This has been a remarkable journey. The thing that amazes me about this team is just how hard they compete and win games with defense. Les has acknowledged that this team does not possess the best overall raw talent in the Big West but, one thing for sure, no team competes harder and plays with such heart.

Our offense struggled mightily in all 3 of the BW tournament games but this team just flat out refused to lose. That's a competitive culture that the coaches have built into the program over the tenure of Coach Les. This is the kind of culture that future Aggies will come into and be expected to live up to and is the foundation for further success in the future. It's Aggie Pride.

This kind of culture will also help us immensely in recruiting. Smart kids who have talent but would ride the bench on a power conference team can look at Davis see an opportunity to play under excellent coaching in a supportive basketball culture that competes hard no matter what.

Coach Nosek was very emotional in his post-game comments on the radio. He said that he was just so proud to see this happen because the kids have worked and played so hard all year. He said that they scheduled the tournaments in Santa Clara and Alaska, where you play multiple games in successive days, because they wanted this team to experience what it takes to do that. He also said that getting to the NCAA Tourney was a goal they have been working toward since Coach Les took the helm and now it was so gratifying to see all the work by the players and coaches over the years come to fruition.

We will certainly be a Cinderella team in the Big Dance but this is the way a growing, successful D1 basketball program begins.

What effect this will have on recruiting is obviously unknown, but it may be significantly positive. Irvine sure used its long run to effectively out recruit everyone else in the Big West for years. I also think that Les might want to fly to Australia for a recruiting jaunt with Chima. Can't let st mary's have a monopoly on that talent down under. Does anyone know the story on how we landed Chima?

Chima was playing for Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska. I think Les saw him at a CC combine in the midwest. Les said he thought Chima had so much untapped, raw ability that no one else had really noticed and so he began recruiting him. He was one of those talented kids who somehow fly under the radar and Les noticed him. I think Coach Les has a great ability to find players who may not have the most spectacular stats but he sees how they would fit into and contribute to the current group of players he already has. He favors players who have a high work ethic first and foremost.