This may have been mentioned before, but Underwood is no longer on the roster. Not sure what happened, but however thin we were in the interior just became thinner. I guess we'll see if a bunch of 6-6 and 6-7 guys can defend the paint and get rebounds.

Les prefers small guys.

I found this over on the Big West Basketball Boards Forum:

Blue Ribbon, the most in depth publication out there regarding Big West basketball, released it's PDF version this week. Here's how they see the conference shaping up:

1. Santa Barbara
2. Irvine
3. Northridge
4. Hawai'i
5. Fullerton
6. Long Beach
7. Riverside
8. Davis
9. Cal Poly

All Conference Team: Sow, Diane, Leonard, Heidegger, and Gomez. POY: Diane. NOY: Kamga
Top 3 Backcourts: Santa Barbara, Northridge, and Irvine
Top 3 Frontcourts: Northridge, Irvine, and Santa Barbara

Definitely a clear cut top 3 in the league with a battle for the rest of the slots. Even Cal Poly who is a consensus last place pick has some decent talent coming in. Jamal Smith (3.3 ppg. 2.4 rpg at Fullerton), Nolan Taylor (8.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg at Pepperdine), Keith Smith (7.1 ppg, 3.1 apg at VMI), and Malek Harwell (2.2 ppg, 0.7 rpg at Boise St) all are coming in with D1 experience. Smith and Harwell are grad transfers.

Not sure I can argue against an 8th place prediction. We have questions at every position, outside of Mooney at the two. There is a lot of new talent, so as an optimistic fan, I'm hoping Les and the staff can get these guys to play together. We will definitely need our defense to be stout if we are to stay in games.

36 days from tip off! Go Ags.

Street & Smith's has UC Davis as coming in 7th ahead of Cal Poly and the Titans. I don't expect many prognosticators to rate the Aggies very high, but nothing like low expectations to make things more exciting if an when those expectations are exceeded.

The last few seasons we’ve had an all conference player. Hawkins, Chima, TJ. All 3 were the best player on the court even when we played pac 12 teams.

Really hope we can continue the trends and find more of these guys. Without that, it will be a loooooong year.

Pre-season scrimmages for Big West Men's Basketball Teams:

BIG WEST

Cal Poly – 10/19 vs. Corban; 11/2 vs. San Francisco
Cal State Fullerton – 10/26 vs. Pepperdine
Cal State Northridge – 10/19 at San Diego
Hawaii – None
Long Beach State – 10/26 vs. UC San Diego; 11/1 vs. Cal Baptist
UC Davis – 10/19 vs. San Jose State; 10/27 at Pacific
UC Irvine – 10/26 vs. Northern Arizona
UC Riverside – 10/26 vs. Cal State Bakersfield
UC Santa Barbara – 10/19 at Santa Clara; 10/26 at Arizona State

https://watchstadium.com/news/not-so-secret-list/

Here is how the Aggies have done during the Jim Les era:

Three solid years under Les.

Last year was the one surprising/disappointing year. That should have been a 20 win team with some kind of post season appearance. Now, with so many questions with this years team, we could be starring at back to back 11ish win seasons. Hopefully we surprise people this year, but we have a lot of holes to fill so it's going to take several players to really step up.

Season starts 2 weeks from today. Go Ags!

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/10/9/mens-basketball-senior-snapshot-joe-mooney.aspx?path=mbball

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/10/18/mens-basketball-senior-snapshot-matt-neufeld.aspx?path=mbball

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/10/25/mens-basketball-senior-snapshot-stefan-gonzalez.aspx?path=mbball

The Aggies have been picked to finish 8th in the Big West Media Poll but someone gave us a first place vote also. Talk about an outlier vote...!

By the slightest of margins, UC Irvine edged UC Santa Barbara as the media favorite in the quest for the 2019-20 Big West men's basketball regular season title.

The 31-member media panel split their first place votes among UCI and UCSB. UCI prevailed with 258 points and 15 first place votes. UCSB collected 256 points and 15 first place nods of its own. CSUN was a popular third place pick and had 202 points. The middle of the pack included Hawai‘i in fourth place with 155 points, Cal State Fullerton in fifth with 152 and Long Beach State in sixth with 118. The remainder of the poll included UC Riverside (107), UC Davis (104) and Cal Poly (43). UC Davis grabbed the remaining first place vote.

