, we think of her as a perimeter player. But when Mazzie Harris and Bria Shine missed a couple of late season games, and Fitzgerald was limited by back issues, Clara stepped into the front court at forward, and played well. Currently, Glad is the tallest returning player with NO injury history, and who has some game experience at forward. Clara improved across the board during her sophomore season, regardless of position, and her increasing confidence was apparent. At this point, she should be expected to contend for a starting position or play significantly increased minutes off the bench…somewhere.

Tomorrow: the returning backcourt players.

It’s a little confusing for sure. Vic played her freshman year at Irvine, and a few games her sophomore year. I think an issue developed between her and the coaching staff. She wasn’t specific, but definitely alluded to it on social media.

She’s played 3 full seasons here at Davis, which uses up her four years of eligibility. She also walked on Senior Day this year. She’s also pictured with the other four seniors on the WBB Instagram page.

So I’m assuming that she won’t be back. The extra Covid year was supposed to be done with last year’s graduates, but I still see some players used them this year. There’s at least 1 player in the portal now who is noting that she has a Covid years remaining. So who knows?

My take: at this point, don’t count on her for next season, and if she’s back it’s a bonus.

There are now 3 postseason tournaments for Women's D1 basketball.
Obviously the NCAA Tournament is #1, and picks their bracket first. The WBIT, also an NCAA controlled event, picks their bracket 2nd. The WNIT, privately owned, now picks their bracket 3rd. The Aggies (as well as UC Irvine) were arguably snubbed by the WNIT, in favor of 6 teams with losing records, notably on our area, Pacific and St. Mary's.

Found these in WarrenNolan.com

RPI:

Irvine 125
UCD 155
USF 158
UOP 208
SMC 211

Strength of Schedule:
USF 0.5192
UOP 0.4992
SMC 0.4810
UCD 0.4645
Irvine 0.4574

St.Mary's lost to both Irvine and Riverside, and beat UCSD in 2 OT. Pacific beat LBSU and lost to Santa Barbara.

I hope that Rocko and the UCI AD make some pointed complaints. You know we'll hear from P4 schools that feel snubbed.

Hawaii is in the WBIT, which is now the #2 postseason women’s tournament. They are an aq for winning the regular season title, but losing in the tournament.

St. Mary’s was seeded 6th in the WCC tournament, and was beaten in the 3rd round by #7 Pacific by 15. Pacific lost in the quarterfinals to #3 Washington State by 11.

Neither Irvine nor Davis was selected to the WNIT, which is now the #3 post season tournament. Despite having better records that 22 of the 48 teams selected. Four teams selected had losing records. No teams from the BW or MW made the tournament.

Movie lover & DrMike - I stand corrected. I relied on my memory and a quick perusal of the bio on the UCD MBB website. Did not due diligence as I should. Mea culpa! : > (

Three last thoughts (for me) on this thread.

I heard John Madden once say that if a coach is doing a good job, it was stupid to get rid of him unless you absolutely KNEW you had someone better signed and ready to step in and replace him. Not sure that's very realistic in the present coaching climate, in just about any sport.

Kind of related to that, Jim Les WANTS to be at UCD. He voluntarily left his alma mater, Bradley, to return to the Sacramento area and take the UCD job, because he and his wife wanted to return to this area. This isn't a stepping stone for Jim Les, the way it would be for many good, even very good, coaches who might replace him. Having someone who wants to stay at a UCD type school in a Big West or Mountain West conference is worth a great deal. IMHO

Jen Gross seems to have a great deal of respect for Les. That says a great deal as well.

A 21-win season is good in anyone’s book. In more prestigious conferences, that many wins gets you into the tournament. Several teams with worse records will receive at large bids this year.

Jen Gross and her staff do a great job. This was a great group to work with, fun to watch and they never quit. But the fact is that this team had one dependable double-digit scoring threat - Tova Sabel. Nya and Megan improved in all offensive categories this year, but neither were consistent scorers. Megan hit double-digits in 14 games; Nya did it 9 times. Tova a hit double-digits 28 times.

That allowed teams to focus too easily on Sabel, and that made us too vulnerable, especially against better / better-coached teams. It’s like Tova was our Steph Curry, but we didn’t have a Klay to go with, that someone else that had to be equally accounted for. Second option by committee just isn’t as effective.

Agree with you on that. Physicality seems to be a chronic issues for the Aggies. Our women are just too nice; need some players who have an edge or who grew up with several older brothers. The last team that didn't seem to bother was when Nagel-Gianotti-Nafekh played. They weren't overly physical, but it didn't seem to throw them off.

As for turnovers, those have been a problem. However, since Gross has been head coach, the Aggies have been between 13-20 per game each year - career average is 15+. The backdoor cut is key to the Princeton offense as she runs it, and it isn't an easy play to execute. It's beautiful when you do it, but it is turnover prone...and that doesn't include the missed layups. Those TO's we have to live with. It's the "got-rattled" and the open-court bad pass turnovers they have to avoid.

I think Laura Baugh is now probably the point person on coaching the bigs. Based on her University of Tennessee and WNBA stints.

And looking at the data in the Cal Matters article, we've been outspent on the NIL front by UCSB, UCSD, UCI and Sac State, Since none of the three UC's have football programs, MBB is probably their flagship sport, and get the lion's share of NIL. The NIL spending disparity for our MBB program is probably much worse than just the gross amounts indicate.

Finally to CA Forever's point, "It shouldn't be any harder to recruit to Davis than the other UCs", Santa Barbara,San Diego (La Jolla), and to a little lesser degree, Irvine are all more of the California Image / Vibe than Davis is. We got no sandy beach to walk along. That in itself is probably a big selling point, especially for out-of-state and foreign players.

Most of the comments have been about Jim Les' ability to recruit, develop players, and do the X'x and O's. But being head coach is also about managing the program resources. And with the changes in athletics that we talk about, it's becoming even more about that,

Does anyone have a sense of how Jim is win that regard?

UCD has 3 assistant coaches for MBB. LBSU, Bakersfield, and Fullerton also have 3 assistants. All the other BW schools have at least 4 assistants. That's 1 (or 2) more people to work on recruiting, game planning, player development, etc.

Jen Gross has 5 assistant coaches this year.

What's the budget for either MBB or WBB? Who has the final say on how it's allocated? More bodies make a difference, especially over time. I wonder how long the other BW schools have had larger coaching staffs?

Perhaps expanding the coaching staff will be part of the increased expenditures on basketball that were part of the agreement to move to the Mountain West?

A tale of 2 halves...Hawaii ALMOST pulled it out.

Game site: Henderson NV
Website: https://bigwest.org/sports/2024/9/21/2025-big-west-basketball-championships.aspx

This marks the 11th consecutive season (non-COVID) that the Aggies WBB team has reached the BW Tournament QF or higher.

Led by Ryann Bennett and Tova Sabel, the Aggies rally in the 2nd half, take down UCSD on the road. The win secures a first round bye in the Big West Tournament.

Aggies drop one to Irvine 55-53. The fourth conference loss by 3 points or less.