This is a hard team to figure out. Two time Big West coach of the year Eric Olen is gone but new coach Clint Allard seemed to have the team rolling as they won 10 of their first 11 games. The only loss was to a very good Nevada team in Reno and it is worth noting that UC Davis beat the Wolfpack in Reno. UCSD’s wins came over good teams such as Temple, Tulane and Bradley. Since then, oddly, they’ve gone on a one win, wone loss, one win, one loss pattern to go 4-4 with half of those in Big West play. Even more oddly, one of the victories was the only loss Hawai`i had until the Rainbows lost to UCSB and two of the losses were to 3-4 teams Cal Poly and Fullerton.

I wondered if the inconsistency was due to injuries, but the Tritons have kept the same starting lineup all season, at least until the game against CSUN which UCSD lost. In that game Alex Chaikin replaced Aidan Burke. Chaikin scored 22 vs. CSUN then 14 against Bakersfield. Burke had been scoring 11 ppg in their early run but less than 5 ppg since then. He’s a junior guard who has been in San Diego his whole career and played in every game last season, which is probably why he initially started. It’s hard to put the blame on one player, but it looked like coach Allard had seen something and made the change. Maybe Chaikin’s team leading 42.6% from the 3 point line is a factor. In the Big West, that rate trails only Conner Sevilla and UCI’s Jurian Dixon. We’ll see who starts against the Ags on Thursday. Chaikin is a transfer from Lafayette who had a very good freshman year there. The other two guards are Tom Beattie, transfer from Hawai`i where he started last year, and Emanuel Prospere II, a graduate student transfer from Missouri- St. Louis. They score 10.9 and 8.6 ppg respectively and both average 3.4 assists per game, meaning the Tritons effectively have two point guards.

The front court consist of leading scorer #8 Leo Beath, who is a 6’ 8” junior transfer from Florida Atlantic. He averages 15.5 ppg., good for 5th in the conference, and 4.2 rpg. The other forward is Bol Dengdit, a transfer Australia after two years at Portland. He contributes 10 points per game and over 5 rebounds with his 6’11” height, but the team leader is the 6’ 5” guard, Beattie with 5.4 rpg.

As a team, UCSD scores 80.3 ppg while allowing 71.4. They have the best assist/turnover ratio in the league at 1.46. UC Davis is 4th at 1.23. UC Davis seems to be on a roll and we’ve won 3 of 4 at home, so there’s a good chance to be 6-3 at the end of this long home stand. Note, however, that UCSD has been a good road team, 5-2, albeit only about a third of their games have been away.

I went back and watched the last 3-4 minutes of the game and, probably like Russ Turner, can’t figure out how we won. Take the lead on a Niko 3 pointer, which was sandwiched by 2 of his attempts that had the patrons of the fastbreak lounge ducking for cover. We missed 3 FTs in the last 90 seconds, any of which would have put it away. Great defense, and let them get TWO tip-in’s - one from a guard over our center! Run an inbounds play with 7?seconds designed to get it to Conner or Carl…
bad pass, but deflected right back to Cooper (who then misses one of those aforementioned FT’s).

But, it’s a win. Good, tough defense was the key again. Nice to see a BIG game from Omar especially with Cooper sitting a lot.

Watching on TV you can really see how teams are just beating up on Connor on offense. We’ll set up something for him where he is cutting through the key, and everyone in the vicinity lays an elbow on him. I think this is where not having a real inside threat hurts - Niko is out on the perimeter and his guy sags to clog things up.

Another observation that’s more obvious on TV - our crowd likes to show up late. At tip off, the seats behind the scorers table (mostly season tickets) are half full. By the 10 minute mark, it’s full. Cmon people - get there before 2! I know getting into the parking lot can be frustratingly slow, but plan for that! Be nice to have everyone there to greet the team during introductions!

DB Hayden John hasn't made a tweet about it, but he updated his twitter bio to say DB at UC Davis so there's at least 1 transfer.

Hopefully we’ll be wearing Tahoe Blue the rest of the season - undefeated!

The ticket office called me yesterday to thank bd for being a season ticket holder and to ask about my experience this year. ‘Anything you’d like to see different?’ ‘Yes, how about an easy win!’

Seems like every real home game except NDSU has come down to the last minute (or worse!)

Aggies have missed 7 free throws; UCI has missed none.

