That was a pretty big win as Sac State had been playing well. They swept Abilene Christian (another good team) over the weekend in TX; UCD lost 3 of 4 in Abilene last year.

I like that the Aggies got opportumities for a lot of different players, but I don't completely like how they won it. What I mean is that weekend starter Noel Valdez threw the 1st 4 innings, while Sac threw a bunch of mostly little-used/ineffective relief pitchers. Then the Aggies used some of their big relief arms (Hippensteel, R. Barnes, Lerma) to close it out. Meek was the only little-used pitcher to appear in the game for UCD. Not exactly a level playing field if Davis is using their A and B pitchers and the other team is throwing their D/D- staff. It was like Sac viewed it as a practice game, while UCD's objective was to crush the Hornets at all costs.

If I remember correctly the last time these two teams played a weekend series was in 2011, which also makes it the last time they played all of their best against each other. Bragging rights are pretty meaningless when both teams don't field their best players. And the Causeway Cup is all about bragging rights, isn't it ?

Now Valdez is probably the best pitcher with a career 4-10 won-loss record in Aggie baseball history, but I don't like that they threw him in a mid-week game ahead of a conference series in which he'll probably start, even if it was for just 60 pitches. Coaches that do this kind of thing may use the reasoning that it was the pitcher's day to throw between starts anyway, but there's a pretty significant difference between throwing a bullpen session and facing opposing hitters. There's a greater chance of injury doing the latter-and then what happens to the weekend rotation ?

Oh well, I hate mid-week games anyway. They cut into the student-athletes' study time, and are less
convenient for fans to attend.

6'8 seems short, considering who his father is. Wasn't Shaq one of the Lakers players who called Bibby's team "Queens" ?

Of course they are making a mistake. However, I only care to the extent that the mistake doesn't eventually result in a state government bailout of Sac State.

They just hired a director of operations back in August. His last employer was Sonoma State. Dude know how to pick them.

This is not really a surprise. They cut their baseball program at least a year ago. Academy of Art is just a tall building in SF. They don't even have their own athletic fields. I understand they originally saw athletics as a vehicle for bringing in artistically and athletically-gifted students who might pass them by without the opportunities to play sports. One could say UCD does something similar (only not so much about art) when it invests in sports that bring in little to nothing.

:lol: The way you put things sometimes. This is both gross and sarcastic at the same time.

As an alternative they could still demolish Hornet Stadium + go play their home games in Oakland. I heard this rumor they have an old, crappy empty stadium there which will feel like home to Hornet fans, even an upgrade. Sac State fans who don't want to drive there can take Amtrak. They will still outdraw the building's previous tenant.

They should tear down their death trap stadium +play all road games. Stadium construction issue resolved. If they absolutely must have a home game they can play Lincoln. Lincoln's fans would probably be ok with setting up lawn chairs around the field. Or play games at Chico State or Saint Mary's.. Both still have their football stadiums after all these years. There isn't crap to do in either place. Sac State would sell out every game.

NM

It would appear that as of that post Sac State HADNOT been in touch with Stoney.

(Assignment: use HADNOT in a sentence. Ignore other potential pronunciations).

People are getting swindled at the new A's games, moreso than fans at any other MLB ballpark. You get all of the same things at a River Cats game (not the food or beer) for a fraction of the price. And people say, "I can see stars like Aaron Judge now" BFD, you can see stars when they're in college or the minors. And if they wanted to see Judge so badly they could've just seen him play against the A's in Oakland. Looking back, it would've been cheaper to see him there than in Sutter Health Park if you consider the savings on gas only partially offsets the increase in ticket prices. Early April Fools prank on Sacramento.

The author of this article has a very strange sense of humor. Haha guys, I tricked you with fake stadium news !

I knew something was fishy when they mentioned building the stadium near Raley Field. For one thing it hasn't been called Raley Field since before the pandemic. A Sac Bee person writing a serious article would call it Sutter Health Park. They are sticklers about calling Sac-area things by the proper names, if nothing else. Of less importance is there's basically nowhere to put a stadium that size, not even if you demolished SHP.

