The Ags were just way over matched in this one and go down in flames 93-52. OSU was too tall, too talented and too deep for the Ags to handle. I'm not sure Jen Gross will be happy with her team's overall effort though as the Aggies were tentative from the start and just did not play aggressively.

The Aggies have struggled with rebounding all season and the Beavers compounded that problem with a huge height advantage. They also took advantage of the Ags soft interior defense which lead to too many easy shots in close for the Beavers.

The Ags must learn to block out under the basket and be more aggressive on defense overall. When their offense is sputtering, like it was today (31% from the field overall and 21% from 3), it's their defense that has to play hard to keep them within reach. Like Coach Les likes to say, "Defense travels whereas offense doesn't always make the trip."

I think the Aggies have the potential to be a pretty good mid-major program this year, but a game like this shows the big disparity between the better D1 women's teams and the rest of the field.

The Ags travel to Sac State on Sunday to tangle with the high scoring, run & gun Hornets. This will be another tough game for the Aggies.

You remember correctly..we gave that game away.

Here's a couple of things I found about the Fly Offense:

The FLY Offense is a mis-direction, ball concealing, deception offense. It has been
compared to the Wing T and an option style offense. The WR Sweep is the base play of
the offense and its most dangerous play. "Sweep till they weep" is a common phrase used
in the Fly Offense. Another big phase of the Fly offense is its use of the No Huddle.

http://www.playbookexchange.net/playbooks/Offense/01100301-FlyOffense.pdf

Why run it?
-It is a system
-It is unique/ hard to simulate
-Flexible/ adapts with personnel

Fly Sweep is the signature play
-Make them stop it
-Run it multiple ways
-Deception is key
-Have an interior run game
-Stretch the field opposite sweep with option, boot, etc.

Based on what defenses don’t like to see:
-Motions
-Shifts
-No huddle
-Deception
-Unbalanced formations
-Players in space
-False keys
-Option
-QB as a runner
-Wide splits

Also based on:
-Simplicity within complexity (easy for our guys, looks complicated to defenses)
-This is accomplished because: Backs learn paths, Line learns rules, Receivers learn concepts.
-Blocking scheme is based on down blocks and double teams- we should never have to man block a defensive lineman at the point of attack.
-Every running play fits into one of the following run blocking rules:
-Sweep
-Short Trap
-Long Trap
-Option
-Lead
-We can call any combination of shifts, motions, and running back paths that we like and our offensive linemen only ever need to know how to block 5 plays.

-We are based out of split back which allows us to have a similar running attack as a split back veer team. We have similar misdirection and blocking rules as a wing-t team. And we have the ability to go to a single back look which suddenly gives us a spread formation and philosophy.

Read more: http://coachhuey.com/thread/8497/fly-offense#ixzz4SqXownGM

The rout continues as the Beavers extend their lead to 37 points after 3 quarters 72-35.

Ooof..Beavers 44 Aggies 22 at the half. Just as they did at Stanford the Ags have been plagued by cold shooting and poor rebounding. OSU has a big size advantage but the Aggies are not blocking out and get caught flat-footed much too often.

The Ags need to come out much more aggressive to keep this game from being a huge blowout. They played much too soft and tentative in the first half.

OSU 23 Ags 11 after the 1st period. Cold shooting (29%) and getting out rebounded 16-6 has put the Aggies in a big hole early.

So we offered him even after his verbal to Montana State? Are we're trying to convince him to change his mind?

I think JT is a stalwart emotional leader on the team too. I'm not quite sure why this team seems to be bogged down at the moment. We have 4 seniors in the starting lineup yet we are playing so inconsistently. We need to play like we did in the second half against Cal for the whole game. If we do that, this team can be competitive in the rest of our games. We can't come out tentative and lackadaisical and dig a big hole. We just don't have the offensive weapons to make big comebacks. I think this team will be in a lot of close games even when they are playing well. We're not the kind of team that's going to blow people away with offense.

According to this Enterprise article the process is still chugging along letting no stone go uncovered:

“As of December 2, the search advisory committee has reviewed approximately 525 individuals to date.”

Read more here:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/dunning/bob-dunning-our-chancellor-less-campus-is-doing-just-fine/

I'm sure no one is more disappointed than JT about how things have gone overall. I agree that his confidence may still be shaky about those knees now. In my opinion, he wins the Aggie tough luck award and the Aggie perseverance award after those two devastating knee injuries and surgeries. He seems to have lost some quickness in his ability to react defensively especially when he needs to move laterally quickly and, as a result, has been getting in foul trouble. I hope he has a couple of breakout games and things take off for him. He's a great kid with a big love for the game.

Schneider plays hard all the time but gets out of control on offense especially when he lowers his head and shoulders and drives the ball into traffic and gets stuck. He's a warrior who plays with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and isn't afraid to play physical. I see him more as a small shooting guard than a point guard. I don't think he has the quickness necessary to play point comfortably.

I've been thinking about who is going to take over for Graham next year. Darius drives the team as a good point guard should so we'll have some big shoes to fill. We have Arel Hennings but he's probably not going to see much PT this year.

We also have TJ Shorts 5'10 165 PG transfer from Saddleback JC coming in next year. He'll have to learn fast but he seems to have the skills to take over the point. Saddleback is a juco basketball power. They lost in the state championship game last year so he has been playing at a high juco level. This year he is averaging 20.3 ppg and is shooting 54% overall and 58% from 3. In his last game against Riverside JC he had 33 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. It looks like he may be able to come in and step right in next year.

I used to go to Aggie games in Hickey Gym and, yes, some of us are still alive and kicking! It was packed, hot and loud. Coach Hamilton would be stomping, yelling, chewing on his towel and even going up in the stands to sit with the students when he was really going wild.

