MBB: William Jessop (4-0) at UCD (0-1) 7 pm Thursday 11/7

BlueGoldAg

To quote Bob Dunning in his recap of the Aggie's loss at Loyola-Chicago on Tuesday night, "the Aggie season started with a thud." This is the second year in a row that we have lost our opener by 34 points. San Francisco romped over the Ags last year in the Pavilion 76-42. It was almost deja vu again except the Loyola loss was in Chicago.

The Ags shouldn't take NAIA William Jessop lightly. The Warriors hung tough with the Ags last year before the Aggies pulled away late in the game. WJ is led by their talented senior guard, Isaiah Milan, who is averaging 22 ppg through their first 4 games. They showed that they are a scrappy, well coached team last year and I expect they'll come out fired up for pulling an upset over the Aggies.

The Ags were solidly beaten in every phase of the game in Chicago. Our offensive struggles carried over from last year but, surprisingly, our defense, which is normally our strength, was no where to be found. The Ags were pummeled in the paint 58-28 while allowing the Ramblers to shoot 56% overall for the game while only managing to shoot 33% overall themselves including a dismal 9% on 1-11 shooting from 3. The Ramblers high shooting percentage was largely due to the avalanche of back cut layups. The Ags had no defensive answer for their back cuts to the bucket time and time again.

The season is just starting and the Coach Les has a lot of pieces to put together with so many new players. Let's hope a few pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place tomorrow night.

Tipoff is at 7 pm and the game will streamed live on Big West TV.

Go Ags!

DrMike

There is a post on Facebook for 4 free tickets for Thursday game. AGGIEHOOPS in the promo code. apparently the Warrior-Aggie matchup isn't as attractive as the Raider-Charger game.

We struggled with these guys last year last year on a wet,cold Sunday afternoon. Down 37-31 at the half before we woke up.

Oldbanduhalum

↪DrMike

Thanks for the heads up on the free tickets. I'm curious to see how this young team rebounds from a pretty disheartening loss. I know the level of competition is different, but we should see the effort, hustle, and confidence regardless of the name of the other teams jersey. Manjon looked like he belonged on the court. I also liked how Peppers was not afraid to take his shot, even though the results weren't what we needed. And maybe most importantly, does Fuller continue to grow accustomed to his role down low next to Neufeld. Go Ags!

DrMike

I was heading home from the mountains on Tuesday, swapping the radio between KNBR and KTHK, and switched to hear the start of the game. First 10-15 minutes sounded okay, but it was alarming to hear 'backdoor cut' over and over and over (usually followed by cheering!). they hit a 3 to make it 23-16 when i got home; when i checked my phone it was half and it was 39-22! hopefully just a young (experience-wise) team getting a little overwhelmed and out of sorts on the road.

Oldbanduhalum

↪DrMike

it was alarming to hear 'backdoor cut' over and over and over (usually followed by cheering!)

You should see some of the texts from my son who was watching on-line. They went from "back door cut" to "BACK DOOR CUT" to "ANOTHER GOD DAMN BACK DOOR CUT".

BlueGoldAg

↪Oldbanduhalum

It was not pleasant to watch Loyola score again and agin off the cuts. I know the coaches must have addressed the issue at the half but it only got worse in the second half. It seemed to me that the Age were often overplaying the ball and then got caught on their heels when the Ramblers cut hard to the basket and the rotation wasn't there to pick up the cutter. The result was one layup after another.

I'm hoping it was a lot of fundamental, defensive errors on our part but I'm worried that we may just not be all that athletic defending in the paint. I think we underestimate how much we relied on Garrison Goode to defend near the basket. He was never a big offensive threat but he was an outstanding defender and very athletic for his size.

Oldbanduhalum

↪BlueGoldAg

I agree that we have no one to replace GG. I was hoping that Harris and Murphy could do it in at least spurts but both seem to be red shirting this year. We’ll need the week side defender to collapse but that’s the team work that needs to get better throughout the ooc.

Oldbanduhalum

Ags up 27-15 at the 10 min break. Starters wer Manjon peppers printup Koehler and squire. They worked much better on defense. Mooney and neufeld were the first off the bench

Oldbanduhalum

51-32 at half. I swear Manjon is a clone of shorts. It’s going to be a real pleasure to watch him play for 4 years

BlueGoldAg

↪Oldbanduhalum

No doubt about it. He’s lightening quick and a great ball handler. Lots of speed and cuts on a dime. The best part is he’s a true freshman!

Mooney with 19 and Manjon with 14 for the Ags.

Oldbanduhalum

Jessup has decided to not worry about defense. Ags up 90-51 with 7:24 left. A lot of free layups and wide open 3’s

Oldbanduhalum

109-63 final. Everyone scored for the Ags. Good solid beat down. As BGA has said there is talent. It’ll take some time, and I’m still concerned about the interior, but we should be fun to watch.

