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BlueGoldAg
1.3kThe basketball season is upon us as the San Francisco Dons make their way to the Pavilion on Tuesday evening at 7 pm for the season opener for both teams. Coach Jim Les has elevated the Aggie program to the top of the Big West Conference and have won 3 of the last 4 Big West titles. They have also won at least 20 games in 3 of the last 4 years as well. So the expectations are high again this year for a team that Les has said may be his most talented yet.
The Dons lead the overall series between these two teams 7-1 and won last year in SF 74-61 on their way to a 22-17 season. They have good size with 5 players on the roster listed from 6' 9 to 7'0 and are an experienced squad returning 5 seniors.
The Aggies showed a lot of depth in their 87-59 exhibition victory over Dominican University but, with AJ John, TJ Shorts, Joe Mooney and Matt Neufeld all out, we didn't really get much of a look at the team as a whole. What we did see was that the Ags have some nice, young talent giving them a deeper bench this year with a couple of the true freshmen, Damion Squire and Caleb Fuller, looking like they can step in and contribute from the start. The addition of Jr transfer Stefan Gonzalez gives the Aggies another experienced player as well as some deadly shooting.
The Ags have put together the toughest out of conference schedule they have ever had they need to come together and play well quickly if they are going to have a chance against some of the power schools coming up soon.
Tipoff is set for 7 pm and it would be nice to have a decent crowd but I think that midterms and the election returns will keep the crowd pretty small. Come on out and cheer on the Ags.
Live online stream: http://www.bigwest.org/tv/
Go Ags! -
Oldbanduhalum
601Ready for the season to start! Should be an interesting game tonight. USF beat us fairly easily last year at their place. That was before the team transitioned from Chima to TJ. John was also still figuring out his game. If I remember correctly, USF really controlled the pace and rhythm of the game. Plus I think they shot really well, which meant our defense was not where it needed to be. Of course, none of that really matters as our team is very different than the one they beat. They are picked to finish fourth in their conference, behind Gonzaga, St. Mary's and BYU, so this will be a good early test.
Hopefully TJ, John, Mooney and Neufeld are healthy enough to play.
Go Ags! -
BlueGoldAg
1.3kWe got off to a poor start at USF last year. They shot very well (54%) in the first half and we shot poorly (36%). As you said, SF set the tone of the game and controlled it until we made a run in the second half. The game was a ragged, foul laden affair with 43 fouls whistled and 15 TO's for each team.
I hope we are healthy tonight. USF is a veteran team with a lot of size and rebounding has consistently been a problem for us generally. I think our deep bench will be a benefit for us this year and we may see a lot of new players tonight especially if we have starters ailing.
Go Ags! -
SoCalAggie
61Zero rebounding. No chima and now AJ is brutal. We can afford to lose guards not bigs. Les is going to learn quickly he needs to play 3 guards and 2 bigs. -
BlueGoldAg
1.3kSF looks like a really good team. The Ags were soundly beaten in every aspect of the game so far.
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SoCalAggie
61This is the worst I’ve ever seen us play. Terrible defense. No movement on offense. Nothing in the paint on either end.
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aggies07
7Agreed.
Pathetic performance. #13 looks like he starts playing basketball and most of our players are second behind USF players. More alarming issue is lack of leadership on the court and coaching is nonexistent in this game. I don’t think USF has too much of size advantage but they play defense with discipline and good positioning. No idea what this team do in offseason to prepare for this season. I will not be shocked if this team (playing in this form) finishes last in Big West. -
Oldbanduhalum
601Very pathetic showing especially on defense. Nothing good to say about anything. Coaching, effort, discipline nothing was good. A lot of work to do. Hopefully John comes back soon, though it’ll take more than just one additional player.
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BlueGoldAg
1.3kJust got home from the game and I'm trying to find something positive but, truthfully, there isn't anything. This team and Coach Les got totally exposed tonight. It was the worst performance by an Aggie team in recent memory. There was no offensive flow, and some of that was due to very good defense by the Dons, but defensively we were awful and USF was lights out shooting.
USF is very talented and they played with poise and confidence. We quite simply do not have the talent to be competitive with a team like that and that's a scary thing considering the difficulty of the schedule ahead. If this game was indicative of who we are, then we will be in the basement of the Big West.
I have always thought that Les' teams are overachievers for the level of pure talent he is able to recruit. You would think that after 3 Big West titles in 4 years and a trip to the NCAA that Les would be able to recruit the kind of talent that you see on USF but it hasn't happened.
In the post-game interview, Les said he has been concerned with he quality of practice that Ags have been having and a game like this may be a wake up call or may indicate that something is missing. He'll get these players playing harder but, honestly, you aren't always going to be able to get a team to consistently overachieve when the pure talent isn't there.
I hope I'm dead wrong and the mess I saw out there tonight will somehow straighten itself out and come together as a cohesive, talented team but, from what I saw, I'm not optimistic. -
DrMike
750Bu the time I turned on the radio broadcast we were down something like 24-6 about midway through the first. I think Marsh used the word ‘discombobulated ‘. On the ‘plus’ side, Silar and TJ were a combined 3-18, both with several turnovers. I think they’ve shown that they are MUCH better than that. Gonsalez looks like a real player. Others seemed shell shocked. Healthy John will help. HOPEFULLY, one of those disasteric starts against a good team that snowballed. We stunk it up against USF last year, although battled back to make the score look decent. That was 10 games in. Roster is pretty similar to the one we finished the season with; I’m thinking they’ll bounce back -
madcityscott
7I’m no expert, but it seems to me that the main problem on defense was the inability to deny the entry pass. Once USF’s big guys got the ball in the post it was all over.
I thought Les made some reasonable adjustments at the half, but the Aggies’ shooting was so cold it didn’t show on the scoreboard.
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