From the Bee:

Fed up with the Sacramento Kings? Go check out Sacramento State and UC Davis teams

BY JOE DAVIDSON
NOVEMBER 24, 2021 5:00 AM

Fed up with the Kings? We hear you and concur.

If you cannot stomach watching the NBA team compete at home, players earning millions in salary with a nickel-on-the-dollar effort, we’re here to help you with an alternative basketball fix. Check out the locals. Go watch a Sacramento State game or a UC Davis contest. Or both in the same week. Tickets are cheap and the effort is priceless.

Take a peek at Division I college ball and applaud players who value the principles of fundamentals. The four local teams were in action for a women/men doubleheader Tuesday night at Golden 1 Center as the Kings, mercifully, had the night off. This was genuine hoops, done the right way. Players set screens. They boxed out. They crashed to the floor for a loose ball. No bad body English here. No pouting, no refusing to go into the game.

The women set more screens in the first half than the Kings usually do in a week. Purists appreciate this. The Sac State and UCD men also represent the best in local college hoops at the Division I level. The high school ball here is terrific, and so is the junior college product. But D-I is D-I, and it’s right here in Sacramento or across the causeway in Yolo County. So many options other than the Kings.

“We’ll be hard-nosed and fundamental and play the right way, and if you want to see local basketball, check us out,” Sac State men’s coach Brandon Laird said. “Our motto and theme is we’ll be energetic, fearless, and you’ll see our guys sharing the ball, cheering for each other, playing for each other, and that sometimes gets lost at the highest levels of the game.” Thank you for subscribing.

The Kings? Thoughts and prayers to the long-suffering loyalists. You deserve better. You deserve quality basketball.

SACRAMENTO STATE’S 30-YEAR THEME

Sac State is in its 30th year of D-I ball. The men have produced a lot of solid seasons and scores of players who have played professionally overseas or at the NBA G-League. They have graduated 98 percent of their players the last 14 years. The Hornets seek their first NCAA Tournament berth. It’ll happen some day. It could happen this season if they win the Big Sky Conference Tournament. Give them a follow.

On the 30-year theme, here’s another. Thirty years ago Tuesday, in Florida, the Kings halted a still-standing NBA record 43-game road losing streak. There’s a hook to this story. On Nov. 23, 1991, the Kings beat Orlando 95-93 to savor victory at last. Coach Dick Motta was so delighted, he lifted the alcohol ban on the team plane, aptly named “AirBallOne” and he instructed the bus to stop at a 7-Eleven on the way to the airport so he could buy cases of beer and pass them out like Christmas presents. So the Kings’ misery isn’t a new thing. It’s the hangover that keeps giving. The local product can serve as a pick-me-up.

Jim Les was on that 1991 Kings team. He cracked open one of those beers. He’s now the 11th-year UCD men’s coach. Les was easy to root for as a Kings player, an everyman who looks like the rest of us but shoots better than any of us. He has led UCD to an NCAA Tournament and will do it again. Could happen this season. Give the Aggies a follow.

Les is also a fan of the women’s game. He admires UCD women’s coach Jennifer Gross because she’s an exceptional coach and teacher of the game. She has guided the Aggies to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances, and there will be more. She wins with the very definition of scholar-athletes, including local products Makaila Sanders and Bria Shine. Cierra Hall is the team’s best player, a skilled 6-footer who is majoring in cell biology. Easy to root for.

UCD [women] beat Sac State 75-46 Tuesday as Sage Sobbart scored 14 points and Kayla Konrad and Hall had 12 each. Lianna Tillman had 18 for Sac State and Summer Menke 16. UCD will play a women’s and men doubleheader on Dec. 4 and visit Stanford on Dec. 15.

“I think women’s college basketball is a lot of fun,” said Gross, the Aggies’ 11th year coach, big on competing the right way. “Working hard, playing together, shooting 3’s, playing defense, people want to see that in basketball. We want to hang our hat on fundamentals while having fun.”

Gross high-fived Les before the men’s game that followed her contest. The same sort of support plays out at Sac State with the first-year coaches. Laird and Hornets women’s coach Mark Campbell attend each other’s practices and games. They share ideas. Both easy to root for.

Sac State won the men’s game 75-63 to move to 3-2. Bryce Fowler had 18 points for Sac State and local products Will FitzPatrick had nine and Zach Chappell 13.

FRUSTRATING KINGS

Before the action at Golden 1, Sac State athletic director Mark Orr chatted with Alvin Gentry, the Kings interim coach who is trying to salvage the season. Gentry urges his Kings to screen and box out. Sometimes they do. At Golden 1, the NBA veteran coach saw college kids doing it without being ordered to do so. Kudos to Gentry for attending the doubleheader. Watching Kings film might make the man nauseous.

“I’m a Kings fan, frustrated like everyone else,” Orr said. “We may not have any kids in these games tonight that are as talented as De’Aaron Fox, but all four of these teams will play hard. They’ll play their hearts out. That’s why I love watching college ball so much.”

Done with the Kings? Support local. See what coach Laird is all about. Sac State’s leader is local to the core, and local guys are easy to rally behind. Laird played basketball at El Camino High School and at UCD. He received the locker room water bottle splashdown after his first victory, like it was a New Year’s Eve bash at midnight. This isn’t New Year’s, but it is a new era. “That was a really, really fun moment,” Laird said. “To get the game ball is something I’ll always remember. We coach to see kids have good experiences.”

Kings have you feeling glum? Check a local game and players do not get paid but are paying their dues. The local schools graduate their players. They’re good citizens. Some will get into coaching.

“We talk about the basketball gods, and the basketball gods will smile on you when you make the extra pass, or step over and take a charge,” Laird said of the local appeal. “It’s always been a team game at this level, but the NBA has made it about superstars. At this level, you still need everyone working together. Still need that hard screen. Still need that hard cut. Still need that bounce pass in the lane. Still need to rebound, to contest shots, and doing it with fun.”

He added, “I tell our guys that we have the NBA, the G-League and then Division I basketball, and we’re right there at the apex of the highest level of college basketball. Embrace it. Enjoy it. I know for the local teams, we want to showcase who we are.”

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article256063692.html#storylink=cpy
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