Good. Perhaps the Aggies will not be BLAND.

If your last name is Pepper it must be very tempting to give your kids pepper-themed names, like maybe Cayenne for your daughter.

I saw some of that men's title game. It seemed like the crowd was very energized but the excessive celebration and music after every single play was a bit nauseating. It's that sort of thing that turns me off ofattending sporting events (that and poor play, looking at you, baseball), but I will still give UCD women's lacrosse a try if for no ther reason than trying something new.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Just counting roster spots and scholarships I imagine, however this assumes everyone who can come back will. Perhaps the coach knows about some attrition we don't. Maybe someone quit the team or transferred to a junior college ? Does the portal show JC transfers ?

I don't believe UCSD is eligible for the postseason thiis season, but I also think you made a better case for location being more crucial than lights. UCSB and CSUN out-recruited us in baseball even when they didn't have lights. Probably the only Big West school we "out-location" is Bakersfield, If UCD went back to the CCAA it still wouldn't out-location several of the teams. CSULA probably-nice to not be in a dangerous area. Chico ? -It's a toss-up.

I doubt lack of lights is the deciding factor for prospective recruits who choose to go elsewhere. If I were a prospective recruit myself I would prioritize the quality of the academics, the location and the quality of the playing opportunity. The opportunity to play everyday is worthless if I dislike the campus/community or the team sucks.

And losing for this long the team sucks. It sucks less than it did two years ago but it still sucks. The players don't suck but the team does. They win a couple big games but then they get squashed by their peer institutions. I don't blame Nicholson and his staff-they walked into a highly unfortunate situation and are doing the best they can. Nor do I blame the players for that matter. I just believe the program is in over its head. I think the most likely scenario is it improves to the point that it turns into a version of St. Mary's, sprinkling some winning seasons here and there and turning out a few really good professional players but not making the playoffs.

I don't read that much into it. There's always some attrition that isn't made public with any sport. To me it just means that the amount of non-seniors from this season coming back is not 100%. Like how baseball only announced three seniors on Senior Day, but there are others (redshirt juniors)who are probably very close to finishing their degrees and are not ready to call it a career but may do so when their circumstances change. I think the door to Pepper coming back isn't closed.

I actually saw this guy play this year whenI went to my first (and only) Cal game. He had zero points, and so the take-away from that is he averages slightly over 2 points per game when I do not attend.

At last-a practical opportunity for me to apply my knowledge of the Greek alphabet. Ellas?

Edit: Saw that "Hellas" is another name for Greece Mystery solved.

Yes, I would say the odds of the Grad returning are better than UCD baseball having a winning sesson next year.

They will call the new bar "The Drop-Out": because drop-ours have time to go to the bar-until they get jobs.

I think they do have little league and faculty days sometimes. I have seen the former and they draw a couple dozen kids if I remember correctly. I guess the limitation with the little league is the game times might conflict with some of their games.

As I do with the major UCD sports I think there's a real ceiling to what can be accomplished. Football has a decent shot to win a national championship because it plays in a subdivision, meaning it is not competing against the strongest D-I teams in the country for the most part but basketball and baseball have to go through the Florida States and Alabamas. It would seemingly be better if baseball had its own FCS equivalent for the UC Davises who peak once in awhile but at the very best areknocked out within the first 2 games of the NCAA tournament. Baseball does not have an NIT tournament either. But softball does..how odd.

Starting next year or the tear after I believe UCD's baseball season will start ending a week earlier because of the new Big West tournament. I'm assuming they just take the top 8, which will leave UCD in the cold unless it makes a significant jump in the standings. Finishing 10th or 11th is probably not going to cut it.

Thank you both. Sounds like it's worth seeing at least 1 game.

I would also like to reiterate how big of a deterrent to attendancethe losing is. Just for fun I looked at the schedules for the last 4 seasons and determined that I've seen a combined total of 17 games at Dobbins Stadium in that time (a couple of doubleheaders included). Care to guess how many of those games UCD won ?



TWO.

Now if I were an ordinary casual fan I wouldn't have come to that many games-at some point the "Aww, good try, get 'em next time !!!" starts to get really old. Something has to give here. Now I can appreciate the 11 win improvement from last year, but the play has been pretty sloppy since the Cal Poly series ended.

Yes, Woodstock's has a stand on weekends where they serve pizza slices and beer. I don't think they are there on Tuesdays.

St. Mary's and USF don't have lights.