MEDIA POLL RESULTS

1. UC Irvine (15) 258
2. UC Santa Barbara (15) 256
3. CSUN 202
4. Hawai‘i 155
5. Cal State Fullerton 152
6. Long Beach State 118
7. UC Riverside 107
8. UC Davis (1) 104
9. Cal Poly 43

https://bigwest.org/news/2019/10/24/uc-irvine-picked-to-repeat-in-tight-mens-basketball-media-vote.aspx

Not that exhibition games are too important, but it is interesting that our first opponent, Loyola of Chicago, lost at home last night to D2 U of Indianapolis by 5 (though it sounds like the were down double digits for most of the game). I also found it interesting that they only played 9 guys, with the 4 subs only playing between 11 and 16 minutes. Looks like they are dealing with a few early season injuries. They only shot 17% from the 3-pt line. Probably a lot of nerves for their new players and for returnees who are stepping into bigger roles.

Wish we had some feedback from our super secret scrimmages.

It would be nice to start off the season with a W and it's always hard to win in the road. I haven't been able to find anything about our two scrimmages either.

One interesting thing that I did find though is that UOP has 16 out-of-conference games scheduled this year and 10 of them are at home whereas we have 16 OOC games but only 4 at home and two of those are against NAIA teams. I don't get it. We never seem to have a really strong OOC home schedule and I don't understand why. You would think that teams would be just as happy, if not more so, to play in Davis rather than Stockton by comparison.

Any thoughts as to why we have such a lousy OOC home schedule and seem to have such a hard time getting teams to come to Davis each year? Travel to Davis would be easier than getting to Stockton and, IMO, Davis is a nicer and more interesting place for teams to visit as well.

Do you think that Les intentionally schedules road heavy? He has said that early road games are an opportunity for the players to "bond together" and the adversity of travel and playing away serves to "toughen up the team." But, 4 home games with two of which are not all that interesting...?? That kind of scheduling certainly won't get fans all that excited about the Aggie basketball...

Always a good question. It is frustrating when you see the lame home OOC schedule each year. I do understand that life on the road can build good team chemistry, but you would think that same level of chemistry could be built by having 8 away games rather than 12. My guess is that teams that are from multiple bid conferences worry a lot about RPI and we have traditionally had a very low RPI. With UOP, they'll have a decent RPI at the end of the year because, if nothing else, they'll have St. Mary's, BYU and Gonzaga on their schedule. I also wonder if there is some sort of monetary reasons. Do we get money for playing so many road games? Do we not want to pay high mid-majors to come to Davis?

And why don't we play some combination of UOP, St. Mary's, Nevada and Santa Clara every year? Seems like we should be able to get a home-home with UOP and Santa Clara. For the others we might have to do 2 at St. Marys (or Nevada) to get 1 in Davis. I know we play most of these teams occasionally, but it'd be nice to see them regularly on the schedule. The only D1 Nor Cal teams we play this year @USF and @Cal.

So no answers. I tend to think everything comes back to money but I have no figures to back that up.

I think you've make some solid points about our scheduling and it would certainly be nice to UOP and Santa Clara on a regular, home and basis.

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/10/29/mens-basketball-senior-spotlight-rogers-printup.aspx

This is a decent article regarding the complexities of non-conference scheduling for mid-majors. Click HERE

Basically it boils down to teams like the Ags, for one bid conferences, wanting to push their players as much as possible to get them prepared for the conference tournaments and their only chance to make the dance. That, and they do get paid for playing at the opponents home (anywhere from travel costs to whatever high dollar they can negotiate). I'm guessing both of these are the big pushes for Les. He wants to get the boys to get used to unfamiliar gyms by the time march rolls around, and he uses these games to fill in any budgetary shortfall.

Thanks for the link; it's an excellent and informative article about scheduling. One paragraph that stood out to me was the one that talked about "over scheduling" and ending up with a demoralized team. I think that happened with us last year.

