Our long time rivals come to Davis after opening with two Division 2 wins over Dominican (103-79) and Jessup, but their home loss to UC Santa Barbara was no surprise. The Hornets are coming off a 2024-25 season that saw them win only seven games and 3-15 in the Big Sky Conference. Given that record, Cal State Sacramento totally cleaned house with a new coach, Mike Bibby, and a totally new roster. A key transfer is Jeremiah (“The Bear”) Cherry a huge (6’ 11”, 250 lbs.) from UNLV where he averaged 9.9 ppg (61.7% FG%) and 5.3 rpg. He’s listed as a forward but the numbers suggest he’s a center. He does not shoot the trey and had 50 blocks for the Running Rebels. In keeping with what seems to be a trend, the Hornets have Shaqir O’Neal, who is Shaquille O’Neal’s son and no surprise as Shaq is the new Sac State general manager. Based on what I saw, O’Neal’s status as a starter is questionable. Another important transfer from USC is Brandon Gardner (6’ 8”, 215 lbs.), but his playing time for the Trojans was minimal as he was a medical redshirt. As a once potential NBA prospect, his impact could be huge, but so far he has been playing behind O’Neal. Yet another potential star is guard Prophet Johnson who is teaming with Mikey Williams as coach Bibby seems to have a lot of quality depth in his backcourt with Jahni Summers and Jayden Teat. Johnson had an outstanding game against UCSB (17 pts. 11 rebounds and 6 assists).

Unlike their first two games Sac State was challenged on Tuesday against a good UCSB team. It’s clear that the Hornets have a great deal of athleticism, but as a whole they are still figuring out how to play as a team. Confusion on defense led to some easy scores for the Gauchos. Of course, Santa Barabara’s Coach Joe Pasternak has his team fully ready. The first half was fairly even ending with UCSB having a two-point lead although the Gauchos lead by as much as 13. Both teams shot over 50% from 3. The half time box score reflected this and things changed very little in the second half. Again Santa Barbara built double digit leads with Sac State making a comeback to close it to 92-87.

The Ags will need to bring their A game on Friday if they hope to win.