Ugly start to the half on both sides. I think we bring out the worst in teams- except the guy from Bakersfield who scored 32

Turner has been livid since the first foul on his team. I can’t believe how lenient the refs are with him barking at them constantly. No other coach in the conference complains as much as he does but the refs generally don’t T him up.

to have the visitors shooting into the band/student area in the second half. The ‘lounge’ didn’t offer an intimidating backdrop for free throws late in the game.

According to a department post, opponent FT percentage is dropping about 10% in the second half.

I miss the Irvine asst. coach with the big Afro! Turner is so much more animated when he plays us

Oddsmakers have this as irvine 2.5 point favorites. They are more optimistic than I am at how we’ll match up, especially if we’re missing Nils.

I’ll have to miss this one in person - granddaughter has a play.

I think the PWO offer uptick could indicate that we've recently gained commitment from the full scholarship players desired in portal.

I was surprised that he actually returned.

intersecting. I was wondering why the cheerleaders left early. That seemed really odd.

Call me an old fart, but it bothers me when members of the band don’t stand for the anthem.

I suspect he has some slight injury problems. Not so bad as to keep him out of the game but it might be affecting his shooting of his long range jumpers. Clearly, when he does not have to move much he can hot his shots.

It is not a stretch to state that the Anteaters are the best team in the conference. This is nothing new. Head Coach Russ Turner has guided UC Irvine to the regular season title in six of the past ten seasons, something no other school has done more than twice in that time. Entering his 15th season, he appears headed for another regular season title. Going into Hawai`i last week they were undefeated in league play and barely lost to the Rainbow Warriors a team that has only lost once at home this season and is always tough to beat in Honolulu. Uncharacteristically, UCI lost a number of games at home in preseason play but most of their losses were to very strong opponents (combined record 56-23). Gone are past Aggie nemeses Myles Che, Brent Leuchten and Devin Tillis. It is clear, however, that Coach Turner had recruited a number of new players who needed to mesh with a returning core of bench players and mesh they have. This year, their hallmark is strong defense as they allow only 66.8 ppg. ranking 38th nationally.

An important holdover for UCI is forward Elijah Chol, a 7’ 0” forward in his third season as an Anteater coming out of Georgia. In his first two seasons, he saw very little playing time, but in two games against Bakersfield and Fullerton he bucketed 19 points while shooting 80% from the field including three of four from beyond the arc. The other starting forward is 6’ 10” Kyle Evans who, like Chol, had not seen much playing time until this year. He is also an outstanding rebounder grabbing 8.1 rpg to go with his 12 ppg. Chol and Evans have combined for 79 blocked shots this season As a team, the Aggies have 41. Getting to the hoop onside the paint will be tough. The forward who solidly backs up the two starters is Harrison Carrington, a U. of Colorado transfer.

The backcourt consists of top scorer Jurian Dixon, the one starter that Aggies fans might remember from last year. His scoring average has nearly doubled to 15.8 ppg. helped by his 44% accuracy from trey land. His fellow guards are Darin Saran, a transfer from Stanford, and Tama Isaac, a freshman from New Zealand. Those two combine to toss in an additional 19 ppg. The Eaters have good depth at guard with freshman Jovan Jester, Jr. and sixth year senior Andre Henry.

The Anteaters are not only coming to Davis after a bye on Thursday, but angry about their loss to Hawai`i last week, so they will be rested and motivated. An upset by the Aggies would be special but a real long shot. They'll have to play a lot better on Saturday than they did on Thursday.

So apparently Ty Richardson was actually a Junior this past season. The roster had him incorrectly listed as a Grad Student. Heard from some people close to the program he had some p5/g5 interest which given his play against washington and once he was back from injury is not surprising. However, I am hearing he plans to be back at Davis next year.

Agree with the basic premise that kids need to get on with their life. It’s beginning to be absurd with some of these players. Obviously in some or many cases money (agents/parents/players with unrealistic hopes) fuel this seemingly never ending train of expanded eligibility.

You are missing the authority to make rules. You, in your role as rule maker, need legislation restoring authority to the rule making body, and limiting courts jurisdiction . Otherwise courts will decide if non NCAA seasons count, if scheduled games mean games on the schedule, completed or not, etc. There needs to be legislation. Courts don't consider what is best for the college football universe, they decide if the rule making body has the authority to deprive someone from earning money, and they have been deciding it doesn't..

