I've been reading the (dour) posts on here but I have yet to watch a game. How do people here think the team will fare in conference play?

honestly, hard to say right now. Ags have had tough preconference schedule in which they overperformed vs. big time programs and underperformed against teams they should’ve beaten. Fullerton will no doubt be at top of Big West. Aggies are unpredictable at this point.

How the Ags will fare in conference play will really depend upon which Aggie team shows up. If it is the team that led Indiana by 14 before the Hossiers caught fire in the last 7 minutes or the team that took Arizona to the wire and lost by 2 or the team that went toe to toe with USC for the better part of the game, well that team can compete for the Big West title. Otherwise, if the team that has not played well in most every other loss shows up, well that team could be competing for the cellar.

Another factor for the Aggies will be whether or not AJ John is able to come back from his injuries, a problematic knee and an apparent concussion, and contribute. If he gets healthy and returns to good form, it will be huge for the Ags. We need his size on the boards and we need his perimeter shooting to help us stretch the floor and shoot better from downtown. We also need Stefan Gonzalez to be healthy and shoot a high percentage from the perimeter. We could be a very tough out in the conference if those two players get healthy and are playing well.

Given the injuries we've had and the how inconsistent we've been I'd say we are in the bottom half of the conference teams comparatively going into BW play. Judging from what I've seen in the preseason, I think that UCSB is the top dog to start with Irvine a close second and Long Beach and Fullerton close behind those two.

Santa Barbara is loaded with good D1 talent and Irvine is typically talented and very disciplined. Long Beach is athletic as usual and Fullerton has 3 of the best offensive players in the league but they lack discipline and can play moody. When Fullerton is firing on all cylinders they can light up the nets and be a very tough team.

I like what I've seen from the Ags lately against tough competition and I'm sure they're hungry as hell to start winning. We won't enter conference play as a front runner but I wouldn't count us out by a long shot.

I agree with everything that BGA said. I'm guessing we end up about the 4th or 5th seed. My gut is telling me that John may be lost for a while. No proof at all, other than it looks to me like Fuller is playing the 4 position when he enters the game, instead of the 3 that he started the season. The obvious reason that they are doing that is for depth in case John is out. Again, that's just a big guess on my part.

We seem to play up or down to the name of our opponent. I say the "name" because USF might be the best team we've faced all year and certainly didn't play up to their level even for a minute. But teams that have the big name (Indiana, UA, USC) we seem to get up for. Hopefully the familiarity and rivalry of the BW teams will push our guys.

It'll be a tough start to the season, at Irvine, at Beach, home to UCSB. We need to win one or two of those games to stay mentally into the season.

I'll be at the Holy Names game tomorrow. Hopefully we see a lot of healthy players and we look ready for the BW.

Go Ags!

Oldbanduhalum has it pretty well pegged. I wouldn't be surprised if the Aggies finish 4th or fifth in the Big West, nit so much because they are worse than last season but because the conference has improved. The Gauchos are 11-3 including a win over a good USF team. Irvine is 12-4 and I've seen Hawaii play a few times. They beat both Utah and Colorado, while returning a veteran team. CSU Fullerton is a disappointing 4-10 but don't forget who they have in Ahmad and Allman who are both averaging over 18 points a game. Their losses are to Arizona State, Nebraska, Wake Forest, St. Mary's and USF, so don't be fooled by their record.

Without Chima we aren't as good, and they will key on Shorts.

We went 6-2 in BWC without Chima last season with basically the same players ( Michael O was a bigger loss than I first thought), so this group was shown they can win

Looks like we got a jc transfer for next year. Not a big guy but 6’5” scorer. Malcolm Johnson played one year at Dominguez Hills and currently at city college of SF.

see an im feeling way worse than most people posting. After TJ and potentially Siler, we have a HUGE drop off in offense.

We have:
- very solid Defense
- decent/solid inside scoring
- the best floor general in the league with TJ
- discipline: we honestly run one of the most beautiful and intelligent offenses in CB. I think in part to the fact that we don’t have true scorers

We don’t have:
- a single player player outside of TJ and maybe siler who can score on their own
- consistent shooting especially from 3pt land.

My feeling is that scoring is tough for this team. If we fall behind, I don’t feel confident that we can make those much needed runs. TJ is an absolute machine. Every time he has the ball im yelling at the screen “put the team on your back!”

Little to no scoring support for him though. His assists would be way up if we had some knock down shooters which would in turn also open the lane for him to score more easily. Until we prove we can shoot it’s going to be very easy for teams to clog the middle and play support D.

I think we are bottom half for sure as the big west is loaded this year.

Jim Les, while intense, is an incredible coach. This team lacks talent but is pretty disciplined and incredibly smart. If we had the athletes that say SB, Fullerton, Or Irvine have, he’s the coach that could take the team to the next level.

My main focus when it comes to basketball is March madness. I view it as the opportunity to put Davis on the map and bring in the recruits that we all want to see. The team we should have had last year (TJ & Chima) was our best bet to make the MM upset alert. Anything can happen though and I’m sure this team will continue to grow. With how “old” this team is in terms of seniority, you’d wish we’d be in a better spot and the rebuilding would be happening the following year.

One more thing on TJ. We literally need him the entire game at 100%... makes me nervous. The dude is battling non stop!

