began his career at Idaho State, but should have 2 years with COVID.

i see this guy has an offer. originally from St. George, Utah, but played at a prep school in orange country.

https://www.verbalcommits.com/players/bowen-hammer

Tamba played last year at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce, Florida. In 31 games his stats were: 11.8 points per game, shot 56.5% overall, 45.1% from 3, 68.4% from the line, 4.5 rebounds per game and 1.2 assists per game.

Well I am disappointed with this signing. No one from Iceland was available ?

On the women's side, we just picked up a 6'2" transfer from Colorado:

Fills a big whole as we suffered from a lack of interior depth last year.

Excellent!

This is an excerpt from a post by GauchoFreg over on the Big West Boards forum. It looks like UCSB is continuing to bring in some very high level talent.

UCI hasn't danced for four years and will be hard pressed to this year after losing their two best players to the portal. NIL has changed everything and UCSB has the fortune to have some resources that most mid-majors do not. We landed 3 transfers from power conferences, each rated 4* or higher out of HS beating out the likes of Alabama, Michigan, Oklahoma and Providence. UCSB has danced two of the past three years, including a last second 1pt loss to Creighton in 2021 plus led at HT this year vs. Baylor. A lack of depth due to late season injuries to Sanni and Keat Tong caught up to the Gauchos in the 2nd half. Even fans in the Big East recognize that something special is building in Santa Barbara. With UCI losing Dawson & Butler and LB without a PG, the bullseye lands squarely on the chest of the UCSB jersey.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bigwest/2023-transfer-portal-t27307-s120.html

It does seem like we will all be battling for 2nd behind UCSB. So other than the location, what other resources do the Gaucho's have that other mid-majors do not?

I wouldn't discount location, at all.

I'm not sure what other resources that GauchoFreg is referring to. I will ask him about it on the BW Boards and see what he says.

I believe they use their limited academic exceptions in basketball. If we get a couple exceptions they go to football. Not so at UCSB. Makes the transfer process a bit easier.

Here's the reply that GauchoFreg posted to my question:

I don't have direct knowledge but it can be inferred that Pasternack has tapped into $ for NIL

Since he came to UCSB Pasternack has landed millions for improvements to the Thunderdome. Seems logical that the pipeline is now feeding the NIL
Without that I doubt SB lands the caliber recruits they have, let alone keep their best returning players

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/bigwest/2023-transfer-portal-t27307-s130.html

Do you have any understanding as to why all of our academic exceptions are limited to football only and how many do we have available each year?

I believe early on when we had an interim AD, Les had a few academic exceptions. In fact, the Faculty Advisor was bypassed in several instances.

Saw this in the paper this morning. Dougherty Valley has been a east bay powerhouse the last two years behind Sevilla and Ryan Beasley (Robby’s brother)

Looks like a good addition. Always helps to have perimeter shooting.

Sevilla looks like a perfect fit for the Aggies and Jim Les: 6'1 PG, 21.9 points per game, 57% overall shooting including 47% from 3, plus 91% from the line. He was also named the East Bay Athletic League MVP and he has a 4.5 GPA so he can handle the academics too. His highlight videos show that he is a good defender, drives the ball to the basket very well and can still finish while taking a hit. He has a very nice jumper from all ranges too.

He appears to have been largely overlooked by D1 programs and we all know how good Les is at finding underrated players, especially PG's, who fail to catch the attention of D1 programs and end up being outstanding players at Davis like TJ Shorts and Ezra Manjon. I think Sevilla has the potential to grow into another great PG here as well.

I think his size has been a drawback. I’ve seen him play a couple times and thought he was more of a 5-11, than a 6-1.

How tall were T. J. Shorts and Ezra Manjon?

TJ was listed at 5’9” and Ezra at 5’11”. Different sites have Sevilla listed anywhere from 5’11” to 6’1”. Guessing he’s closer to the former. Kind of reminds me of Gonzo (though he was 6’2”).

Does anyone know if we have any more scholarships to give?

Why couldn't we land Ryan Beasley? With his teammate and brother here, seems like he would have been interested. Verbal commits shows he only received one offer from USF and took it.

I believe he committed to USF early, before his brother transferred here.

If that commit was a year ago when he was a junior then maybe it was just a verbal commit and he could have changed his mind and committed to Davis when the hard commit deadlines rolled around. Maybe too many guards for us, if that is possible?? I know we love to play small.

there was some site (https://247sports.com/college/uc-davis/Season/2023-Basketball/Offers/) i saw a month or so ago that showed young Beasley as someone we had made an offer to. also shows an offer to a Jurian Dixon from San Diego area (offers from Pepperdine and Irvine). this portal stuff really changes the landscape of recruiting.

More size on the womens side.

At last-a practical opportunity for me to apply my knowledge of the Greek alphabet. Ellas?

Edit: Saw that "Hellas" is another name for Greece Mystery solved.

Another transfer coming in, this one from Cal

6’6’’. Played in 31 games last year at Cal as a sophomore, averaging 2 points a game.

I’m guessing this might be a sign that Pepper is gone for good?

I actually saw this guy play this year whenI went to my first (and only) Cal game. He had zero points, and so the take-away from that is he averages slightly over 2 points per game when I do not attend.

that’s the first thing I thought too.