OK us: “DANGER: Methane emitting cows (flashing picture of cows mooing and Far___ting)” very close to this location” . “Thus, You cannot win here. . . “ that might play mind games for some, but not most BW teams who actually have smart student atheletes. Tacky bad. . . . . Go Ags!

pipe in the tercero dairy-air into the visitor's locker room?

No chit-chat on the one K-State board I could find other than a note of the next opponent: "California UC Davis." *sigh*

7 pm Friday! Should be a great game.

I saw that too. Little enthusiasm on their message board and only 1,300 at their game against Utah. Too bad we're not hosting.

Go Ags!

Not Cal Davis or UC-Davis?

It's 7 pm Central time but 5 pm Pacific time. Don't tune in at 7 pm our time or you'll miss the game!

It's really too bad that the power conferences have so much influence. It's like a small, local business trying to compete with a big corporation...just really hard to get your product noticed.

And I think wbb is different than mbb. In men's tournament, i get the control the power five conferences have, and it's all about the dollars. but in wbb, part (maybe a small part) of the job of the tournament committees should be to grow the game, and it just makes sense to me that giving a worthy mid-major a home game would help grow the game. I always admire UConn for coming out to Davis a few years ago. Part of their reasoning was to bring the top players to an area that doesn't normally see them in person and in so doing, perhaps get a few more local girls to play the sport, or a few more fans to make women's basketball part of their viewing habits.

What did we draw to that game?

Are we lobbying for the next potential WNIT game?

We drew 4,712 to the game against Ucon in 2014. A record for women's bball.

I would imagine we'll put in a request to host if we make it through K st., but we'd be playing either Indiana or Purdue, so it doesn't seem likely.

And on a side note, I know we've been D1 for a while now, but as a long time D2 fan, I still get a kick out of seeing UCD in the same sentence as Indiana, Purdue, K St. in any sport.

i think another thing that played into UConn graciously coming to Davis, was that they were playing AT Stanford 3 nights later. Might as well work out the jet lag on a middle major, before taking on one of your rivals!

That's an excellent point, Obda. WBB needs all the help it can get. It's growing in interest but there's very little parity since just a few of the big schools grab all the very top players. There's an enormous gap between the few elite teams and the rest of the D1 field and, if the sport is to grow, we definitely need more interest and participation by young girls so the sport can grow just like soccer has grown.

BTW, I lost a some respect for Geno Auriemma when his team beat St Francis 140-52 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. After they scored 55 points in the first quarter and led 55-19 and were up 94-31 at the half. The game was over and their starters should never have seen the court again but he let them play into the opening minutes of the 3rd quarter. That was bush league in my book.

Dr. Mike, yeah you're right, plus I think they had a player who was from the area and they wanted to get a game close to where she was from to get the local family a chance to see her play. Still, I thought it was a nice gesture.
And yeah, BGA, I saw that score and thought it was a little classless. Didn't realize their starters were still in after half.

I was watching Sports Center or a similar show, and the commentator was saying UCONN had a chip on their shoulder for losing in the semifinals last year. She said UCONN was apparently taking out their disappointment in their opening game.

I don't necessarily agree with this. I'm just reporting it.

UCONN may have a chip on their shoulders but when you have the talent that UCONN has and are up by 36 points after the first quarter, there's no justification for having your starters in the game at that point. What's the point of trying to score 100 points in a half and humiliating your opponent. It's doubtful that any team can hang with UCONN this year but it would tickle me pink if someone beat them. And, I know you're just reporting the info and don't necessarily agree with it.

Any watch party? The Grad?

Haven't seen anything yet. I'll post whatever I see.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/break-finals-then-back-basketball

Nice article about what student-athletes must deal with.

I don't know how they do it. I was always cramming and stressing during finals week and I wasn't playing ball. I remember that Bob Williams was proctoring finals the on the road in Kentucky the day before the men's team won the D2 National Championship. How many of the elite programs do you think require this kind of academic rigor and integrity of their players? Not many, if any, I'd bet.

I read recently (and I'm sure it was brought up on the football board) that they did spring workouts early so guys could use spring quarter for studying abroad. Again, what a nice benefit our student-athletes get by coming to Davis.

