I'm cool not doing what Sac is doing.

Mikey Williams Avg 5.1 ppg @ UCF, Watch out. Sac might go into double figures per game with this line up! Even if they don’t win we will sure hear about how cool they are on social media. Lol.
Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill. Their social teams sure knows how to leak insignificant info and make it sound impressive. They even hype up their “new”. BB facility in the recent press releases.
Sac state is like a used cars salesman.
We will see how Bibby and the team does. Hopefully they do okay.

$200K is very big amount of NIL for a player who averaged 5.1 ppg. I wonder where that kind of NIL money is coming from? Williams rated 5 stars out of high school and was headed to Memphis before he got arrested on 9 felony gun charges.

SACST has decided to make sports a revenue generator. Pretty smart move really. They are going to make SACST a place for kids to play high level sports. It's pretty smart. I think next year the SACST football team is primed to do really well with the amount of players they are bringing in through the portal.

The amount of free publicity for the university and now increased revenue with ticket sales is impressive. We really need to step up our game or we are going to get left behind.

What they are doing is great. How they are doing it is not. Even their fans are a little uneasy about things. Absolutely gambling on high risk coaches/players to make a short-term marketing/media splash is a terrible foundation on which to build a program long-term. (I'm talking about football and basketball)

The entire thing seems desperate at this point.

there has to be a better way, right? I mean, if we've reached a point where signing a convicted felon as your 'shooting guard' can be justified by having more fans in the stands, I think i'm ready to opt out.

In the age of influencers, souls go cheap and clicks go high.

Um charged, not convicted. This is still America, sir.

I really don’t like what Sac St is doing. Feels very much like a Potemkin Village.

I get it that they are getting a lot of clicks on the merit of past stars…but who does it this way? This is not sustainable.

They have no culture, they have no pride, I don’t even want them as a rival.

You actually think if Bibby has success he’ll stick around?

You can't deny the pattern here KD....I mean come on....

200K????

No matter how that works (or doesn't), it sets the expectations. That's a chunk of the NCAA now.

Sac State vs Fresno State football = ...

Williams pleaded guilty to one of the 9 felony gun charges against him and then had that single felony reduced to a misdemeanor by a judge in a plea deal. So, technically on the record, he is not a convicted felon even though he pleaded guilty to a felony charge before the judge changed his guilty plea to a misdemeanor.

Williams pleaded guilty to one felony gun charge on Nov. 30 and one of his attorneys said the 19-year-old is not expected to face jail time.

Williams had faced nine felony counts and up to 30 years in prison after a shooting incident at his home on March 17 in which no one was injured. In a deal with prosecutors, Williams pleaded guilty to one felony count of making a criminal threat and to a special allegation of using a firearm during the threat.

In exchange, the other eight counts were dismissed and Williams was ordered to complete a gun safety course, attend anger management sessions and complete 80 hours of community service. Sentencing has been set for Aug. 12 in San Diego County Superior Court, when the charge would be reduced to a misdemeanor if Williams follows terms of the deal and avoids any criminal offenses, attorney Randy Grossman said.

https://fox5sandiego.com/sports/memphis-recruit-mikey-williams-enters-transfer-portal-5-weeks-after-plea-deal-in-gun-case/#:~:text=Prep%20basketball%20star%20Mikey%20Williams,offenses%2C%20attorney%20Randy%20Grossman%20said.&text=Williams%20was%20one%20of%20the,longer%20appears%20in%20the%20rankings.

How many of these kids will stick for more than one year?

he pled guilty.

Doesn’t matter if we like it or not, SacSt is going to really benefit from these moves. You know how much money in free advertising SAC is getting from these moves? Really great for the university as a whole. Their success next year will have an impact on us, not sure how but it will. We need to figure out how these moves can benefit us.

I totally agree that we should explore how their potential 2025 success can be beneficial for our program. However, we're building something sustainable here, a real program with long-term goals. What they're doing seems more like assembling a one-time team in hopes of a big season. I genuinely wish them well, but the more I read, the more concerned I get for them. They definitely seem to be looking at 2025 through rose-colored glasses, and I’m not seeing much thought beyond that.

Shaqir’s stats are not very impressive, 6.7 points per game last year which is his high. 3.4 rebounds per game. He looks to me to be more of a name rather than an impact player.

Last night on 102.5 FM, the host or DJ went on for two minutes about Sac State sports. I was scanning for KBLX, don't typically listen to this station.

I don't know that this deal with Bibby will necessarily translate into a winning program. He's done well at the high school level, but this is a totally new level of competition.

