Stunned. This might be the most exciting win I've seen for any Aggie sports team, period, since I've been a fan.

(Probably it isn't the biggest upset on paper compared to something like WBB upsetting Oregon, but I'm thinking also in terms of the historical record and Cal's proximity).

Doesn't even rank up there with The Year of Beating Stanford, IMO, but still--very cool to beat the flagship campus. :)

I'm really excited about this team. There's depth that has been missing for quite a while for the Ags. Everybody that played tonight contributed. We have a variety of weapons. Christian Anigwe was amazing and Ty Johnson is going to be a force to reckon with and, of course, Pepper was his usual self...with a motor that just never quits. It's been a long time since we've had an Aggie team with this much talent.

Oh I agree, that was just before my time.

I had to pause for dinner out here, but I watched in some disbelief to see the Ags pull this one out. Upset for sure, but Cal is not expected to do well in the Pac-12. Maybe 10th. Still, it's nice to end a 33 game loss streak, with 32 of those having come in Berkeley. Previous closest game was in 1984: 63-69. Ags did a great job with steals, especially Pepper with 4, and on the glass where they maintained an edge of 40-34. Mostly, I was impressed by their poise and how well they played as a team. The trip to Europe was probably critical. Still, I remember last year, when they started off really hot (beating Utah State, Pacific and Oregon State all on the road) but then went into a funk when Big West play started.

Great team win over the Bears ( Johnson is a stud!)
I love the energy they put up against a bigger opponent ( correct me if I am wrong, but this Bear team may be the worst shooting PAC 12 team we faced over years)
Hope Elijah injury is not too bad

Cal shot 56% in the first half but only 26% in the second half. I'll give the Aggie defense a lot of credit for that. Out rebounding Cal by 6 was big too. That tells me the players were boxing out and working hard under the basket against Cal's size advantage.

thanks for the stats ( sorry I was watching the dubs game earlier) . I watched the 2nd half and I agree our defense stepped up. Hope Angiwe can keep up his game as his performance is critical to the success of this team.

Ok the overhyped 1st game post but…

Is this an aggie team with (dare I say it) size and athleticism….

The team that comes closest to this athleticism wise is when we had Lamar and White with chima.

TY really tried to dunk that one and the only at wing I’ve seen try do something like that is White…

The last few years it felt like we had 1-2 scorers/playmakers and then it would fall off a cliff in terms of production.

Tonight it felt like we could get points down low, multiple options with 3 point range and just sheer athleticism from our like 3 different wing options to drive and get a bucket.

All of this is going to take some serious pressure off of Elijah if tonight isn’t a fluke

I wouldn't say we have great size but we do certainly look more athletic overall with a deep bench. I really liked that Les went to his bench often and got good contributions from a lot of players. Our defense and rebounding the keys to the win tonight.

Pepper can be streaky and go off on a heater and really light it up when he gets it going. The impressive thing about him is that he plays at 100% effort all the time regardless of whether his shot if falling or not. It nice to see that we won't have to rely so heavily on him to score especially since we lost Manjon to the portal.

Anyone else notice that the play-by-play guy kept calling Ty Johnson T. Y. Johnson?

I noticed that too....it was seemed pretty odd...

Cal MBB forum is a little salty this morning.

Best post so far (summarized): "at least we scored more than the football team did."

Also, gauchodan @ the Big West Boards: "It's a Cal tradition to lose on opening day to a Big West school."

It was a great night in Berkeley. I haven’t yet read all the comments here, but the one overall feeling I had after the game was that we controlled the game around 30 of the 40 mins. This wasn’t a fluke, where one player got insanely hot. We were the better team for the vast majority of the game. This Aggie team is deeper and more flexible than any in recent years. And shout out to Adebayo and Lose for their defense on Askew. Pepper gets the big steals but those two really shutdown Cals best option down the stretch. Go Ags!!!

It's that time of the year where we look at rankings when it's not accurate yet. :)

https://masseyratings.com/cb/ncaa-d1/ratings

UC Davis jumped 111 places from #239 to #128. We're the highest ranked Big West team.

As a comparison, California is ranked #198.

I think your comments are spot on. We were the better team for the majority of the game. Both teams were shooting lights out in the first 10 minutes. We cooled off a little but Cal ended the first half shooting 56%.

I figured that Les would be telling his team that, if they are going to win the game, they have to do a better job on the defensive end. The game got a little bit ragged in the first 10 minutes of the second half and Cal surged to take the lead but our defense was great in the final 10 minutes and, I thought, that was the big reason we won the game.

