Here's another stat that we need to clean up. We have turned the ball over 106 in 6 games for an average of 17.6 per game. Of those, TJ and Siler have accounted for 58 TO's. That means our two main ball handlers have committed 58% of our TO's. That's not good.

I think TJ's 27 TO's are largely due to how hard he is trying to make something happen when the offense is struggling. He's fearless and will drive the ball into the redwoods but teams know that now and are more prepared for him. Siler just drives himself into trouble too often. He's fearless also and never quits but he seems to be pressing more this year and turning the ball over.

It's not a student section until there are actually students in the stands though...

Yep, we were up 6 and AJ missed badly on an open 3 but then Goode also missed 2 FT's as well although he is shooting FT's better than he ever has. There's something stagnant about our offense with a lot of perimeter passing without getting many open looks. The lack of inside production is glaring.

We are only shooting 35% from the field so far this year and only 25% from 3. Siler is shooting 26% from 3, Mooney 27% and AJ 19%. That hurts. Teams are going to make us beat them from the outside with numbers like that. Gonzalez is shooting 36% from 3. We need him to keep firing away.

I was shocked to see that Sac has only had one winning season in the last 30 years. They've been a really weak program for a long time. That makes losing to them hurt even more.

I caught the very brief radio interview with Les after the game. Les essentially said he felt that we had too many breakdowns on defense in the final few minutes and that we didn't score in last 5 minutes of the game.

One thing I have noticed about Les is that he can often be critical of the team's energy and effort, breakdowns on defense and turnovers on offense, but he rarely has much to say about our offensive play. I think his feeling is that there's not a lot you can do about the ball not going in the hoop with any consistency and that you just have to keep battling on defense and hope that some shots eventually start to fall.

Hawkins may share the Coach of the Year award with Best but outclasses him by a mile.

Les recruits guards first and foremost. I follow the recruiting as close as I can and I would say, from what I have seen, 2/3's of his offers are to guards. It's not easy to land talented PF's and post players at a mid-major school but Russell Turner at Irvine does it very well and it's paying off for them.

Irvine is currently 6-0 and they have 6 players 6'8 and taller on their roster. They have a 6'9 RFr PF, Colin Welp, who is a great looking big man and he's just starting his basketball career. They have great balance overall, can score the ball and don't rely pretty much solely on defense to be competitive.

Anything we can get into Aggie Stadium legally and make noise!

Spot on. I'm not optimistic that we will sell out the game. As we all know, lots of Aggie fans are "fair weather fans" who will stay at home if there's the slightest chance of precipitation or if the game presents the slightest inconvenience such as feeling like the leaves need to be raked. Well, it's leaf season and the forecast is for showers...

As for the students, look at the NAU game. We were 8-1 at the time and had "sold out" the ISU game previously but only about 200 students showed up for the game. Heck, the overall attendance was only 7000+.

We don't have a big, dedicated fan base yet and I'm not sure what it will take to change that especially with the students.

I'm not trying to dampen the excitement. Just "callin' it like I see it."

You know, Hawkins says to always set the bar high and Kelley to a big risk because he thought he could play on a bigger stage and he's been successful. Congrats to him.

I guess I'm old school because I'd rather lose to any team on our schedule than Sac. I absolutely hate losing to the Hornets in basketball or football. They've only had one winning season in the last 30 years in basketball so this one stings (pun intended!). Ugh...

Buckle up Aggie fans. We're in for a rough ride this season.

I love this arena. Go Ags!

It's a fun evening. If both teams were doing better we'd have a better crowd but the Kings staff always does a good job of keeping the atmosphere lively no matter what the crowd size or the score of the game. It's the best basketball arena I've ever been in and It's hard to keep your eyes on the actual game with that amazing Jumbotron.

9 of the 16 first team defensive players are from Weber State! :gasp:

I was really impressed with Reno's stadium. What a nice facility.

Hahaha...I have a vague memory of that. Of course, at my age most of my memories are vague. The games at the Toom were so much fun!

I remember how the steam engine used to shake and shudder and leak steam from many of the couplings. I always felt a little uneasy being near it wondering if something could go wrong and it would explode! I think it may have been banned for potential safety concerns.

Hawkins could have a second career as a motivational speaker. He is an extremely thoughtful, wise man. You will not find many coaches as knowledgeable and articulate anywhere in any sport.

Who wouldn't want to play for a coach like that? He's a wise man with the right values and vision. Everyone wants wins and championships and those goals are worth aiming for but what Hawkins teaches his kids is something they can take with them into their lives after football and do something to help make things a little better in the world.

Those kind of lessons have all but been forgotten in the win at any cost philosophy that we see all to often in sports. What a breath of fresh air Hawkins is in a world where so many prominent people have sold their souls for power and self-glory.

He is such an inspirational coach...AGGIE PRIDE! AGGIE PRIDE! AGGIE PRIDE!

Here is a comparison of the playoffs team selections by STATS FCS, the Coaches Poll and the AGS Poll. Again, AGS continues to be the most accurate predictor of the actual bracket (STATS FCS was close this year too). The Coaches Poll continues to be the least accurate predictor. I think the coaches just have too much inherent built in bias to be anywhere objective.

The Coach's poll (the "official" poll in the toolbox of the selection committee) was definitely the 3rd best in terms of reflecting what the selection committee did. I'd say it was about a draw between the AGS and STATS polls in terms of which reflected the committee the best. The AGS Poll did much better reflecting the seeds and the STATS poll did much better reflecting the at-large teams. Overall though for the 6 years of the 24 team playoff format I think the AGS poll is further distancing itself as a better reflection of what the selection committee will do. Something pretty remarkable, in my opinion at least, is that the AGS Poll hasn't been further than 2 spots away on any seeded playoff team since 2013 (that's a streak of 5 years and counting).

http://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?216083-Which-poll-is-the-most-accurate-playoff-predictor/page4

I finally got to the seat selection page but when I went to checkout it wouldn't recognize my account even though I was logged into it. So I called and they were able to get me those seats but only after I deleted them from my cart online so they could select those seats from their computer. Too many glitches!