There is an invisible ceiling above most, if not all, of Sac State programs, just like UCD. They can bring in very good coaches, like Brian Katz and Reggie Christiansen, but they're still stuck at the very modest success level. They don't win conference championships for the most part, but they do alright. So they try to recruit better players because the coaches aren't the problem. So does everyone else.

Bibby's name value may give them a boost, but Sac State is still Sac State. What can it reasonably do to attract the elite talent as a commuter school that offers an alright but nothing special experience ?

One of the consistent discussion points on this thread relates to Sac State "being successful / not being successful" next year with this approach. But what is "success" in this situation?

I'm curious what everyone thinks success in basketball next season actually looks like.

What kind of win-loss record qualifies as success?
Is the Causeway game a must-win?
Do the Hornets need to win the Big Sky regular season and/or tournament championship?
How deep do the Hornets need to go in the NCAA (assuming they're selected)?
Is playing in the WBIT or WNIT enough?
What does average attendance need to be?
Other?

Doesn’t matter if we like it or not, SacSt is going to really benefit from these moves. — Sailorgabe

They are? This is looking more and more like a house-of-cards situation. Both of these coaches will move on after 1 successful season- count on that. The players they are bringing in (and as a result, the players they are pushing out) are not helping to build a sustainable culture. Classic pump and dump situation.
They get to FBS, and then what, toil in mediocracy with problem players and revolving coaches every season?

There are no shortcuts when it comes to building a positive, sustainable, winning culture where players/coaches buy-in for the long haul and stay connected long after they are gone.

We don't need to do anything they way Sac is doing it, and we won't. Watching what they are doing is only reinforcing for our admin and alums that what is happening at Davis long-term is pretty great.

Great post! :up:

Well, let's see. They won 7 games this year. Doubling that in year 1 would qualify as success.

If the hornet men's team makes it to the WBIT or WNIT, they will win it when all the other teams forfeit

What does their current graduation rate look like for MBB and FB?

Look, UC Davis basketball was a nice community FCS school at one time. But times have changed and we are now D1. It is time to hold the basketball program to higher standards. This shouldn't be controversial. Coach Les is an average coach at best. He has been in charge since the first Obama administration and during that time is the program trending up? No. It's not. We have not finished higher than 3rd since 2018. That means there are two classes that have graduated Davis and never had championship team. You think that is building a solid program? That is not a solid program. That is being comfortable and ok with being average. And as an Aggie I'm not ok with this. We are strive to better at everything from academics to scholastics.

The Sacramento region is the fastest growing area in California. SacSt and UCD can both benefit from this population boom by becoming a place welcoming to local talent. In order to do this, you have create an atmosphere that caters to the GenZ population.

We have grown to comfortable in this town with the status quo. I don't know what it is, but I feel like we are stuck in 2011. With our move to the Mountain West we are not going to be playing Montana St or Portland St anymore...we are going to be playing New Mexico, UNLV, Stanford, etc. We have to make moves to build for the future if you want to have an excited campus who wants to support UCD basketball. What we are doing right now, isn't working, unless winning isn't important.

Same as football: Sac is very likely to surpass us in performance on the field/court (Not courtroom.) in the short-term by prioritizing flash and form. How this works is if they can generate enough revenue to do actual facilities upgrades to create a sustained recruiting and donor base. Have gone through the recruiting process recently with my kids, facilities are huge factors in decisions. Sac’s facilities suck compared to most FCS/mid-majors and it takes big money and time to address that.

I agree. If there is one thing I have learned in life its that those who sit back and hope things get better without being proactive never go anywhere. Imagine if SACST took our approach. Do you think they would be better off? Of course not. I have heard the name SACST on ESPN, FOXSports, and other sport cites in the past couple weeks way more than I've heard anything about UC Davis. That is called FREE Advertising and their moves are working. Ryder Lyons the #1 overall recruit in California and out of Folsom is taking a recruiting trip to SACST. That is wild.

Next year will be very interesting to see how SAC plays out.

That is a cheap shot. You think SACST offering Mikey Williams is somehow a bad thing? The kid made a mistake and paid the price. That doesn't mean his life is over now. He paid his penalty and looking for a 2nd chance. I hope he succeeds and turns his life around.

That being said, your telling me you wouldn't want Shaq, and other NBA players on campus hyping up the AGGIES? Of course you would.

Again, I don't have a problem with what Sac is doing. Building and striving to improve is fantastic and Davis should continue to do the same always. Its how they are doing it is what I don't like.

If anyone is impressed with Sac State then go on their board and praise them. I in no way want to do what they are doing. I think our coaches should be lauded for their longevity and perseverance through budget cuts, covid, changing NIL landscape, etc. The Sac State way is not the Aggie Way and I hope it never is.