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!

Aggies 85 SUU 59 Final

I was finally able to watch a little of the 3rd quarter. The Ags are playing steady but don't looked real focused.

SDSU 63 Sac 22 with 13 minutes to go. Kind of takes the shine off the Aggies win where Sac was within 2 with 8 minutes to go in the game.

I agree that their SOS is not great and that it would be better if this team had a few more teams like OSU to face. We're looking like an excellent mid-major team but the level of talent among the the better schools in the power conferences is a big step up. I'm not sure how we'd compete at that level but I'd like to see more of those kind of games just to get us really battle tested.

Nice comments by both of you.

-I'd really like to Joe Mooney settle into being a solid player off the bench. He has a really nice looking shot and we need as much quality depth from the bench as we can get. I hope Les will give him some extended minutes, even if he's struggling a bit, so he can have a chance to work out the kinks and settle in. I think the potential is there but Les can have a quick hook when a player, especially a non-starter, makes a couple of mistakes.

-I was very impressed with AJ John last night as well. I love his hustle plays and he has a nice looking perimeter shot. The Ags will struggle to be successful if Chima is our only big player that can contribute consistently in the paint. So it's great to see how John is developing.

-It really fun watching Delvion Jackson coming along with more playing time. He very young and raw right now but, every game, he's adapting into the fast pace and physicality of the D1 game. I'm looking forward to seeing his 3 balls starting to drop as he gets more comfortable.

-Les is an intense, competitive coach and, judging by the number of his foot stomps, he has very little tolerance for turning the ball over and lapses on defense. That intensity can be mentally tough on new, inexperienced players and, actually, get in the way of their performance.

-It would be nice if Russell is able to contribute some quality minutes and, I agree, that Strom will more than likely redshirt.

We've got a couple of big challenges ahead at Washington and Washington State. We'll need to take care of the ball a lot better than we did last night against Sac....18 TO's...way too many.

Go Ags!

I've wasn't aware of the RealTimeRPI.com site. They've got a bunch of different rankings for a variety of college and pro sports with team and conference power, rpi and sos rankings.

If you click on a team they also have a final record prediction with projected scores for each game in the season...haha...the things you can do nowadays with predictive algorithms! So they are predicting that the Aggies will finish the year 25-3 with their only loses to Oregon State, St Mary's and Long Beach State. I don't think the Ags will settle for that though; I think they want to be 28-0 heading into the NCAA Tournament! :-O

Just got home from the game. Pretty nice crowd and the Kings staff do a great job making every spare moment fun with music and their fan cam. Good turnout of Aggie fans. We had 2 or 3 times the number of fans there compared to the Hornets fans.

This was a blue collar game from start to finish. Very physical and, as a result, very ragged for some long stretches. Both teams started off the game shaky and there wasn't much offensive flow going for either team but then the Aggie defense took over and held the Hornets to only 20 points in the half.

We led 36-20 at the half and then scored only 6 points in the first 12 minutes of the second half and broke down defending the 3 point shot. Sac hit a few 3's while we went cold and turned the ball over and Sac whittled the lead down to 2 points with 8 minutes to go. We were totally out of sync and then Goode fouled out early.

Then TJ Shorts took it upon himself to make something happen on the offensive end of things. He made a couple of quick buckets on beautiful, twisting drives to the basket, got a steal, hit his FT's and got the Aggie engine fired up again. He's going to be fun to watch this year.

Sac played Chima very physical with double and triple teams down low and he was getting banged around hard but there's no quit it him. I think that just makes him more determined. He had a bunch of shots just roll off the rim tonight but he was a monster on the boards.

AJ John is looking better with each game. He's starting to hit his 3's and he's getting rebounds and playing tough defense. I also thought Siler played well tonight. He's a beautiful shooter and nobody works any harder than Siler when he's on the floor. I'd like to see him put up a few more 3's when he's got an opening.

Delvion Jackson is only going to get better and better as he gets more playing time. He's struggling a bit offensively but he works hard on defense and made a couple of great assists. He's a strong kid with a muscular frame. I expect were going to see some big things from him in the future. I also thought that Arell Hennings gave us some good minutes tonight. He's a smooth and confident ball handler.

Garrison Goode fouled out midway through the second half. As usual, he played good defense and really battles on the boards. I think he is capable of contributing more on offense. I'd like to see him take the ball to the rim with more authority. He can really sky.

There are still a lot of pieces that need to find the right fit on this team but you can see the progress and the potential.

Always great to beat Sac. Good job Ags!

Ragged start early by both teams but the Aggie defense has been relentless. Most of the fans here are Aggie. Seems like 3/4 Aggie fans.

