Hey Aggies,
I am doing a countdown style preview on the BW message board and added the Aggies yesterday in case you're interested. As I've reviewed each team in greater depth, I feel I have far less of an idea now as to how things will play out as compared to before I started! IOTW, Jim Les & co may very well make me look like a fool.
One thing I did is put just a couple sentences on the home arena and local hangouts. Not sure if the Credit Union Cntr (doesn't feel right to not call it the Pavilion...) serves beer or not so input on that and favorite hangouts in town for pregame is appreciated.
Hey Freg. I read the rundown so far. Great job! As for the Ags, yeah anywhere from 3rd to 6th sounds about right. As you pointed out, we have, as always, a lack of interior depth. Maybe Bora and Murphy step up and provide some valuable minutes, but that's just a homer's hope.
As for the pavilion, or UC, it did serve beer the last time fans were in attendance, and I assume it will again this year (no reason to think otherwise). Local hangouts have been hit recently, no more Grad and Uncle Vito's is still closed, and deVeers Irish Pub just closed last week. Best just to walk around downtown and see what looks good. Burgers and Brew is popular, and close by is Pizza and Pints.
Nice job, Freg. I agree with you also. Middle of the pack for the Aggies seems about right but I'm sure that the team and the coaching staff feels otherwise. Les gets a lot out of the talent he has to work with each year but, as you say, our lack strong interior, impact players has caused us problems of late. He generally build his teams around outstanding guards and tenacious defenders. Aggie fans would love to see an elite big man like Chima in an Aggie uniform again but, for whatever reason, we don't get players like him very often.
One big change in our arena this year is the addition of a huge video board located at the upper level concourse on the north end of the building. I've only seen a photo and it's enormous. That will be nice to have especially for replays and, yes, beer is available at the games.
Lindy's college basketball preview magazine picks the Ags to finish 3rd in the Big West behind the Gauchos and the Anteaters. They base this pick at least partially on the quality of the Aggie guards, Manjon and Pepper.
We need one more (at least) consistent scoring option behind Manjon and Pepper. Last year Squire had the next highest pts average per game. Fuller averaged 10 ppg but he seemed to go from unstoppable to invisible. He'll need to be more consistent from game to game. The big unknown for me is Milling. Can he go from 4.8 ppg in 22 mins at Nevada to maybe a double digit scorer on 25+ mins at Davis? In other words, can he give us Squire's production (though clearly in a different way)? Should be a fun team to watch. Can wait to get back into the U?
I had the Gunrock Hazy IPA at the Team Aggie tent before the Idaho game. Hazy IPA is my favorite brew and it was good. I hope they have it at the BB games.
Two places that I just tried that are decent are Guads Taco and Beer, and 3rd and U. They are across the street from each other. Guads is run by Guadalajara which has two other Mexican food places in town. 3rd and U (on the corner of 3rd and university) has some decently priced burgers and beer. Bad parking.