Stanford takes a 16 point lead into the break 36-20. The Aggies showed a little more life in the second quarter but continued their frigid shooting at only 22% for the half. As it usually is with very good teams, Stanford has shut down the Ags leading scorer, Morgan Bertsch, and she has only 2 points on 1 of 6 shooting. No Aggie has over 5 points.

The Aggies came out with the "deer in the headlights" look and Stanford rolls to a 20-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. Stanford shot 68% to the Ags 17%!

The Aggies new to regroup to try and get back in this one.

I agree so I was very surprised to see how we lined up after Idaho's timeout. I would like to know why Les decided to not pull his players away from the FT lane?

I just noticed that he acknowledged it was not a good choice in this statement: “We didn’t do a good job of getting back in transition off that free throw,” UCD coach Jim Les said afterward. “In hindsight, I should have had all the guys back."

Hindsight is always 20-20 though. We've all been there and know that.

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/aggie-men-rally-fall-just-short-at-idaho-68-66/

From the Enterprise:

Regarding playing Stanford:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/ucd-women-goodbye-aztecs-hello-no-11-stanford/

Article about post Marly Anderson's journey to Davis and how difficult it is to balance athletics and tough academics at UCD:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/anderson-providing-solid-center-play-for-aggie-women/

The future looks bright for Aggie water polo. Here's an interesting article about this year's team:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/ucd-water-polo-season-deemed-a-memorable-success/

Generally speaking, I think Coach Les is very good at making critical decisions during the heat of the game. Last night he made a surprising decision that made it much easier for Idaho to score on an uncontested layup at the buzzer.

With the score tied with 6 seconds left in the game, Idaho called a time out after Lemar had hit the front end of a 1&1 to tie the game at 66. They wanted to discuss their options for the various scenarios that could ensue when Lemar went back to the line. Conventional coaching wisdom says that you do not have your players take their normal positions on either side of the lane in a end game situation like this. Surprisingly, Coach Les did just that so now we had 3 players, 2 including the shooter, in their normal positions around the FT lane.

Why was this an unwise decision? Because more bad things can happen in these final seconds in a situation like that than good when you don't pull your players back and put them at a defensive advantage if and when the Vandals get the ball back with a few seconds left.

If Lemar hits the FT then the Ags have several defensive options. They could go to their 1-2-2 zone press to help slow Idaho from advancing the ball quickly up the floor or have all 5 Aggies back to defend against the full court pass over the top or even pick up everyone in a man press. Lots of defensive choices, all of which, are designed to force Idaho to take a long range, hopefully contested, shot and not be able to throw the ball the length of the court.

If Lemar misses the FT, more things can go wrong than right with us having 3 players at the FT lane. Best case scenario is that we get the rebound but getting the rebound off a missed FT is a low percentage likelihood. Worst case scenarios are: One, that we get called for a foul battling for the rebound and two, we have several players scramble for the ball off the miss and don't have enough players back to defend against the long pass.

Bad case scenario two is what happened. Lemar missed the free throw and we had a couple of players scramble for the rebound and that left us defensively out of position down court and confused. Idaho got the ball and threw a long pass to Jordan Scott who had slipped behind the defense because we didn't have enough players already back to defend, and he scores on an uncontested layup. Game over.

This was a frustrating loss for the team. They battled hard with Garrison Goode still out and JT and Chima sitting most of the game with foul trouble. They deserved a better outcome.

Aggies lose to Idaho for the 7th straight time 68-66. Brynton Lemar had a chance to put the Ags up by one but missed the second shot of a 1 and 1 with 6 seconds left. The Vandals got the rebound and found a wide open Jordan Scott for a buzzer beater lay up.

The Aggie defense simply broke down after the Lemar miss. Coach Les chose not to take his players away from the FT lane and have them lay back on defense in case Lemar missed and it cost the team.

The zebras played a role in this one as they ticky-tacked JT and Chima early and often and both spent most of the night on the bench. Idaho took advantage of that and hammered the Ags by scoring 38 points in the paint. With Garrsion Goode out and JT and Chima sitting the Ags couldn't stop the Vandals inside game.

The other thing that hurts this team is that we struggle to have a offensive punch. Our defense keeps us close but the offense is inconsistent.

Tough loss. Next up is a visit to Cal.

Ags lead 41 to 38 with 12 minutes to go. Chima and JT both have 4 fouls and have had limited PT. The last foul on Chima was pure bunk.

The Aggies lead 27-26 at the half in a game dominated by defense. Both teams are shooting 41%. JT has 3 fouls and Moneke has 2. Garrison Goode is still not with the team so his injury must be fairly serious.

The live stream camera angle is from higher up than usual and gives you a very nice wide view of the game and you can really see the player movement, screens and cuts. Pretty cool.

Did Hawk let the cat about of the bag early?

Great interview! Hawkins mentioned that the $5 million donation was part of a $30 fundraising effort to provide a facility at the stadium. Anyone know what he is referring to?

It was also encouraging to hear him say that the phones are ringing of the hook right now and that there is a lot of enthusiasm and passion about the future direction of the program.

Like Hawk said at his presser, "This train is rolling!"

"Playing on the surface of the sun"...LOL!

