Lets see. Returners (7): Fagbemi, Sevilla, Stokes, Rawlins, Esso-Essi, Chappell, and Suljanovic. HS (1): Caspian Jones. Transfers (4): Veniamin Abosi, Clarence Massamba, Julian Margrave, and Nnadalu Noble. Assuming all are on some kind of scholly, that's 12 (unless I missed someone). Fully funded is up to 15. I doubt we get that high, but it does feel like we could get one more and maybe a walk on. And for those who care about these things, size wise we go 2x6'10, 1x6'9", 2x6'8", 2x6'6", 3x6'5", 1x6'1", 1x6'0". Doesn't really tell us much about the true size of the team as it will all depend on who earns playing time.

This roster has no chance. Tom Abatemarco is on staff? What a clown show. The only interesting thing to watch will be at what point they pull the plug on Les.

I’ll bite my words if I’m wrong, but I really don’t think Les is going to work with this move to the MW. I believe it’s going to be a difficult transition anyways and don’t see a stale formula being the thing that helps bring us to the next level. I have personal gripes with how he seems to talk to players and his general demeanor, but I think he’s overall been a good coach, assuming good dude, but it feels like it’s time to pass the torch imo.

Now I can also see a scenario where Les is the exact coach we need to continue providing a sense of consistency in perspective and staffing in a big move, but even then I don’t see this staff (the longest continuously tenured unit) making sense in our new conference long term.

I've noticed a couple of things when looking for recruiting news by the Aggies. Verbalcommits.com is slow to update the changes in affiliation in the Big West and the Mountain West. They are now showing Sac State and Cal Baptist recruiting in the Big West but are still showing Hawaii and the Aggies in the BW also.

When looking at the MW, they are still showing Fresno State and others who are moving to the PAC12 and they have not added the Aggies or Hawaii to that conference yet. I have also noticed that the teams in the MW are making offers to lots of HS juniors and younger players even an occasional freshman. I imagine that we'll have to adapt to that strategy as well and begin creating relationships with younger HS players and their families in order to keep pace the other schools in the conference. This will most certainly take more time and money for us to begin doing the same to help stay competitive recruiting in the MW.

https://www.verbalcommits.com/conferences/mountain-west

This sports writer is picking the Ags to finish in 7th place in the MW this season:

7. UC Davis

Last season: 19-14, 11-9 (tied for sixth place in Big West)

2026-27 outlook: The Aggies have been a solid Big West team in recent seasons, going 72-58 overall and 45-38 in the Big West the last four years. But things will be more challenging in the MW. UC Davis has not financially invested in basketball at a high level, which is required in the new NIL era. The Aggies retained Connor Sevilla (13.3 ppg, 39.9 3PT%), Brayden Fagbemi (7.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.0 spg), Jalen Stokes (4.7 ppg), Isaiah Chappell (8.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Omer Suljanovic (5.6 ppg) this offseason, which gives the team five solid players. UC Davis also added Tennessee transfer Clarence Massamba, a former four-star recruit. But depth and size are an issue for coach Jim Les, who will get the most out of his talent but is likely to be at a talent deficit as the Aggies transition to the MW.

Whole article here: https://nevadasportsnet.com/news/reporters/offseason-mountain-west-basketball-power-rankings-new-hope-with-powers-off-to-the-pac-12

Can't argue too much with a 7th place prediction. I'd like to think that we'll see a nice increase in production/consistency from Stokes and Suljanovic. There were moments last year where each one of them basically took over the offense...we just need to see those moments more often. Fagbemi and Sevilla will be basically what they were last year (although perhaps a healthier Connor will be more productive in league play). The big question marks are, who replaces Wilson as the "our offense is stagnant, here go bail us out" guy; and, who provides some size in the paint, especially on defense and the boards. Massamba seems like the most obvious step in for Wilson, given his pedigree. We'll see how he looks with an Aggie jersey on. As for size, I'm going to guess we see a lot of Margrave in the middle as he has the most college experience. But knowing Les, our new wings better get used to guarding 7-footers.

And just as a tease, I'm seeing possibly another 6'10" commit for next year. He just finished up his international league so hopefully we'll hear some news soon.

And just as a tease, I'm seeing possibly another 6'10" commit for next year. He just finished up his international league so hopefully we'll hear some news soon. — Oldbanduhalum

Who do you have in mind?

This is way out of left field but Julek Dąbrowski out of the Polish league is a 6'10" post player (with some 3 point range). I know the "who he's following" does not really mean much, but I do think it's telling that he is followed by Les and Vogt, and he follows them as well as the main UCDavis twitter page and the Men's BBall page. Maybe I'm reading way too much into this...we'll see.

I was looking at that transfer portal page and notice that neither Cyril Franklin or Jonathan Noudjihidi have a destination. I wonder where guys like that go? Franklin had his moments (both good and bad) for us. I don't follow many social media outlets but i can't seem to find any news on either that would indicate a new school.

I was just thinking about looking those players up this morning, Mike, to see what was happening with them as well before I saw your post. I don't use social media even though many people have urged me to at least have a Facebook and Instagram account. Oldbanduhalum does a good job of finding info about recruits and former players so he might be able to dive in a little deeper.

I looked up Franklin yesterday as I was wondering if he might return. His twitter account shows him at College of Southern Nevada, but I think that's where he was before transferring to UCD. Maybe he'd go back for another year??? And really nothing on Noudjihidi either.

what I saw referred to his freshman year there in 24-25.

Yeah I remember seeing when he joined the Aggies that he transferred from southern nevada on instagram.

I found this post over on the Big West Basketball Forum. Not sure how accurate it it since it doesn't list a link and I can't find anything else:



Aleks Szymczyk was listed as a 6'10 250 junior center at CSUN last season having transferred to CSUN from UNC-Charlotte. He appeared in 26 games for the Matadors averaging 8.2 minutes per game and averaged 2.9 ppg while shooting 51.9% overall from the field and grabbing 2.8 rebounds per game.

interesting. I had seen his name as he was being followed by both coach nosek and Vogt, but there hadn’t been any updates since he was at Florida. Always glad to see more size

2 points per game at CSUN not likely to work out well in MWC.

you may be right. But perhaps a different environment/scheme might help. Nico was a walk on and didn’t play much at ucsb and turned into a solid contributor for us. We’ll have to see.

I noticed that verbalcommits.com has now moved the Ags into the MW conference. The website has an interesting recruiting power score (RPS):

The Verbal Commits Recruitment Power Score (RPS) is a proprietary measurement aimed at weighing the relative strength of a Player or a School across the college basketball recruiting landscape. For players, a higher score indicates a more sought-after recruit. For schools, the RPS is an indicator of a school's ability to sign the most in demand players.

The RPS is not an assessment of a player's basketball ability, nor does it attempt to suggest which school has "the best" or most talented recruiting class.

Keeping my that these scores are not an assessment of team talent but rather an "indicator of a school's ability to sign the most in demand players," I was surprised to see that they currently list the Aggies with the highest team RPS:

Aggies
Aggies 4.25
Nevada 4.19
New Mexico 4.15
Wyoming 4.08
UNLV 4.04
Grand Canyon 3.91
Hawaii 3.88
San Jose State 3.84
UTEP 3.67
Air Force 3.44

Agree. I just don’t see how this works. Hope to be wrong.

+1