WBB kick off their 2023-24 season tomorrow at 11 am when the Academy of Art comes to town. The Aggies and the Urban Knights have only met once before in November 2021 with the Ags winning that game 69-51.
The Aggies won an exhibition game against Cal Poly Humboldt 101-50 on 10/29. There game will have free admission to all fans and there will be live TV coverage on ESPN+.
New this year is a digital program for each game that has lots of information about the Aggies and their opponents:
52-25 Aggies at the half. Aggressive defense by the Ags has forced 16 TO's leading to 22 points. Sabel with 14, Turner 13 and Svanholm with 10 lead the way for the Aggies.
This team is going to push the ball and play fast this year and they have pretty good depth. They tend to get sloppy with their passes at times, 15 TO's today, and that will hurt them against good teams.
The Aggies next game is against Portland State on Thursday at 5 pm in the second game of a home double header with the men playing Pepperdine in the first game at 2:30 pm.
The other day Jen said she was looking to have the team move from "take a good shot" to "work to take the GREAT shot." Certainly that was clearly demonstrated during the course of Monday's game. I also saw, in the play of our bigs, some very smooth ball handling. In times past we'd have seen a timing dribble on a pass into the lane or on a rebound. I can't recall seeing one on Monday and multiple times Svanholm, Sabel and Norris received a pass and made smooth, elegant routes to the hoop protecting the ball and taking away reaction time from the defenders. Clearly this is something they have worked on and been coached on during the off season. I hope it carries forward throughout the season.
And it seems like not enough is being said about Svanholm this year. She’s the only D1 bball player currently enrolled in a PhD program. And she’s coming back from major knee surgery. That’s a story that should be shouted!