The mysterious delay of the 2nd half start shifted us to listening to the Aggie broadcast for the 2nd half. Sometimes the ESPN+ feed does . . . odd things?

Turnovers: many were really unforced. Yes, the defense was reasonable, but the Ags just made far too many bad passes and poor ball handling. That just has to improve. We're suppose to make a living shooting 3's to open up the lane but that didn't happen during the first half.

I'll be interested to see how Les coaches the team to improve.

32-20 with 6:02 - terrible so far with 16 Griz points off turnovers.

I enjoyed the announcers. They were really good from the lead-in to the end of the game. They were even-handed, appropriately excited for the Idaho but not to a fault. I'd missed their names but they deserve excellent marks. The worst were the awful guys they brought in for the Montana game who were really in the gag-me-with-a-spoon territory.

The lighter color of the court is presenting problems with the video, however. I hope they can improve this over the course of the season.

If, at 8 1/2 minutes into the game, you had told me the final score I would not have believed you.

Whew - that was a rugged start. But watching the Ags execute the full court defense was quite fun. I'll watch that again later today on ESPN+ (I hope it will be there.) That defensive pressure seemed to completely rattle Jessup, disrupting their offensive flow. They never recovered.

I thought Borra's footwork was vastly improved. He seemed more mobile and more reactive. We'll need all the mobility and height.

I enjoyed watching so many of the players getting floor time. Even during the early phases when the team was still putting itself together on the court Jim Les was moving people in and out. Clearly there are a lot of parts to be assembled with this team. If they can keep the tempo up we might well have a fascinating season.

The other day Jen said she was looking to have the team move from "take a good shot" to "work to take the GREAT shot." Certainly that was clearly demonstrated during the course of Monday's game. I also saw, in the play of our bigs, some very smooth ball handling. In times past we'd have seen a timing dribble on a pass into the lane or on a rebound. I can't recall seeing one on Monday and multiple times Svanholm, Sabel and Norris received a pass and made smooth, elegant routes to the hoop protecting the ball and taking away reaction time from the defenders. Clearly this is something they have worked on and been coached on during the off season. I hope it carries forward throughout the season.

The broadcast was TERRIBLE. The color guy was all "Cal Davis" and just could NOT unlearn it. The PBP guy was often confused and the video was blah. The guys in the small white truck do just as well. Maybe the Montana guys have bigger cameras? This production house should not be back. Probably we didn't have a say in it, but I'd rather have watched our own production.

Peace Out

That's because they have a classy program that is willing to support their neighbors. It would be nice to have them visit the Pavilion but just putting us on their schedule is classy.

Maybe the Academy of Art isn't putting much money into uniforms and using it for other program-related purposes?

I don't understand the logic of having everyone in "BCS." What does that do for our athletes?

If the argument is about FCS teams being a minor league for FBS teams -- well, in basketball we're already the minors for the big conferences. Nothing is going to change that. NIL money will lure the best away because it's money and that talks.

If UCD's primary task is to educate, and we're not willing to subvert admissions to the needs of the athletic department, then we should accept that which we are: the minors. And it's fun to watch. The teams are competitive. Sometimes students attend the games but how many times does football fill the stadium? How many times does the Pavilion need to roll out the top bleachers? Darn few - especially when we're not on ESPN's linear channels.

College sports may be irredeemably broken. Perhaps we should ask who we are and what we want - deriving from our first principles how UCD should fit into the world as it currently exists. Where should our focus be? I'd say focus on our athletes first which means education first, competition second. But there are other choices. We should be up front about making those choices.

We really enjoyed the games down in SoCal. Good cycling along the Anaheim River's bike path. It's a LOT of basketball to do both men and women's games but fun. I liked the Honda Center but I'm flexible.

I'll add that Henderson isn't good for having any of the student bodies enjoy the games. Now UCD students aren't going to rush down to SoCal either - they hardly rush into the Pavilion - but in general we might see more students attending. It's easy to go to SoCal either by car, plane or even train. And there's always Disneyland!

We have a year left on the contract with Henderson. I recommend feeding back to the AD about the situation. Finding an arena of the right size is important.

I have no issues with having the tournament at a school site as long as there isn't preferential treatment for that school's fans.

Looks like the Player of the Year was correctly called! Wow - what a 2nd half.

Hawai'i clearly knew the comeback was possible since the Ags did something quite similar to them a few years ago. That was some 2nd half for Hawai'i.

The Fullerton v UC Irvine game is fabulous. It'll be replayed on ESPN-U tonight at 10 or so. The ESPN+ feed is good - much less image compression - probably better cameras - no breakup of the video.

The allure of a big program with lots of attention and the $$$ of NIL makes for a pretty strong reason for a high level athlete to want to leave. If you want to monetize your abilities then it really makes sense. Being as athletic as your basic rock I have no idea if the idea of team loyalty has much meaning compared to playing at the next level and, perhaps, having the NBA give you a really good look.

I'll wish Pepper well whatever his decision.

I've watched ESPN+ on my AppleTV streaming over Comcast as well as on my iPhone over 5G. The breakups happen at the same point in the game regardless. It's definitely a screwup on the part of ESPN+ and whatever production crew they hired to do the tournament. Or whoever is their internet service provider - possibly ACME who helps out the coyote from time to time.

The bad transmission out of Henderson continues during the Cal Poly game. It's 32-26 POLY at the half. ESPN+ has stinky streaming.

I'm seeing a lot of breakup from the ESPN+ feed. Today worse than yesterday. Anyone else experiencing this?