I may try to get to this one. Hopefully some guys who haven’t sniffed the court yet will get some time.

Some former D-II championship players have coached there such as Kevin Nosek, Brandon Laird, and Jonathan Surface.

As a Menlo alum ('68 when it was a JC) before coming to UCD I won't be torn. Go Ags!

Apparently injuries are effecting our current routine. Mani has a sprained ankle, and Cooper should be returning soon. As for Borra and Robertson, I believe their seasons are done - for Francisco, that would bd a career ender.

Damn...so many injuries...and Roberson has not been able to suit up since he transferred here...losing Borra and Roberson hurts our inside depth...

Where did you get this info?

someone close to the team. I’d heard the Borra news from another very credible source.

What a shame. Do you know anything about what the injuries are?

Update on Menlo Oaks: They lost to Cal Poly, 99-66. Eleven of the Oaks played and 9 scored with only two in low double figures. Cal Poly out-rebounded them 58-29. I don't expect the Aggies to have much trouble with them especially since it's our home opener. Too bad about Borra.

well that’s. Tough start to the season. Hopefully Cooper and Mani can be effective upon their returns, but I was looking forward to what Robinson could do.

Is Jac Mani the big man Les is high on?

I saw SLO play at Cal last week. They're competitive, new coach, they battle.

Yes but he's been injured a lot since he arrived here so we've only seen him actually play for a few minutes. He has a beautiful shot and he can drain 3's but the big question is whether or not he can defend like Les demands of his players and how well can he hold up to the physicality of the D1 game.

I messed up on the title of this discussion. It should be Menlo College. UC Davis is 6-2 all time vs. Menlo but haven't played them since 1993.

Menlo came to play tonight...not so sure about the Aggies...

Aggies starting out sloppy, with 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in the first 9 minutes. Menlo hanging with them and it's close only because Daughtery has hit a pair of treys.

28-21 Menlo with 7:42 to go in the first half. Aggies are being totally outplayed on both end of the court.

Ags went on a 14-0 run as their depth is a factor. Coach Les seems to be letting the subs play more. The scoring is also more balanced, although TY is in double figures. Tamba playing well.

It looks like the Aggies have figured our Menlo's offense. The Oaks back door cuts have been met with a lot of blocks 6 so far. Something of concern I've noticed in the early going is that the Ags don't get many assists. Only 6 vs. Washington and 8 vs. Idaho. I had hoped they would do better today and they are, with 6 so far, coincidentally as many blocks as they have on defense.

To state the obvious, this game was closer than it should have been. Never good to take an opponent too lightly and Menlo had two very good players in #32, Seaman and #0, Le Gassic. Some observations worth mentioning:

Good to see Daughtery shooting from distance well. The bad news was that aside from him and De Bruhl, UCD was 0 for 11 from beyond the arc.

Good also are the free throw and assist stats. The team ended up with 17 assists and sho 15 of 17 from the charity stripe. Feels like in recent years, aside from Eli Pepper, the Aggies have had trouble from there.

We saw some balance in the scoring finally. Although TY got his share, three other players were in double figures and it looks like Tamba is going to be reliable scoring threat. Through three games he's averaging 14 ppg.

The final score was 80-70 Ags but the game was closer than that most of the night. The Ags got the win but it was not pretty or confidence building and if we play like this on Sunday at Stanford, it will get ugly fast.

Some thoughts:

- Our defense was not good and we got caught asleep at the wheel way too often. Menlo scored quite a few points on back door cuts and they were able to effectively drive to the basket for layups way too often.
- We have not shot well from 3 in any of the games so far. We are now 18-71 only for 25%.
- Landon Seaman of Menlo was the best player on the floor tonight. He scored at will against Rocak and his quick spin moves left Niko flat-footed on several occasions.
- Menlo was the aggressor and they never let up. I think the Aggies thought they were going to walk away from them at some point. Give Menlo credit. They played harder.
- Tamba has made great progress from last year and we sure need some scoring from him because we can't just depend on TY and we're not seeing much scoring punch from anyone else so far.
- Carl Daugherty showed that he can shoot and I think he'll continue to make progress as he gets more playing time.
- We saw Nils Cooper for a few minutes for the first time and he looks promising.

Menlo's Landon Seaman was most definitely the best player on the floor. He was quick and smart.

Roćak had an awful game. He was just . . . behind the flow of the game. Made some bad passes. He'll have time to work through it.

The Ags' defense just wasn't what it should be. Many times defenders were beaten on the baseline and then picked up fouls.

These are tough games - Menlo was primed and the Ags? Maybe not so much. Learning how to be up for the "small games" is part of team evolution.

We'll see how they do next game.

Go Ags!