They do need better advertising of games. Also, it's a small city-there's a definite limit to how much some ads downtown can help.

Even if you don't go, it's there and you know its there, having seen it To use a double negative- that isn't nothing. It's better than being some abstract concept or something you just heard about. From a convenience perspective I could see someone who doesn't regularly visit UCD finding it a bit of a pain having to drive that far onto campus and find parking, especially if they're not sure how good the show is going to be. I noticed when I went to a Stanford game that the townies were not deterred by having to drive onto campus, seemingly because it was Stanford. That reputation gives an expectation of good entertainment. Not that game-they were clobbered but people stil stayed late and spent lots of money.

I don't know what the limitations are for baseball but football and basketball have always had fun ways to engage the crowd (such that they can better tolerate the weather). Not so much for baseball. I remember at different times they've had trivia questions for prizes, but not always. Even if I don't participate the challenge is still fun. I try not to participate in those so the casual fans will have a chance.

I only need the game to maintain my interest but other people would probably like more fun activities. I've seen a couple of different colleges that offer a challenge to bring something to a table first and win some small prize. The kids seem to like that.

One other thing-a few years ago I remember a few of the teams (baseball, softball, basketball and soccer I think) held a yard sale on the soccer field to clear out old shoes and jerseys they weren't using anymore. I wound getting a baseball jersey (don't know whose) for $20. Don't wear it, just cool look at. Anyway if they are looking for prizes that's a potential treasure trove of small items, not including large items that they could auction off. They get their spring cleaning done and the fans are

As always I think it would be more enjoyable if the announcer were excited about their job. The main guy is technically proficient (aside from being hit-and-miss with reporting player substitutions) but he sounds to me like he's just reporting the news.

So she has a sister named Megan who is also good at basketball ? How about that ? Lol JK

I actually place partial blame on UCD baseball's lack of winning tradition on the 2008 team.. The program peaked too soon and this attracted additional draft attention and they lost key non-senior players who should have been around to shepherd all the talented freshmen in 2009 who were in over their heads to be frank.

As such they lost that brief window of time to keep the succesful team building going and take advantage of the recruiting benefit that winning would've brought. After that the program floundered about falling far behind the rest of the Big West in recruiting until 2015 when they had a winning record. Unfortunately the entire starting rotation graduated that year and they were back to floundering again 2016 (although that team managed a win against Michigan at Dobbins Stadium) and that's been the story ever since..

I really don't know how UCD will respond to this season. In their D-I history UCD has never followed a good season with a better or equal season, a real lack of consistency. Of course we are in the Nicholson era now, so maybe that trend will change-we don't have enough data to say given that the 2022 was likely a crapshoot before it even started.

They have some very good core players (Wolbert, Wright, Green, Wooldridge, Helfrick, Kang, Lee, Leahey, Romero) who were freshmen or sophomores this year to go with what is likely to be a big group of seniors in 2024, so there should be a lot of experience.

They are losing a few key players this year, and some of the core returning players will be MLB draft-eligible next year (mainly thinking Wolbert and Green), so the incoming recruiting class for 2024 will be extremely important.

I don't know that progress will be linear. It's possible they could finish with about the same number of wins and still have shown improvement

I mentioned before that UCD has hurdles to baseball recruitment (location and lack of a winning tradition to name two things). Another is they don't cast a very wide net with recruiting. They only have two players from outside CA (and one of them-Kaden Hogan-was already playing collegiately in CA). This trend seems to indicate UCD doesn't have a sizable baseball recruiting budget either

I tried to think of another university in a similar baseball bind, and it turns out it was in Stockton. UOP , which has lights by the way, cannot sustain any success it has due to some recruiting hurdles of its own.

1. Given a choice between comparable educational and athletic opportunities, why choose the one in Stockton ? Safety does matter.

2. Student athletes there (unless they have rich parents) are faced with a massive pile of student loan debt after graduating. Even with a full athletic scholarship "U Owe Plenty".

3. And like Davis, they don't let just anyone in who can get decent grades in HS and write a check . They have high academic standards too.

I don't think it would be possible for just basketball to be in the WCC. I believe the only reason you can be an affiliate member is if your conference doesn't offer competition in that sport.

Also, would seeing Saint Mary's and Gonzaga every year be worth four guaranteed drubbings, assuming the WCC were to let the no-religious-affiliation Aggies in ?

I agree. Football is the most expensive, but can UCD afford not to have it ? Aside from Picnic Day and classes football is the biggest draw on campus.