Several things that really stood out to me:
1. Ty Johnson is very talented and athletic. He's going to be fun to watch this year.
2. Les has very good depth on this team and that's something that has been missing for a long time. I think we'll see him playing a lot of different players. I thought everyone who played last night contributed.
3. Anigwe has made huge progress in the off season. He's added the 3 point shot to his repertoire which makes him a tough match up.
4. I hope Borra heals up quickly. We need another big body to be able to help us defend the interior especially against teams that have a 7 footer at the post. We have a few of those teams coming up on the schedule. Rocak should help here also.

I think I saw Henry in sweats on the sideline walking fine, so hopefully he'll be back soon, too. With him and Bora, that should really help with our interior defense.

Defense is going to be consistent, and that should generate some easy buckets. I think, if we want to compete for the BW championship, we'll need two additional things, consistent 3 point shooting, and solid FT %. Pepper and Milling can be a little streaky in their deep shots, so hopefully Beasley, Johnson, and Manu (who I though looked good in limited minutes) can help out. Beasley and Pepper are solid FT shooters. Johnson will have the ball in his hands a lot at the end of games so he'll need to hit the big ones.

I thought that DeBruhl looked good too. He hit a nice 3 pointer and, of course, he plays with a ton of energy. Was Joaquin Strong dressed for the game?

On thing that surprised me when looking at the box score was that we had 24 fast break points and Cal only had 2. It looks like we're going to play fast this year and run every chance we get. Cal held the edge on points off turnovers though 20-17.

I don't think Strong dressed, though I'm not entirely sure about that. I'd expect him to red shirt. I wonder if Joc Mani red shirts, too, even though he played last night. That might depend on the injuries to Henry and Borra.

I also thought DeBruhl looked good. He brings a toughness and he can hit the open shot. It's just nice to know that if a starter is cold for a game that the bench step in.

Great win!

(Now just don't stumble against Cal Maritime. Beat the Keelhaulers!)

The start of the game reminded me of the 2013 game in Hawai`i in which Hawkins, Les, Sypkens, and Ritchart opened up by blitzing the Warriors with 3s from all over the place. I've never heard the Sheriff Arena so stunned. The Aggies wound up hitting over 60 from 3 and I personally got booed for wearing UCD colors and cheering wildly. I thought the opening, especially the 3s from Anigwe, was like that, but it didn't hold up. In fact, Pepper was 0 for 3. It's never good to rely on the treys (unless your in the NBA) but last night they didn't. I don't know if I've ever seen a better all around game from the Aggies at this level. I mean, shooting, rebounding, defense and keeping turnovers and fouls to a reasonable level. The one take away I had overall is that this Aggie team is very quick. Cal looked slow, so perhaps it was simply a contrast, but we'll see. I do not expect CMA to test that theory at all. Maybe we should all withhold judgment until we play UCLA in January, although Loyola Marymount will be a good test.

Cal coach gives credit to the Aggies and points out how well the Ags played together as a team.

From the Enterprise article:

“We have a really good team,” said senior forward Christian Anigwe, as if there were any doubters.

“We came to make a statement,” Anigwe added with a broad smile. “We’re not Cal’s little brother. This team has a real bond going. Our coaches prepared us well for this game and we all felt this was a game we could win.”

Asked where he ranked this win in his 12 years as Aggie head coach, Les demurred.
“I don’t really look at it that way,” he said.

“Maybe when I’m retired, I’ll look back and have an assessment like that, but right now it’s what it means for this team and all the hard work they’ve put in during practice. There’s not a player we had on the court tonight who didn’t contribute in a significant way. And believe it or not, when we look at the film, we’ll find a number of things where we can improve.”

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/basketball-aggie-men-take-down-cal-in-opener/

The basketball victory that year was ELECTRIC. Most fun I’ve ever had at a hoops game.

My top five men's basketball victories:

1. 1998, beating Kentucky Wesleyan for the NCAA Div. 2 national title.
2. 2017, NCAA Div.1 victory over North Carolina Central
3. 2022, upset of Cal at Berkeley
4. 2005, upset of Stanford at Davis
5. 1969, defeat of San Francisco State away in double overtime to clinch FWC title. (Only reason for this was that I was there and the end was very exciting on a last second put-back by forward Bob Johnson.)

"The Year of Beating Stanford!" I love it!

2005-2006

Men’s Soccer
UC Davis 1, Stanford 0

Football
UC Davis 20, Stanford 17

Men’s Basketball
UC Davis 64, Stanford 58

Wrestling
UC Davis 38, Stanford 6

Baseball
UC Davis 3, Stanford 0
UC Davis 8, Stanford 3

(Men’s water polo was a 9-7 Stanford victory. Any other year a 2 goal loss in water polo to ‘furd would be a cause for quiet celebration.)

The Cal victory was nice, but to be honest, Cal is off to a bad start. 0-4 against UCD, Kansas State, UCSD and Southern. They are 0-2 against UCs.

Cal is now 0-7, all but one of the losses at home, which I think is the worst start in their history.