A lot of arrogance regarding UC Davis. I own three companies and have mixed results from UC grads. Our best results from hiring civil engineers, construction management and business admin/finance majors have come from Fresno State, Chico State, Boise State, all Montana schools, Santa Clara, Purdue and Nebraska. Our operations are 100 percent CA based. All recent UC grads lacked relevant internships, professional social skills and too focused on pronouns rather than work. One of our companies does recruiting for permanent employment placement in the heavy civil arena. Make fun of state schools as you want, but in the West, 90 percent of our placements come from state schools. You don’t have to go UC Davis to be an educated, employed professional who is a good person. There is a lot of world outside the confines of Davis, CA.

NCAA does support Equestrian sports and spoke about this today in DC at the conference.

There was no transparency by the AD on why they made this decision which left incoming recruited athletes without options. That's a breach of contract and possible conflict of interest. So many reasons why this decision was a mistake. UCDavis is an Ag school and the #1 vet school . They should have an equestrian team where the vet school benefits from having these horses on campus. These 40+ athletes are also from very diverse backgrounds.

I think we tend to devalue degrees from other schools too much. — Riveraggie

It’s funny, for the last few years I have been the people manager for about 400 employees, and maybe about 50 college kids per semester. I found that the prestige of university made no difference in performance. The best predictors of workplace success were those who had lived away from home in a dorm for at least a year and those who had experience in a crappy campus food service job.

yeah kid on the team helps

On second thought, I probably wouldn't be bought that cheaply. That's because this would assume I'm good as Caden, my tuition is already paid for at UCD, and I'm already settled and comfortable at UCD for two years. Perhaps $100k is my minimum.

Man, you have the scoop on staff moves. Same source?

Here's a great off-season topic: Aggie legend and the gutsiest play caller in the history of modern college football (see 2007 Fiesta Bowl if you're too young to remember. Arguably the best two minutes of playcalling in my lifetime) Chris Petersen named to the 2026 College Football Hall of Fame class! Way to go Coach Pete!

https://themw.com/news/2026/01/14/chris-petersen-selected-for-college-football-hall-of-fame/

I’m going to miss watching Caden Pinnick and I appreciate that $ is an important motivator. But it’s not the only currency at play. How much is a UC Davis education worth over a lifetime and career? Much less living in Northern California, and making deep connections with the people who will be fellow alumni. I am guessing that Pinnick didn’t see himself as having a good shot at a pro career as a QB, so his chance to earn a pot of money to start out life is now, not in 4-5 years. So how much of a pot is a UC degree worth with the connections and educational reputation it represents, in comparison with a WSU degree and experience? What would it have taken you to make that choice if it was yours?

My thought also. The team hasn’t offered a transfer tackle. Rodriguez not only played tackle he started at the position for a year. There are a number of sophomore o linemen on the depth chart.

While a portal LT would sure be nice, I think we have a lot of OL depth & talent. The staff seems high on Hasson and Cleeland (they found ways to get them on the field... I think one was even on kick return). Jace Rodriguez played tackle before transferring to Davis. All three are guys with OT builds and athleticism.

In no way am I arguing against getting a portal LT! But if we don't, this is probably why.

Transfer Portal period ends January 16. We may get word at that time.
JC Transfers and late high school Signing Day is February 4th. We will definitely have this thing pieced together by February 5th.

I think the Psyche replacement and the Left Tackle replacement are the key pieces that warrant immediate, grad transfer/portal types. TE and RB have one proven guy each with young depth behind them, but it says something to the state of readiness of those back-ups if we have portal offers at those positions. Nickel/Safety the same thing. Look at what offers are out there and that will tell you what the coaches are thinking of the young guys coming up.

Since we're in off-season opining mode, let's discuss the merits of smallish RBs vs. the "big back". A big back is typically seen as slower, but more powerful, with a greater ability to run through arm tackles in short yardage situations. In my opinion, that is a nice luxury to have. "Big backs" that jumped out to me were Victor Dawson (#5, 5'11" 220) from Illinois State and Davis from Montana State (#32, 5'10" 210). A program needs to be in the portal to find those guys, and you have to be willing to pay. Dawson was from Cincinnati while Davis came from Wisconsin. They come with a price tag. And, in retrospect, was either one of them any more valuable than the small backs from UC Davis? Different offensive roles, certainly. Fisher gets most of his carries on 1st down and run down situations. 14 carries per game is his average, 2 catches per game. 16 touches. Dawson was a volume rusher who got stronger as the game progressed and dictated. Good zone runner. Davis was more of a change-up guy to compliment the QB run threat. While a 3rd and 4th down situational back would be a luxury, for what the Aggies offense asks of its tailback, I would argue (not sure who I'm arguing with) that the team is better served spending money elsewhere. Like Defensive End and Left Tackle. This is no knock on Fish; in fact, he is the perfect RB for Plough's offense in my opinion. Great in space in the screen/passing game, outstanding on the outside runs and gap schemes, willing pass blocker (sometimes gets run over, but he ain't scared). I love his game. Dynamic, home run hitter who can take it to the house on any carry. I hold my breath when he has the ball. When I watched Dawson and Davis, that was not the case. What I'm getting at is that a big back is not necessarily the best fit for the Aggie offense. As we learned, there aren't enough carries to go around and keep guys happy. An "RB by committee" or an elite RB with capable back-ups is just fine.

