EWU is outplaying the Ags right now and, I hate to say it, but more creative than aggressive than Hawk so far

Eagles DB's are really good so far and Jake is throwing into tight coverage

EWU said they thought they could beat us deep and it looks like it right now

Fast start...keep it going!!!

I think the team that plays the best defense and makes a few more critical stops and/or take-aways witll win this game. Our defense needs to play their best game of the year.

Go Ags!!!

Kennesaw has it's doubters for sure but not with the FCS coaches it seems. I chalk that up to geographical bias. Kennesaw is 27 miles north of Atlanta. It's Georgia and football rivals evangelical religion for popularity and importance. West coast FCS football teams don't get that kind of respect until they prove it on the field of play.

It looks like you should get some sun but it's gonna be cold...

I think, like football, money is driving the schedule! — DrMike

Do we get paid to play power schools in basketball? I thought that was only in football...?

I don't know, DrMike, this is the second clunker in a row. I thought we had better energy tonight but both USF and San Diego clearly had more talented players on the floor than us. The top teams in the Big West also look to be much improved too.

Irvine just beat Texas A&M on the road tonight. Long Beach is currently hanging right in there with #21 UCLA. Fullerton took Arizona State into double OT before losing and Jackson Rowe wasn't even playing. UCSB beat Wyoming on the road without Heidegger playing and New Mexico banked in a 3 at the buzzer to beat CSUN.

By comparison, we got routed by USF and USD on our own court and the schedule ahead is brutal. I'm not sure what Les was thinking when he put that schedule together because, from what I have seen so far, we are nowhere close to having the kind of talent to compete with power basketball schools. It does not look good at all right now.

Schneider continues to be ice cold. Ags are 3-20 from 3...wow

37-32 USD at the half. Much better energy from the Ags tonight but struggling to score.

USD has 5 players 6’10 or taller...wow...

How will the cold weather affect the game? Will the cold make throwing and catching the ball more difficult? Is a cold football hard as a rock and therefore more difficult to hang onto?

Another preview and prediction: Ags 31 EWU 24

http://www.fcs.football/cfb/story.asp?i=20181107120414203482004&ref=rec&tm=&src=FCS

Wonderful Stats FCS Football podcast interview with Hawkins:

https://herosports.com/fcs/football-uc-davis-dan-hawkins-eastern-washington-ajaj

Hawk, "You gotta set the bar high..."

I thought the student turn out for the USF game was fair and a block of them were chanting cheers even though the game was long over for the Ags. After what they saw I fear they won't be back right away. Hopefully, giving away free pizza will lure a few back to the Pavilion.

That's for sharing your experiences. I think the article made the point that the parents who chose to have their kids play on traveling squads did so out of their concern for what was best for their children and you make some good points about the merits of doing so. I think it is of concern that participation in youth sports is down especially at lower income levels and many of the kids that come from those families are being left behind.

I thought the example of how successful Norway has been in their unique way funding youth sports along with their philosophy of participation is certainly a model worth looking at. It could help ameliorate the problem we are seeing with the haves and the have nots in American youth sports.

Yes, Stanford is long and physical and they're defense made things very difficult for the Ags. That said, as you noted, we tended to rush our shots and we shot poorly from 3. We needed to shoot a much higher percentage from 3 to stay within striking distance. We also put up some wild shots in close that should have been easy scores.

Bertsch carried the team in the first quarter. I'm a little concerned that we got so little contribution from the bench. We don't have the shooters we had last year with Nafekh, Gianotti and Nagel and we miss their maturity and poise at the moment. Hall and Bessolo will have to step up and bring some of that poise that was missing against Standford and, consequently, the TO's and rushed shots.

Hall and Bessolo are both very athletic but both can tend to rush things and miss opportunities as a result. If Nina makes a mistake or misses an open shot badly she will, at times, follow that up with a bad, quick foul in the back court as her frustration gets the better of her. She needs to be one of the leaders of this team, control her emotions better and play with more poise in situations like that.

There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that still need to come together and a team like Stanford can expose a team's shortcomings quickly as they did with the Ags last night. There is talent on this team but it will take some time for the players to gel, understand their roles and create a good chemistry. Right now we look a bit raw and out of sync.

Now if Gross can only snag a couple of UConn and Stanford quality recruits!