Ham was half the fun of being there. He would get so riled up and passionate that it was a wonder he didn't keel over and drop dead in the heat of the moment. He was never abusive and was always respectful of the refs and our opponents. He was great coach and a unique character.

I agree. We'll have to play better even to finish in the middle of the Big West. I try to stay positive about the direction of the program and I get it that it's not easy to build a competitive D1 program. We should be competing for Big West titles year in and out. Heck, I even think that a university like UCD should be, at least, a top mid-major competitor in basketball. I just don't see that much progress though.

So, at this point, I don't think Coach Les is getting it done. It has nothing to do with the great kids that we do get. They are true scholar athletes that have great character and I pull for them in every game. But, the fact is, we are still a struggling mid-major program and, just as in football, it needs to get a lot better.

This great university, the students and Aggie fans deserve that, and the greater Sacramento area is hungry for a exciting D1 college basketball program. It's time for Blue to assess the program and make a plan for the success of basketball just as he has for football. We need to get the basketball train rolling too!

Yes it did! (Y) I'm finding myself getting a little impatient though waiting for the basketball program to really take off. Without the great year with Corey there hasn't been too much to get all that excited about.

Rachel Nagel hit a 10 footer at the buzzer to win it for the Aggies in a hard fought thriller. The Ags had had an 11 point lead with 2:34 to go in the 3rd but couldn't stop the Gaels dominance inside and on the boards. St. Mary's tied it up late in the 4th and the Ags got the ball back on a TO with 9.2 ticks left.

The Gaels had 3 fouls to give and, by the time they couldn't foul again, there were only 4 seconds left. After a timeout, the Ags inbounded the ball and Nagel managed to put up a shot just before the buzzer went off. The ball went through the hoop with 0:00 on the clock.

Great win for the Aggies against a very good team. The one big concern for Jen Gross is the inability of the her team to rebound the ball. It's almost uncanny how many times the Ags are around the basket but can't secure the ball. The Gaels out rebounded the Ags 44-27 and 19 of those were offensive rebounds. The Gaels also out scored the Aggies 48-28 in the paint. The Ags will have to figure out how to be more aggressive inside because their opponents are going to continue to pound the ball into the paint against them until they do a better job of defending in the paint and rebounding.

The Aggies have a tough stretch of 6 road games ahead with the first being a trip to Corvallis, Oregon, to play the 6-1 Beavers of Oregon State next Wednesday at a strange 11 am start time.

The Aggies take a 38-35 lead into the half in a very entertaining battle between two good basketball teams. The game has been fast-paced with a lot of well executed plays by both teams.

The Gaels have out rebounded the Ags by a 24-13 count and have 9 offensive boards and 22 points in the paint. We'll have to do a much better job rebounding and defending in the paint in the second half to get the W in this one.

Live video stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLt1BhfzgbsF0TtHkXT59A-XwZv9VfOG8E&v=o43FemvzfQs

Yes, the first half was a real stinker! I was very impressed with Cal's defense though. We weren't able to get many good looks in the first half even when we did have a possession with good ball movement. We just got more and more tentative as the half ticked on. I couldn't believe the number of soft passes that got stolen and how many times we would drive the ball into trouble and then turn it over with a travel or get it stolen. There's no way to sugar coat it; it was awful.

We need to get Garrison Goode back before league starts too. He doesn't score much but he defends and rebounds really well and that helps keep Chima and JT out of foul trouble.

Les sounded very disappointed in the post-game interview and I think the team probably feels the same way. They had a chance to show something on national tv and totally laid an egg in the first half. I'm sure he only basketball fans who continued to watch the second half were Cal fans and die hard Aggie faithful like me.

There were times in the second half where I was thinking, wow, this team has the ability to play at a high level, but they have been very inconsistent this year. I get the feeling that they really haven't gelled as a team yet and the best is yet to come from them.

Cal beat the Aggies 86-61for their 32nd win in 32 games between the two schools .

The first and second halves were like night and day for the Ags. The first half was a comedy of errors as the Ags had 16 TO's that led to 19 Cal points. Our defense played well but we were out of control on offense playing way to fast for our skill level, throwing half-hearted passes and driving the ball into trouble with no idea of what to do then. That led to a ton of TO's. It was just very sloppy. That said, Cal is a very good defensive team but, nevertheless, the Aggies did not play smart and played out of control on offense to make things worse.

In the second half we played much smarter, made crisp passes, knocked down some nice shots and played pretty well on both ends of the court. We essentially played Cal even in the second half. The hole we dug in the first half was too deep to get out of though.

Chima had another tremendous game with 24 points 10 boards and he was battling much bigger players inside. I know he wants to shoot better than 4-10 from the line though. Lamar and Henn also played pretty well. Brynton defends well and made some nice shots and Henn is a bruiser but pulled up and hit 3-3 from downtown. Henn is going to become a stellar player for us with an inside outside game. Siler Schneider always plays hard but he gets a bit out of control and drives the ball into trouble. He needs to play within his ability and cut down on his TO's.

After the game Coach Les said he was not pleased with the team's lack of aggressiveness in the first half and "soft passes" that led to TO's.

The Aggies travel to Fargo next Wednesday to take on the Bison of North Dakota State.

No doubt that Cal has much more talent but that was a very ugly half of basketball by the Aggies. The Ags turned the by over 16 times which led to 19 points by the Bears. That's got to be a record or nearly a record for TO's in a half by an Aggie team. Cal is a very good defensive team but the Ags are telegraphing passes and driving the ball into trouble and then turn it over.

Our defense is not bad but we really struggle to score even when we have open looks. Lamar and Moneke have 16 of our 18 points. We can't be competitive with defense alone.

He has offers from Portland State, Army and Southern Oregon also.