Heads up, SFO to Cincinnati (a 1 hour drive away from Dayton) leaves tomorrow morning at 9:48. With a return on Thursday morning, the non-stop roundtrip runs $271 plus fees on Frontier.
And tickets are available for $40 after fees on StubHub.
the only downside i see to this draw is that 'The Carbonaro Effect' is being preempted for the games.
seriously. i like the draw. best case scenario is we get a NCAA tournament win, and then exposure vs. Kansas. two games on TV. losing the play-in, and not getting a shot at Kansas? not the worst thing in the world. still get a televised game with no competition and the hoopla of making the tournament.
They dropped all of the "U"niversities, so Univ. of North Carolina is under N, as are the other NC schools like UNCCentral, and UNC Wilmington. The Univ. of Kentucky is under K. Even "the U," Miami, is in the M's. USC comes in as SC, and "the other USC" as South Carolina.
Somehow Virginia Commonwealth is listed as VCU so Vermont and Villanova snuck in between Virginia Commonwealth and Virginia, (which is followed by Virginia Tech.
There are two Aggies, two Gaels, two Gamecocks, two Trojans, two Eagles, two Rams, five Wildcats, and I'm sure I am missing some.
Articles from the Davis Enterprise - one on JT and another general article about the Aggies and NCC and a fun read from Bob Dunning from an Aggie basketball historical perspective:
I'm fine with the play-in game for the Aggies. National TV with no other games being played at the same time (unlike Thursday and Friday), and a legit opportunity for a win, but I can also see the point that these games should feature at-large teams.
Let's hope our offense come out scoring. I don't think our slow offensive starts over the past few games will do it. Easier said than done, especially when maintaining the same defensive intensity.
I wonder what Fox Sports would say if THEY had the NCAA Tourney broadcast contract?
Much rather see a play-in/"First Four" game with two comparable teams, a likelihood of a close game and a chance for a win than to jump right in against a one or two seed.
EDIT:
It's an odd commentary. The writer seems to take all sides of the issue and never really land.
Oddly enough, his bio says he is a graduate of Wake Forest, which is playing in a First Four/play-in game.
I think that while critics of the play-in game are trying to be empathetic towards low-majors, at the end of the day they're still stuck approaching it from a power-school perspective. Just getting to play in a game that's nominally part of "March Madness" is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for some schools. Winning any game, whether against a 16 or a 1, doubles the revenue some conferences get from the tournament.
Or to look at it another way, UC Davis is ranked in the 100-200 range by pretty much any system. Getting a bid to a tourney supposedly representing the 68 best teams in the country is definitely not an unfair slight against us. I would go so far to say that the tournament's setup with automatic bids and play-in games is very fair to the low-majors -- the folks who should feel slighted are the Wichita States and Illinois States out there, who get underseeded or ignored in favor of middling p5 teams.
I just went to the ucdavisaggies.com website and it automatically opened to the Aggie Tournament Central page. They've done a great job on it. Tons of info, live updates, video & pics, bracket and opponent info.
Oh, and right at the top, it's got a box for the Irvine game and for the NC Central but, what's cool is that they have a box for UCD vs Kansas. I love the optimism!
Kudos to the Athletic Department Media folks for creating this excellent page!
It's true, there were a couple of Gauchos that were ruled academically ineligible but that certainly may of had nothing to do with Bob Williams. I'm sure we've had some athletes in some sports that didn't make their grades. I assume that if these athletes were able to be admitted to UCSB that they met their academic requirements and then didn't get it done in the classroom. A coach can only do so much and the athletes need to do their part in the classroom.
The SF Chronicle has an article on us as long shots and they sent a writer and photographer to campus. It could have been so much better. Sorry, Don't know how to link from phone.
That is really a dissappointing article. My dog could have come away with a better feel for the campus than did this writer who was kind enough to venture out of the rarified air of the City and come to the backwoods that is the valley. Wonder if he turned off his car or just left the motor running.
And how did ICA again trip over themselves with such odd statements... Strong and colorful quotes and facts could have had a major impact in affecting the message / story.
We flub our closest metropolitan coverage?
Dr. Blue would have been a far superior representative.