Recap and comments from the K State coach and players:

http://www.kstatesports.com/news/2018/3/23/womens-basketball-k-state-season-ends-in-nail-biter-against-uc-davis.aspx

The game on Sunday against Indiana will be at 11 a.m. Pacific time and 2 p.m. EDT in Bloomington. The KDVS announcer said the team will bus to Indianapolis and then to Bloomington. That's a 9 hour bus trip to Indianapolis and then another hour and 15 minutes to Bloomington while losing an hour to boot. We could be a tired team. I hope the adrenaline keeps the Ags going full speed.

I grew up in Indiana and I'm still a fan of great Indiana schools: the Hoosiers, Purdue, Butler, and Notre Dame but I'm an Aggie through and through so I'll be rooting for the Ags to take down the Hurryin' Hoosiers. It will be a great experience for the Aggies to play in Assembly Hall in Bloomington but it will be a hostile environment. Hoosiers love basketball like Texas loves football but we won today in a basketball crazy state so we can do it again in Hoosierland.

One game at a time but, who knows, we just might surprise everyone and win the whole dang thing!

Morgan Bertsch had 31 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks before fouling out on a horrible call with 15 seconds to go. Pele Gianotti had 15 on 5-6 shooting, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Rachel Nagel came out on fire from 3 but then cooled off and had 12 points, 5 boards and 2 blocks. Cierra Hall only had 2 points but she pulled down 8 rebounds to go along with a steal and a block and Kourtney Eaton had 5 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Dani Nafekh and Nina Bessolo chipped in 3 apiece and Marly Anderson didn't score but she had 4 boards, 3 assists and a block. Great team effort!

Aggies win 71-69!! Biggest win in WBB history!

Yes, he is outstanding. Ags still drawing 3's and are up 49-42 with 4:54 to go in the 3rd.

37-32 Ags at the half!

Refresh it until you get it. Might even try going out of the website and come back in and see it it loads. if not, keep refreshing. I had to turn the sound off though. I can't stand to listen to the KS commentators complaining about the Aggies getting away with traveling about every time down the floor. Geeeesh!!

Ags raining 3's and lead 21-16 at the end of the first quarter. We need to slow down Goth. She's keeping KS in the game.

Yes, I have a perfect stream. I linked through the Big West TV link to the K State site. Had to refresh it once to get it going but it's been flawless since.

KS leads 11-10 in a track meet. Ags missing too many close, open looks. Need to settle down and not rush their shots.

I've got audio and video. Are you guys still having problems?

A couple of minutes until tipoff. Here's a link to watch the game:

http://www.kstatesports.com/watch/?Live=1303&type=Archive

Time to get a ticket to the Elite 8. Go Ags!

Bad timing of the robotics conflict indeed. Aggie fans would have flocked to the Pavilion to see the a WNIT Sweet 16 game versus Kansas State.

The defensive strategy of many of the teams the Ags have played recently has been to collapse on Morgan and make the other players beat you. For the most part, Morgan has still been able to find ways to score. When we have struggled against this strategy is when our other starters have gone cold from the outside and also when we have turned the ball over frequently.

My 3 keys to the game:

1. Take care of the ball and limit the number of TO's.
2. Be the aggressor on defense and limit the number of second chance points.
3. Shoot a good percentage from the outside which will help free up Morgan inside.

More than anything though, come out aggressive and set the tone and tempo for the game. Play with energy from the get go and keep it up for 40 minutes. It's all or nothing; win and move on or lose and go home.

Go Ags!

I wonder if we would have been given another home game if it weren't the the robotics conflict since our rpi is #73 and Kansas State is #89? If we get by this round we would play the winner of the Purdue @ Indiana game and they both have higher rpi's: #54 and #62 respectively so I think we'd be going to the Hoosier state. The rpi's were last updated on March 12th.

http://realtimerpi.com/college_Women_basketball_rpi2.html

Having enough money is the most important factor in a job when you don't earn enough but, after you feel comfortable with your income, nearly everything else moves to the head of the list.

There are a lot of reasons for Les to stay right here:

1. He's worked hard to turn the program into a legitimate contender each year in the Big West and the sky is the limit of where Aggie basketball can go. I think he'd like to be around for the ride.

2. He believes in the Aggie model of recruiting high character athletes that get it done in the classroom as well.

3. He has a lot of history and connections in the greater Sacramento and Davis area and his wife is a realtor in Granite Bay and currently has listings up to the $1.5 million range.

4. His son Tyler, works in San Francisco and Logan, Utah, is a long way from SF.

5. He has often said that he and his wife love the Sacramento area and always wanted to return someday. UC Davis gave him that opportunity.

5. Money isn't everything especially when you have enough to be comfortable in your lifestyle. I'm sure he and his wife are doing fine and he just may be at a point in his life where the quality of the job, family, friends and geographic location are more important than a bigger paycheck.

Kansas State has great size. Nine of the 12 players on their roster are over 6 feet tall including 6 players over 6'2: 6'2, 6'3, 3 at 6'4 and one player at 6'7. With that kind overwhelming size I would expect that they will collapse on Morgan every time she touches the ball. She'll see a lot of double teams so it will be important for the Aggie guards to hit their shots from the perimeter and make them pay for collapsing in the paint.

Another strategy is mix things up and let Morgan play at the high post on some sets. She can knock down outside shots. The Ags can also bring in Marly Anderson and play her at the low or high post along with Morgan. Marly can score in the paint and can knock down 3's and they would need to pay attention to her inside too.

It will be interesting to see if the Ags decide to push the pace. The Wildcats pride themselves on tough defense so we will probably try to run and score when we can before they get set in their defense. If they go big, then run, run, run when we can.

Rebounding will be tough so we have to box out be aggressive. We must go hard after the ball and use our quickness to offset their size.

Defensively, we must be locked in and aggressive trying to cause TO's. We'll need the athleticism of Bessolo and Hall to help us on the boards and defense.

We can beat Kansas State but we need to take care of the ball and bring our A game.

Les was recently quoted, in a Bee article, that he was in it for the long run at Davis and that, after working so hard to turn the program around, he wanted to be around to enjoy the success. He has also been a very big proponent of the Aggie scholar-baller model of athletics and has said that the Aggie model was college athletics done the right way. Then again, I suppose everyone has a price at some point...