I was wondering if some of the pregame activities could be located in a campus area nearby that has more shade and is a more pleasant setting? I know it wouldn't be right next to the tailgate area but the tailgate crowd brings their own shade canopies and they could wander over too.

I remember that when we played at Cal a few years ago there was a big gathering of Aggie fans before the game in a nice area within a short walk to the stadium. Of course, the weather is much milder in Berkeley than Davis but, nevertheless, it was a nice area for Aggie fans to gather and eat and drink. Maybe something like that would work here as well.

Amen, 6th, Amen!! I'm sure those of you that have been members of the forum for a long time like me have read several of my rants about starting the games later to help with the inherent problem of Aggie Stadium being a solar oven when the heat is on. When you factor in the fact of football season starting before the majority of students are back in Davis and combine it with brutal heat, it's no wonder that the stadium is mostly empty in the early season.

I never really remember having this kind of heat problem back in the D2 days of Toomey Field. Of course, if my memory serves me well, which seems to be no sure thing anymore, the games usually started at 7 pm (were there even a few 7:30 pm starts?). I don't remember the sun being directly in my eyes either if I was sitting on the west side bleachers. Of course, Toomey was at ground level where the breezes could circulate and the field was grass not synthetic and it was surrounded by trees not concrete. I'm sure that helped keep things comfortable on hot evenings.

Aggie Stadium can be broiling at 6 pm in September and even in early October and, with climate change, it may only get hotter in the years ahead, and there is very little shade in the stadium until the sun sets. We've all seen fans seeking out any bit of shade anywhere in the stadium just to avoid being fried.

The stadium is what it is: it's a nice facility with an almost unbearable heat problem on hot days. The synthetic surface absorbs heat and reflects it. The field is sunken and surrounded by concrete that holds the heat like a solar oven, and the breezes don't circulate like they would if the field was at ground level to move the air. There is little shade anywhere in the stadium, and the sun cooks and blinds the fans on the east side as the it goes down. It's a problem...a big problem that makes for an unpleasant experience and discourages attendance.

Blue has made some nice changes to the pregame activities to try and stimulate a better fan experience for all. Those have been welcome changes but, again, the heat and lack of shade for fans in the area surrounding the stadium is a detriment to the attendance. There needs to be more shade structures, trees, tents and/or canopies so fans can find some respite to the heat. No one enjoys walking around in 100 degree heat with essentially no place to sit in the shade.

I brought some friends to their first Aggie game on the "food truck fiasco" day last season when the food truck promotion failed to materialize as advertised. We ended up having a beer and had to sit in a patch dirt beside a tent that had a small area of shade beside it. The tent had tables that were fairly empty but entry was reserved for certain Aggie donors only. Our seats on the west side were still in the hot sun when the game started and we lost as usual. Obviously, they weren't impressed and have never returned.

There isn't much that can be done about the design of the stadium that makes it unbearably hot. The only thing that can be done is to start the games later at 7 pm. This would greatly help with the problem and make it a much more comfortable experience for the fans. Starting the games at 7 pm would also help fans coming from the Sacramento area avoid the traffic bottleneck that occurs everyday before just before getting to the Causeway on 80 in West Sacramento. There also needs to be more shade structures available in the area outside the stadium for the fans at the pregame activities.

Bottom line: 7 pm starting times for games in September are a no brainer that needs to happen.

It's apparent that Blue has been working behind the scenes for a while with influencial former Aggie coaches, players and donors to make changes and get things rolling. Another indication of this was that Blue flew up to Boise to interview Hawkins on a donor's private plane.

Blue recognizes that the football program needs an infusion of money to get some of the pieces in place that will help put us on a more even footing with the top programs in the FCS and help make the program more attractive to recruits. It was rumored that many of the most dedicated Aggie donors were so upset about Daryl Gross not becoming the new AD that they closed their wallets and walked away. Obviously, Blue has done a great job in winning their back confidence and bringing them back into the fold.

Exciting times ahead for Aggie football!

There was a stretch of 8 minutes from late in the first quarter and into the second where the Aggies went on something like a 20-0 run and broke the game open. That was a beautiful stretch of basketball by the Aggies on both ends of the floor. When this team gets in a rhythm like that they can be a very, very good basketball team.

The Aggies move to 5-1 with a 75-55 win over the Aztecs. Dani Nafekh had a career high 28 points 10 of 14 shooting of which 8 of 11 were from 3. Morgan Bertsch continued her excellent offensive play and added 20.

The Aggies won the boards 40-35 but had 18 TO's most of which came in a fairly erratic second half of play. The Aztecs played the Ags even in the second half as the Aggies did not handle the press very well. My guess that the Ags may see double teams and pressure in the future.

Next up is a visit to #11 Stanford on Sunday.

Go Ags!

A ragged 3rd quarter for the Ags but still lead up 21 at 59-38.

It's been the Dani Nafekh show with 19 points on 7-8 shooting to lead the Aggies into the break with a 21 point lead 44-23. Morgan Bertsch has 12. The Ags are doing a much better job on the boards and have a 22-17 edge.

The Ags overcame a frigid start shooting 1 for 10 and then hit their next 6 of 7 to lead the Aztecs 18-12 at the end of the 1st quarter.

Aggie convert! Now that's Aggie Pride! (Y)