Playing a tough schedule that includes many pre-conference road games in order to "toughen up" the team makes sense in a one bid conference like the Big West where winning the Big West Conference Tournament is the only way to get to the Big Dance. A lofty overall record won't get you a second bid in the Big West so it's the conference games that matter the most for sure.

However, the problem with playing lots of road games and only a 4 home games in the OOC schedule is that it does nothing to get the fan base excited and familiar with the team. Then we generally start the conference with a poor record and the many fans have already lost interest. I think there needs to be a better balance in the Aggie pre-conference schedule; a schedule that challenges the team on the road but also brings some excitement to the Pavilion during the OOC games.

Interesting BW write up by 3 Man Weave here

Although the author picks us for 7th place in the BW, he is bullish if Squire steps up and fills the point guard spot, and if Harris is able to translate his JUCO success to the Ags.

That's an outstanding analysis of each team in the Big West. I like it that he sees so much potential in Squire. I think that TJ was the perhaps the best PG ever to wear an Aggie uniform so replacing him is a tall order. We'll really need Squire to shine for us and so I'm happy that the author likes what he sees in him.

The author's reference to the 2014-15 team that lead the nation in 3 point shooting took me down memory lane. I don't think we have that kind of deep firepower this year but Mooney and Gonzalez have shown that they can catch fire. We just need more consistency from both of them.

I had a chance to talk quite a bit with Coach Les at the MBB season ticket pick-up event yesterday evening and you pretty much nailed the reasons we don't have that many OOC home games. I asked Jim if having only 4 pre-conference home games was by design. He was very open and candid and said that we have difficulty getting teams to come here to play.

He went on to explain that scheduling is all about RPI and finances. Teams are always looking to keep their RPI's high and, since, in the last few years, we had a good home winning record, teams started shying away from coming to Davis for fear of getting beat and lowering their RPI.

When I asked him about scheduling home and home series with UOP, Santa Clara, and St Mary's etc, he said we want those games but they just won't do it. He said part of the reason is that Gonzaga puts a lot of pressure on the WCC teams to schedule a lot of home games because they have a better chance of winning at home and that helps them keep their RPI's up. That that makes the Zags look better when they play those teams in the conference games. Again...money and RPI's...

Another obstacle that the Aggies have is that the Pavilion is not administered by the Athletics Department and it is booked first come first serve. So, if Les is negotiating with a team to come to come Davis, he can't hold a date on the Pavilion calendar waiting for the team to confirm. He has to have firm commitment from another team for a specific date and then hope that date is available before he can reserve the Pavilion. So, for example, if a possible opponent is has a couple of dates they are looking at, we can't hold those dates for the Pavilion until a deal can be worked out. It's simply first come, first served at the Pavilion.

Interestingly, this is also the last year in the contract for the Causeway game to be played at the Golden One Center. He said Kevin Blue is working on it but, at this point, there isn't a new contract yet. Jim would like to play Sac in a home and home if the Golden One Center game is no longer available but, when he suggested this to Sac State, they said they really don't want to do that.

On the upside, Les is happy to see the conference expanding next year when Bakersfield and San Diego come onboard, and that will automatically give us two more home games each year.

I really enjoyed talking with Jim. He's open and easy to talk with and is genuinely interested in talking with Aggie fans. He only spoke briefly and, in general, said that he thinks everyone will really enjoy this year's team. He said everybody is working hard and there is a really good team chemistry and he's also really pleased with his recruiting class.

I'm excited to see how this team comes together. I don't mind being picked near the bottom of the conference by the media. You know Les will have his team playing with 100% effort and I think we just may surprise some folks. Go Ags!

Great information. I hadn't thought about the Gonzagas of the world putting pressure on their conference mates to only schedule good RPI teams, but it makes sense. I do hope they figure out the Golden One situation Its always an enjoyable time and the players seem to really get hyped to play in the Kings place.

Glad to hear that he's excited about this years class (although he better say that whether he truly is or not). Hopefully there are guys like Koehler and Harris who will help right away, while others (Majon, Pepper, Murphy, etc) could be cornerstone pieces for the next 4 years.