BlueGoldAg

↪Oldbanduhalum

William Jessop is not Loyola of Chicago that's for sure but, nevertheless, this was a very nice game by the Aggies. The defensive intensity was there from the start and Manjon set the tempo with his early steals and layups. Good energy by everyone throughout the game and it was nice to see Gonzalez and Mooney hitting some 3's again.

It was great to see everyone play and get quality minutes not just a bit of mop up time. Koehler and Pepper got a lot of minutes and started both halves. There's potential down the bench too: BJ Shaw and Cameron Ba both have nice basketball moves and good looking shots as does our Swedish player, Oliver Gehrke. Adebayo is raw but he's athletic and quick.

BlueGoldAg

There's some disappointing news for CSUN fans. Their star player and the Big West Player of the Year last year, Lamine Diane, is academically ineligible. That's a huge loss for the Matadors. Diane is high major level player and, even though they are loaded with talent, this is a major setback for them.

Oldbanduhalum

↪BlueGoldAg

yeah I saw that about Diane. He’s a stud. Will he back next quarter? Just in time for conference games?

BlueGoldAg

↪Oldbanduhalum

I don't know but I would guess that if he gets his grades up this semester, he may be back for conference play.

BlueGoldAg

Comments from Coach Les:

"I though the energy the guys played with on the defensive end was the difference between Tuesday's and Thursday's game," said head coach Jim Les.

"All five guys were engaged … our defense created offense for us. We ended up scoring 48 points in our season opener because we were focused on scoring. When we focused our efforts on defense, like the guys did tonight, we enjoyed a different result. We forced them to take tough shots, and responded by running the open floor."

Les added, "This is a talented group. The only way to create looks on the open floor is to force the other team to make mistakes and limit them to only one shot, as was the case throughout tonight's game."

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2019/11/7/mens-basketball-uc-davis-cruises-to-a-109-63-victory-in-2019-20-home-opener.aspx

Comments from William Jessop HC:

Coach Lance Von Vogt said the exhibition game was good for his team to play some better competition so early in the year. "Tonight we ran into a hungry team that played very well. Coach Les is one of the best and tonight his team responded with a complete effort."

The Warriors are currently missing multiple players for various reasons but most of them are expected to return over the next month which Von Vogt says will help his team tremendously. "Our depth isn't where it needs to be right now especially on the interior and we had a few guys playing out of position which Davis took advantage of. We're looking forward to our roster growing as guys get healthy and we hit semester break. "

https://jessupathletics.com/news/2019/11/7/mens-basketball-warriors-give-uc-davis-tough-first-half.aspx?path=mbball

Firefan17

As has been noted, the talent level of the opponent tonight didn't exact have you shaking in your shoes, but still, after the other night in Chicago it was important for the team to get that bad taste out of their mouth with such a resounding win. They came out an preformed like you'd hope and expect them to and the result was obviously never in doubt. I think it was actually somewhat important to see such a emphatic win,if they had messed around and somehow just squeaked out a W, it would have almost felt like a loss. Great to see the team shoot so well, if Stef and Joe can find their strokes consistently that will go a long way in allowing this team to succeed.

DrMike

↪Firefan17

as i mentioned above, we were down 37-31 at the half to these guys last year (and i think it was a double digit deficit late in the half) before we got serious on defense and pulled away. scoring 100+ points, and laying a lopsided win is (hopefully) what these guys needed. we have 4 fifth-year seniors, but its there's not a ton of experience (Mooney the exception). its going to take time, and, if the OOC schedule doesn't beat them down, they might surprise some folks in the Big West. Should be fun to watch.

BlueGoldAg

↪DrMike

There's a lot of young, raw talent on this team but those players will take time to adapt to the speed and physicality of the D1 game. We saw that in the Loyola-Chicago game where we just got beat by a team who played much more aggressive and physical. I think it was an eye opener for some of our younger players although it was disappointing that our seniors struggled as much also. We came out hungry last night and it showed.

Our next three games in Jonesboro, Arkansas, against Idaho, Arkansas State and VMI will be interesting. Will we continue with our defensive intensity against better competition or will we get pushed around again? I think we are capable of beating any of these teams but, if we don't bring the intensity, we could come home with our tails between our legs. Arkansas State will be particularly tough in their house. They are a very strong, physical basketball team.

Firefan17

I totally agree with you that the three tournament games in Arkansas could prove to be fairly telling as to what the true identity of this team will be. I'm far from an expert on any of our three opponents, but I'd be willing to bet the talent levels will be roughly equal in all three games and I wouldn't expect us to be a significant underdog with the possible exception of the Arkansas State game. Three games in such a short time frame offers a chance to get on a nice roll and garner some big time momentum or could leave the team going from 1-1 to 1-4 in three days and not knowing what hit them.

MBB: William Jessop (4-0) at UCD (0-1) 7 pm Thursday 11/7

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