Jen Gross has said that Sage Stobbart, the 6'3 post player from Vancouver, will redshirt this year. She says that Stobbart is very talented, tough and mobile for her size. I believe she was rated in the top 20 prep post players in the country by ESPN recruiting.

We'll lose some great players to graduation next year: Nagel, Nafekh, Anderson and Gianotti. It will be fun to see a "twin tower" lineup with Bertsch and Stobbart on the floor at the same time though.

I think that goes to show you the horrible bias in the voting by some of the Big Sky coaches who want to influence the selections so that their team looks good to their potential recruits. It's like politics where politicians vote to preserve their reelection chances regardless of what is fair and just for the majority of the people.

Sac is doing a good job of getting recruiting very athletic players. That's not unusual for them. The difference, I think, is that this year Jody Sears had a more disciplined group and they didn't shoot themselves in the foot with penalties and bonehead plays as usual. I think it's good if both schools have competitive programs. I hate losing to the Hornets as much as any Aggie fan but I'd rather play a good Hornet team than a bad one and I'd rather have us, Poly and the Hornets at the top of the Big Sky rather than the teams further north.

Both programs have their challenges for building excellent D1 football programs. Sac is a commuter school with little support from fans in greater Sacramento area and even less support from their students. This was perhaps their best D1 team ever and their fan support was disappointing.

The Hornets have not had a successful football legacy like the Aggies have had either albeit the Aggies' legacy is from the D2 era. They do, however, have a big advantage in being able to recruit from a much larger pool of players because of the high academic standards required of potential Aggie recruits.

The Aggies have some similar problems to Sac in that, although we have a fairly dedicated group of long time Aggie fans, those numbers seems to have dwindled recently due to our struggles at the D1 level. We also suffer from acute student apathy like the Hornets even though we are not a commuter school. The Davis area is small compared to the greater Sacramento area and, even though it continues to grow, our fan base from the community has not grown.

I think Blue and Hawkins have us on the right track but our challenges in growing the program are difficult. I'm hopeful we'll be a contender with good fan support in another couple of years. If that doesn't happen then I think that the ultimate future of Aggie football could be in jeopardy.

I've been watching the men's and women's basketball teams since the mid-70's and this is definitely the best overall talent we had at any one time in either the D1 or D2 eras. As Oldbanduhalum says it's the quality of the depth that we have that is special.

Very good basketball teams all have stretches during a game where the shots don't fall or they turn the ball over several times in a row or they get out hustled on the boards or the opponent gets a hot hand and can't miss. When that happens to this team, Jen Gross can go to her bench and bring in fresh players that can change the momentum because the talent level on the bench is so good.

Gross has built a program where she is reloading with high quality players and getting better with each year. Her teams are leading the way in our major sports for success at the D1 level.

My wife and I will be there. I like having the game at the Golden One Center each year since it means we don't have to play in the Hornets Nest every other year. The crackerbox Hornets Nest is a horrible place to play for any visiting team and their fans.

Playing in the vast space of the Golden One Center will present it's own difficulties for both teams. I imagine that the crowd will be very small and the arena is so big that players will undoubtedly have their troubles dialing in their shots with such a large empty space in the background. The attendance last year was pretty good because of the SDSU vs Cal game which followed the Ags and Sac State. I was hoping we'd have a double header this year too. Scheduling a double header involving both the men's and women's teams would be a good idea also. It would be a great experience for the women's teams and would draw a slightly bigger audience.

Sac comes into the game at 1-2 with a win over Notre Dame de Namur 74-53 and loses on the road to Colorado State 72-81 and San Francisco 69-56. They are led in scoring by their talented 6'7 SR F Justin Strings 16.3 ppg followed by 5'9 Jr G Jordan Tolbert, a transfer from Western Texas JC, at 14.0 ppg and 6'8 So F Joshua Patton at 10 ppg. Their star player Sr G Macus Graves is out for the year due to back surgery.

The young Aggie squad is still working out the kinks with so many new players on the roster. I thought their offensive rhythm and ball movement was better in their loss at Utah Valley. They are still searching for offensive consistency though. Both teams are very defensive minded so, add in the intensity of the rivalry, and I expect that we will have a very physical game that, hopefully, won't end up an ugly, foul laden battle.

There doesn't appear to be any TV coverage so, if you can't make it to the game, you'll have to settle for listening to the radio broadcast on KSAC 105.5 FM at 7 pm.

Go Ags!

Marly Anderson is a solid backup to Bertsch coming of the bench too. This is such a veteran team with 4 seniors, Gianotti, Nagel, Nafekh, and Anderson, and then Bertsch, Bessolo, Song, and the Eaton twins all bring even more experience. Add in Cierra Hall, a true freshman, who is ready to play at this level, and you've got a very deep team.

The talent and the coaching is there. Now, it's up to the players to work hard so they continue improving and make their dreams happen.