I was wondering about her too. She has been seeing very limited playing time lately. Hope she's back up to 100% soon. We'll need her with St Mary's, Oregon State and Central Florida coming up.

Fresno is the big name in the valley but Bake is on the rise and has fielded some very athletic teams with a good fan following in their area. We used to have a good rivalry with them in basketball during the D2 era.

It looked to me like UW was running a 2-3 matchup zone. It was really tough for the Aggies to try and penetrate or shoot over it because of the length and athleticism that the Huskies had out front and the size they had inside.

I'm on the fence about whether or not I like that zone defenses are allowed in college ball. I like them in that it gives college basketball a lot of defensive options and makes for some really interesting offensive strategies to try and attack them. I don't like them when a team like UW is so good at it that it makes it almost impossible to attack it effectively especially if the opponent is undersized by comparison like the Ags were.

I actually think the college game would be better off with only man defenses like the pros. Then it's mano-a-mano and the big guys need to be able to keep up with the smaller guys. I think hard nosed man to man defense is much more enjoyable to watch and speeds up the game.

From the article:

"In 2011-12, the year prior to launching the 2020 Initiative, the undergraduate population at UC Davis was 55.1 percent women and 44.9 percent men. By 2016-17, undergraduate proportionality had changed to 59.4 percent women and 40.6 percent men."

I can tell you that in the early 70's there was probably even a smaller percentage of women students. Oh...to be a young man on campus again today...!! 8-)

Bakersfield will begin Big West play on July 1, 2018 in all of their sports.

UCSD: Men's Volleyball will play in 2017-18, Women's Water Polo begins play in 2019-20, all other sports will begin play in 2020-21, full membership after transition 2024.

From SD Union Tribune article:

UC San Diego’s timeline to Division I

2018-2020: UCSD begins increasing the amount of money it offers for scholarships, beginning with one-third of its total allotment and reaching full spending by the fall of 2020. Two sports — men’s volleyball (2017-18) and women’s water polo (2019-20) — begin Big West participation.

2020: The Tritons begin a full Big West Conference competitive schedule in the fall.

2020-2023: UCSD begins a mandated four-year reclassification period, during which it cannot compete in the postseason in most sports. The exceptions are men’s volleyball, men’s and women’s water polo, and fencing, because those are sports with only one division in the NCAA.

2024: Beginning in the fall, UCSD will be a full member of the Big West and eligible to compete for all conference and NCAA championships.
Polo



http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/college/sd-sp-uc-san-diego-division-big-west-conference-20171127-story.html

From the official CSUB announcement:

"CSUB will field teams in the following Big West sports:

· Men's – Basketball, baseball, soccer, track and field.

· Women's – Basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, track and field, volleyball, and beach volleyball.

President Mitchell said the move will provide a number of benefits to CSUB and the Big West Conference, including:

· Reducing missed class time for student-athletes. With all of the Big West institutions except Hawaii located in California, the amount of time students spend out of class will be reduced, and travel costs will be reduced by up to $400,000 a year. The average round-trip distance from Bakersfield to Big West member insitutions is 814 miles (302 miles with the exception of Hawaii). The average round-trip distance from Bakersfield to Western Athletic Conference institutions is 2,422 miles.

· Renewing rivalries wth many institutions that have long been competitors of CSUB and are familiar to the community. For example, CSUB has competed as conference rivals against UC Riverside for 28 years, Cal Poly for 22 years, and CSU Northridge for 18 years.

· Providing a built-in fan base for the conference, as about 10,000 graduates of Big West institutions live in Kern County. The move will enhance the fan experience for CSUB supporters and alumni from other institutions.

· Extending the media exposure of the Big West by adding the Bakersfield/Central Valley media market. CSUB is the largest sports entity in the Bakersfield market with no Division I competition for media exposure. The addition of CSUB to the Big West increases the conference's media footprint by 8,161 miles and adds more than 850,000 households."

http://gorunners.com/news/2017/11/27/general-csu-bakersfield-accepts-invitation-to-join-big-west-conference.aspx

I'd hate to lose them.

We played hard as usual and kept it close but we shot poorly from behind the arc 5-21. We couldn't handle their size on the defensive boards. They had 16 offensive rebounds that led to 14 second chance points. We desperately need to find some good perimeter shooting because we're going to see a lot of zone this year.

The Huskies have a definite size and muscle advantage but the Ags are scrapping hard. Really nice to see Garrison Goode go 3-4. We need his offensive production inside. Fun to watch TJ Shorts handle the ball and drive to the hoop.

If we can do a better job on the defensive boards, stay out of foul trouble and continue to play good defense, we have a chance.

Go Ags!

Seattle's head coach, Suzy Barcomb, commented on Morgan Bertsch in her post-game interview: "Well, she's tall as a giraffe, is very agile, has a variety of moves, can shoot with either hand and is really smart."

This is a very nice road win for the Aggies to move to 6-0. Morgan Bertsch continues to dominate and had 25 and Rachel Nagel pumped in 23. The Ags were able to win by 26 even though they were only 5 of 20 from beyond the arc which is not like this team at all. So, with the 3's not falling, the Ags found another way to win.

I thought the Ags played good defense the entire game but 15 TO's are still too many. Bertsch and Nagel have been carrying most of the offensive production lately for the Aggies and I'd like to see some of the other players getting into double digits more often. The Ags don't want to become overly dependent on those two so, when they have an off night, other players well need to step up.

It looked like the Aggies had a good number of fans at the game. I'm sure there were family members and friends there from our Washington and Oregon players.

The Aggie train keeps on rolling!

Can't figure it out. It worked fine for a while then just keeps crashing.

The WAC Network feed keeps going down for me again..ugh..

Working well for me now also.

Nice job by the Aggies to stretch the lead to 15 after Bertsch had to sit with 2 fouls. Uncharacteristically for the Ags though is that they are only 1 of 9 from 3. The 3 ball is usually a weapon for them.

Bertsch picks up her 2nd personal and she's been carrying the offense. Need the other players to step up now.

Are you having any trouble with the online feed? It keeps going down for me.

That's just plain nuts!!

So the Gophers were playing 5 on 3??? Crazy!

Hahaha...hilarious post!

Although the game was essentially over when I tuned in midway through the 3rd quarter, the Ags were not playing with focused intensity and authority and, I agree, that 24 TO's is far too many. It was nice to see the Jen Gross gave her reserves the entire final 7 minutes of the game and wasn't concerned with rolling up an even more impressive score.

Nina Bessolo and Cierra Hall are both getting quite a bit of playing time and they both bring good athleticism to the floor. Both of them are quick and rebound well. Nina can get lackadaisical with her passes and turn the ball over and Cierra is rushing many of her shots and is not shooting a good percentage. Improvement in these areas by these two athletic players will make a big difference in tight ball games against tough opponents.

Morgan Bertsch led the way with 22 and Nina Bessolo had 13. Rachel Nagel pulled down 10 rebounds and Cierra Hall had 7. The Ags had an impressive 26 assists as a team.

The Ags travel to Seattle next to take on Seattle U on Sunday.

Go Ags!