We all know that Les demands tough, physical defense and I expect that an emphasis was put on players who can defend with toughness especially in the interior where we have often struggled in the past. With the tenacious physicality of Rocak gone in the middle and the fact that we will be playing physically bigger, stronger teams in the MWC, Les has brought in good size and depth so he can sub more and in order to keep our bigs more fresh. Hopefully, we'll get some needed scoring from a few of these bigs as well.

I forgot to mention Ylan Esso-Essis at 6'8 and 210. He's essentially new as well since he was missed the entire season last year due to injury. He'll be more familiar with the Aggies' style of play than our new recruits but we've yet to see him in action.

Totally agree...i do wonder if either Noble or Dabrowski sit a year. In the past teams tend to red shirt bigs who may still need to develop, but now with the portal, players can move if they don't get playing time right away.

That's a good point.

Wow Marcus Wilson’s new headshot for Sac State is already up. Sucks to see him leave, but sounds like we have a group of promising incoming guys.

https://hornetsports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/marcus-wilson/11137

Experienced Core Returns for Aggie Men's Basketball



Whole article here: https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2026/8/4/experienced-core-returns-for-aggie-mens-basketball.aspx

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2026/8/5/aggies-announce-2026-27-mens-basketball-nonconference-schedule.aspx

Here are the 2025-26 final season records of the non-conference teams that the Aggies will play this season:

North Alabama 9-21
Menlo College 5-26
Incarnate Word 12-19
Sac State 10-21
Alabama State 10-22
Omaha 16-17
Jacksonville State 15-17
Portland 18-15
North Dakota State 27-8
Cal Baptist 25-9
Idaho State 13-20
Seattle 21-14
Pacific Union 2-22

Indefensibly bad.

Yea that’s a horrendous schedule. We normally have 1-2 schools in that upper tier. Nothing this year.

This is so weak. What happened?

Disappointing schedule. Only thought is maybe they thought to make it winnable to get some momentum going into conference play. But not a single power school? We can and should do better

UC Davis agreed to spend a minimum figure in men's basketball game guarantees for "winnable home games;" that benchmark was redacted.

exactly my thoughts.

I have mixed feelings about the non-conference schedule. I was surprised to see that we did not have a single game against a major program like we usually have had in the past. I'm not a big fan of getting drubbed by a team like Oregon but to not have a single game against a team like that or even a game against teams like Oregon State or Washington State was a bit of a surprise.

I was hoping to see a couple games with our neighboring NorCal schools like Stanford, Cal, Santa Clara, USF and St Mary's on the schedule too. Those games seem like they would be good attendance for both schools and would be a good draw for Aggie fans from the Bay Area and it would be a relatively easy travel for for Aggie fans from the Davis and greater Sacramento area as well.

I spoke briefly with Les some years ago and asked why we didn't play those teams on a fairly regular basis and he said he wants to play those teams but they were reluctant to play us. Apparently, they felt like a loss to us would really hurt their RPI and win against us wouldn't help their RPI much either. Maybe if we have some success in the MWC they will be more willing to schedule us in the future.

I also think that there is some upside to this non-conference schedule as well given that we have so many new players coming in this year. This schedule should give this team a chance to gel, get to know each other better in action and come together as a group while building chemistry and confidence heading into the MWC competition.

Even with a non-conference schedule that doesn't look that formidable, our overall schedule will be perhaps the toughest as a whole that we have ever had when you figure in the teams we will play twice in conference play.

Here are the 2025-26 final season records of the teams who will be in the MWC this season:

Hawaii 24-9 (Big West)
New Mexico 26-11
Grand Canyon 20-12
Nevada 24-13
Aggies 19-14 (Big West)
UNLV 18-17
Wyoming 18-15
UTEP 11-20 (Conference USA)
San Jose State 9-24
Air Force 3-29

I took a look at the the basketball facilities in the MWC and, although we had one of the largest seating capacities in the Big West, we are near the bottom in size in the MWC.




We also have the lowest average attendance rate for the 2025-26 season:

I’d like to know the game times. Hoping for 6:00 weekdays and Saturday afternoons for selfish reasons.

My guess is that they'll stick to those times as they have in the past.

not sure how much say we’ll have in the conference games, especially the televised games.

I was wondering about that as well.

It’s entirely possible to buy most of these crappy home games and still play at a couple of the Bay Area schools along with home and homes with at least two of UCSB/UCI/UCSD/Poly/Pacific. This is just pathetic. There will be zero local interest in this schedule.

Saturdays at 2 and Tuesdays or Wednesdays at 6/7.

home and homes with at least two of UCSB/UCI/UCSD/Poly/Pacific. — LeFan

This would have been great.

:100:

is that announced somewhere?

Not until late next month. The dominoes need to fall with the networks’ primary partners (Big Ten in this case) before they start filling FS1/2 and CBSSN dates with the MWC.

Got it. I was having this same conversation with a staff person at the lunch on Thursday. They have no clue on days or times (I remember some MWC Monday games). I’d think we have control on the non confefence games but maybe some of those are tied to TV.

With the Big Ten also playing early in the week and the Big 12 having just a few teams west of the central time zone it seems like there’s an opportunity for a more traditional thurs/sat combo which also avoids NBA Fridays.

The dates for the games at the Resort World Classic Tournament, November 25-27, in Las Vegas have now been added to the schedule. Aggie fans who enjoy Vegas could spend the Thanksgiving holiday there while attending 3 Aggie games in 3 days.

Nov 25 (Wed) vs Omaha
Nov 26 (Th) vs Jacksonville State
Nov 27 (Fri) vs Pacific

Seems Daughtery is still trying to find a landing spot. Wish him the best.