So on to kansas state. Defensive Strategy: the Ags will come out in their custom man; but whaat does kansas st. do? Do you recall the Wyoming woman saying “post up, post up” their big she’s too good? They never did. But will kansas try it? I’m no basketball genius, but i have read that the lob is the best attack against the post up. I am betting that KS tries to post up Morgan. Has it been tried before against the Morgan? I would have loved to see practice today at hickey. Bet it was LOCKED!! Feeling KS will be very over confident for this game. The Lady Ags will respond in FORCE!!

Kansas State has great size. Nine of the 12 players on their roster are over 6 feet tall including 6 players over 6'2: 6'2, 6'3, 3 at 6'4 and one player at 6'7. With that kind overwhelming size I would expect that they will collapse on Morgan every time she touches the ball. She'll see a lot of double teams so it will be important for the Aggie guards to hit their shots from the perimeter and make them pay for collapsing in the paint.

Another strategy is mix things up and let Morgan play at the high post on some sets. She can knock down outside shots. The Ags can also bring in Marly Anderson and play her at the low or high post along with Morgan. Marly can score in the paint and can knock down 3's and they would need to pay attention to her inside too.

It will be interesting to see if the Ags decide to push the pace. The Wildcats pride themselves on tough defense so we will probably try to run and score when we can before they get set in their defense. If they go big, then run, run, run when we can.

Rebounding will be tough so we have to box out be aggressive. We must go hard after the ball and use our quickness to offset their size.

Defensively, we must be locked in and aggressive trying to cause TO's. We'll need the athleticism of Bessolo and Hall to help us on the boards and defense.

We can beat Kansas State but we need to take care of the ball and bring our A game.

Maybe: Pray to the Gods of the THREE! If you are right Blue we will need the 3 big time. And You know what we can do that if Rachel, Kourtney, Nina, Cierra and Nagel get hot. Also, BW teams tried the collapsing zone on Morgan and it never worked. She fouled a lot of them out of the games.withn that strategy. Still, they will present a very stiff opposition, but never court our Ladies out! They have a true strong heart to get this done. I actually think they will pull this one out. Why: Morgen Bertch!!

Just FYI we did not request to host this game. There is a robotics competition in the pavilion. We did submit a request to host the next round if we get there

I wonder if we would have been given another home game if it weren't the the robotics conflict since our rpi is #73 and Kansas State is #89? If we get by this round we would play the winner of the Purdue @ Indiana game and they both have higher rpi's: #54 and #62 respectively so I think we'd be going to the Hoosier state. The rpi's were last updated on March 12th.

http://realtimerpi.com/college_Women_basketball_rpi2.html

The defensive strategy of many of the teams the Ags have played recently has been to collapse on Morgan and make the other players beat you. For the most part, Morgan has still been able to find ways to score. When we have struggled against this strategy is when our other starters have gone cold from the outside and also when we have turned the ball over frequently.

My 3 keys to the game:

1. Take care of the ball and limit the number of TO's.
2. Be the aggressor on defense and limit the number of second chance points.
3. Shoot a good percentage from the outside which will help free up Morgan inside.

More than anything though, come out aggressive and set the tone and tempo for the game. Play with energy from the get go and keep it up for 40 minutes. It's all or nothing; win and move on or lose and go home.

Go Ags!

OK- yes, as they say: live by the zone, die by the zone! Sure hope KS dies a quiet death. Nothing like a few threes to stick in the heart and kill the vampire zone.

The WNIT website already has the next round "at Indiana."

Let's just make sure we get there!

From what I overheard, we probably would have been awarded this game if it weren't for the robotics competition. Unfortunate timing. And I agree, I doubt we get the next round unless Purdue/Indiana has an arena conflict of their own.

I think you're right about the keys. At the games that I watched down in Anaheim I saw a team that looked very tight. They missed open shots, no one could consistently hit anything from distance, and just some terrible decisions with the ball. Basically playing not to lose. The two NIT games have been completely different. Free flowing, aggressive, and a certain amount of joy. Hopefully, this team shows up!