My last concern is I try not to know if there any minutes left in the video. That will give me clues if the game reaches overtime, or if the game is a blowout. — eastbayaggie

That is a huge issue for me (and my daughter) who watch most of the NCAA volleyball games on delay. If you're in the second set and there is not much time left on your stream, than you know whoever won set 1 probably sweeps it.

My worry is overhearing the women's game from the sports commentators while watching the men's game and vice versa.

I also worry about accidentally reading comments on this board before watching the game.

My last concern is I try not to know if there any minutes left in the video. That will give me clues if the game reaches overtime, or if the game is a blowout.

I do the same thing. I hope I don't overhear the score of the 49ers game while we're at the game and spoil the replay for us when we get home.

I've been watching a lot of replays too, and it's great! I'm worried that the Mountain West channel won't have reliable replays like espn+.

Cody vonAppen, defensive coordinator at Cal Poly previously, to become the special teams coordinator for the Ags. Here’s his bio from the cal poly roster.
https://gopoly.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/cody-vonappen/1125

The Aggies drag themselves home with a losing record in conference play and needing a sweep this week, which will be tough given their opponent on Saturday. In the meantime they need to get past the Titans who aren’t exactly burning through the Big West, but have good victories over UCSB and UCSD, the latter on the road, although the Tritons have stumbled a bit after going 11-2 prior to January. Their road record is 2-6 with the best win being the aforementioned one over UCSD. Statistically they resemble Cal Poly in that the Titans score a lot of points, first in the Big West by a large margin, 86.7 ppg. (UCD is second at 81.2) while giving up a lot of points, 85.9 ppg. 9th worst in all of Division 1. They don’t, however, make a high percentage of 3 point shots or one scorer, like Hamad Mousa, rather they rely on balanced scoring and they have a lot of depth.

Again, similar to Cal Poly, Fullerton often has five guards on the court, although they have been including a forward in the starting lineup. In fact, looking at their roster, there are only two forwards on the entire team. One of them, starting forward Kendrick De Luna, 6’ 10” is the only player returning from last year. The fact that he has shot 100% from the 3 point line does not mean he is much of a factor (he’s 1 for 1). He averages 4.2 ppg and 2.6 rpg. The forward most likely spend more time on the floor at the Credit Union Center is Landon Seamon, a 6’ 8” forward from Vacaville who transferred from Menlo College. He’s been good for 21 minutes a game, 13.5 ppg. and 3.9 rpg. Hope this means that Coach Les will start Niko Rocak.

The four starting guards are Joshua Ward, a transfer from Life University (there is Life in Georgia), Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro from Valparaiso and freshmen Bryce Cofield and Christian Williams. Also getting double minutes of playing time so far are freshmen guards Davis White and K. J. Garris plus transfer Jaden Henderson, from Jessup, and Bailey Nunn, from Sac State. The scoring comes from Seamon, Ward, De La Cruz Monegro, and Cofield who all score from 12 to 14 ppg combining for 53 ppg. I’m guessing that they swarm to the ball for rebounds because for all their lack of big men, they have 11.2 offensive rebounds per game v, 9.3 for the Ags

Unlike Cal Poly, the Aggies will be at home for this one, so it’s time to get back to .500.

After the teams have played 5-6 games most of them are bunched in the middle of a pack of 7 at or around .500. This is the good news for the Aggies who are only one game out of third place. The bad news is that 6 other teams are in the same boat. It's seems like there are only two teams who are at the top: UCI and Hawai`i who played last night in a real close game that saw them exchange one point leads for most of thw second half until Hawai`i one on a buzzer beater, 67-66, after the Anteaters had taken the lead with 12 seconds left. At this point, neither UCSB nor UCSD are as strong as they have been in the past. I'd have to predict that the regular season and tournament champs will be either UCI or Hawai`i.