Totally agree on the value of TJ. We go as far as he can take us. Even against Holy Names, the energy/intensity/efficiency was way up when he was on the court. I'm hoping that Gonzalez and Squire are more consistent 3 pt shooters, and Fuller progresses to be a solid rotation guy, and our big guys give us at least a little offense each night. The big issue might be John. It sure would be nice if he comes back strong. The big west could be tight around the middle...it may only be a few key plays that make the difference between finishing as high as 3rd to as low as 6th.

John was really good vs Indiana, and we were really good on offense. that's been his only contribution this year. He really got better last season, and if 'that guy' comes back for the Big West, it will open up the offense for others.

out of curiousity (slow day at work) i went back to see where we got our scoring last year. i just looked at the last 3 games on the regular season, all wins. leading scorers were:

Riverside (64-62) : Shorts 16, John 13, Onyebalu 11, Schneider 10, Mooney 8
Hawaii (70-59) : Shorts 21, Schneider 16, John 11, Mooney 14
Irvine (90-83 3OT) : Shorts 21, John 20, Goode 16, Schneider 16, Mooney 8

I forgot Mooney played such a big role down the stretch. We've shown, when healthy, that John and Mooney can contribute 20+ a game, to go with Shorts/Schneider's 30+. Gonzalez, Fuller, Squre, Nuefield seem able to get 20+ (the Onyebalu/Hennings points). The key is shooting. last year we finished .465/.372/.716 (FG, 3's, FT); this year, we're at .424/.296/.689. That's a BIG dropoff, especially in 3-pointers. we did lose Onyebalu's 45.1% and Hennings 42.7 from the arc; but the returners are down. Silar 32% -> 27%, John 38.5 -> 21%, Mooney 38% -> 30%, Printup 35%-> 20%. Shorts has been consistent at 35%. Fuller (44%) and Squire (45%) have been the bright points.

I think shooting is contagious; hopefully we catch a hot streak soon and start the BW off on the right note.

Great post, Mike. It really shows our shooting woes this year. I would think that some of that has to be that we have also played teams who are longer and more athletic this season so far but I've seen us miss way too many wide open looks also.SoCalAggie made a good point about us not having the kind of shooting that really allows up to make comebacks once we get a ways behind.

I sure hope that the new recruits will bring some offensive fire power to the team for next season since we will lose our best scorers to graduation.

Here's the ESPN analysis of our newest recruit, JC transfer Malcolm Johnson. This review is back from when he was in high school.

ESPN Analyst
Updated 07/06/2015

Strengths:
Johnson is a physical wing-type with long arms and he's a good athlete. He can score at all three levels, especially in the mid-range area. His triple threat game (solid 1st step) looked solid as well as his pull-up game. His 1st step is quite good and he has the strength to keep defenders from crowding him. He gets good lift on his shot in the elbow area and he has the strength to finish through contact. Due to his high motor he can rebound in traffic, start the break, and his decision making is fairly good.

Weaknesses:
Johnson needs to continue to improve his jump shot out to the 3-point line. By becoming a more consistent 3-point shooter. In addition, he has the bulk and strength to punish smaller defenders on the block.

Bottom Line:
Johnson is a definite sleeper for the Division I level due to his scoring skills and high motor.

And in case anyone is interested in a somewhat familiar name, this is from Paul Biancardi's twitter feed:

Scotty Pippen Jr told ESPN he will visit Vanderbilt this weekend. He is also looking at Washington State, UCSB, UC Davis & Colorado State. My hunch is that other programs will jump on board. Dedication to improvement & hard work has paid off. No clichés here.

How is a basically .500 career coach "incredible".

A friend in coaching made this observation. "Gary Stewart was 10-20 his last year at Davis, and Les followed that by going 5-26. Your job as a coach is to put your players into a system where they can succeed. If he didn't have talented wing players, run a different system. The team was capable of more than 4 DI wins."

'incredible' might be a stretch, but 3 Big West Titles (two regular season, one tournament) is, at the very least, elevates you a bit above the Stewart level. guiding last year's team to a 6-2 finish and a conference championshiyp after Moneke's departure was pretty remarkable in my opinion. toss out that first season, and he's 54% and 57% in BWC. Not incredible numbers, but pretty solid especially with the 3 championships thrown in.

I’m still on the Les bandwagon. We are not going to win everything every year. Also, we are barely getting better facilities.

The China thing sucked. That was not Les’ fault. Honestly, the team needs to step up.

Here is a pretty solid preview of the upcoming BW season. www.midmajormadness.com

And per the Davis Enterprise article today

Senior forward A.J. John (leg) has not been cleared to play, but Les says everyone else is healthy

Nothing much positive to find about the Big West as a whole this year.

And ooof....this about the Ags first game at Irvine:

UC Irvine over UC Davis — Thursday, 7 p.m.

The Anteaters will exact revenge on last season’s double-overtime loss that saw UC Davis win the regular-season title. Given the Aggies’ offensive woes, I’d be surprised if they score 50.

Where’s that from? Not that I disagree...

https://www.midmajormadness.com/2019/1/9/18172643/big-west-uc-irvine-leads-a-field-battered-by-non-conference-play-lamine-diane-ucsb-hawaii-uc-davis

Yeah it was a long shot once he started getting higher profile offers.

I really don't think it's a big loss for the Aggies. We're already guard heavy and I think we have landed some guards with just as much potential. He's in for a big culture change also going from Chatsworth, CA, to Nashville.