Speaking of jokes involving Sutter Health Park, the A's lost 18-3 in their West Sacramento opener to the Chicago Cubs. It was so bad that Cubs' catcher- Carson Kelly-went went 4 for 4 with a homerun and 5 runs batted in. He is a notoriously weak hitter (.226 career batting average in over 1600 career at bats). The A's pitched their reserve catcher in the 9th and he did better than their real pitchers, even struck a guy out (although that was a Cubs relief pitcher batting for some weird reason). The people who paid $200 for "Senate" seats (normally $30-ish for River Cats games) or over $70 to sit on the wet grass certainly were pranked !

Although the program is in need of a shake-up, I don't think that needs to involve a new coach.

It seems like more of a recruiting issue. From the 2023-24 team they lost Kane Milling and Elijah Pepper. They didn't even come close to replacing even Milling offensively with any, or a collection of,the new players. They just spread the shooting opportunities around to existing players like Tamba and DeBruhl. The 2024-25 team was a shell of the previous year's even before it played a game. And the 2025-26 will be a weaker shell of this year's team, unless it brings in some dynamic new talent

How do they fix recruiting ? That's above my pay grade, but I think there's something wrong if UCD is pinning it's hopes of rebounding (pun intended) on which players they can get out of the transfer portal. UCD is not getting top players from there for the most part (TY Johnson being a rare exception). The rest of the portal is like the $5 DVD bin that Wal-Mart used to have. One also has to consider that many of the players entering due to lack of playing time aren't playing at their initial colleges because they're just not that good in the first place.

I will say that Les' retention of HS recruits needs to improve. If players are leaving after their freshmen or redshirt freshmen years, it often has to do with lack of playing time. If they're not playing it's because the coach thinks they're not ready for bigger roles. This is a big problem with younger people. They get bored, they feel under-appreciated, they say f#$% this, and they leave. It's tougher for them for them to fully buy into the idea that they will have to earn their roles and playing time over 1 or 2 seasons.

If the freshmen in Les' judgment aren't ready for significant playing time there's no merit in just giving it to them. That makes the team worse. What can he and his staff do ? Aside from doing a better job of evaluating the players they want to recruit (so that they have more than just benchwarmers when they get to UCD) I don't have a solution.

I don't think Les needs to go; he and his staff just need to do a better job at recruiting.

Oh no ! How will the Aggies replace 10 pts ?

It's ok. You set the bar pretty high with your initial response time, and how you quickly swoop in to "defend" everyone from movielover whenever he posts. Who the hell cares what his beliefs are ? You do, apparently. That gave the impression that you do indeed live online. Apologies. Good luck on your quest to defend a message board from the right wing. Be well.

From the articles I browsed on the subject Utah Valley has received but not yet formally accepted an offer to join the Big West.

No need for this one either.

Deleted.

Good hire. That should help the attendance in the new gym. So when UCD and Sac State play each other now it will be a match-up of coaches who played guard for the Kings in different decades.

Hopefully he will be good for recruiting more talented relatively local players. The basketball team relies too heavily on foreign players and transfers, so it's difficult for them to carry success into multiple seasons. And nothing against the foreign players, but no one can deny the game is different outside of the U.S.- some different rules + the strength of competition isn't as good. Evaluating them as potential U.S. players while they're playing international competition has its limits.

Now their best player this year-Jacob Holt- happens to be both Canadian and a transfer, but he actually got decent playing time at Santa Clara before transferring. This makes him an outlier. They currently do need to get a bunch of transfers because Sac State is a commuter school + that doesn't make it stand out to potential recruits. One CSU or another. Why Sacramento over say- Fresno if you know little about one or the other ? Hopefully Bibby can change that.

I totally forgot they played yesterday. Lost in the 13th inning when Carter Delaney balked in the winning run. Otherwise he did a great job-he was in his SIXTH inning of relief. He almost pitched as long as the starting pitcher.

They get today off before facing Nevada. Not much of a rest at all.

Depends on the size of the debt. If trimming Olympic sports doesn't make a real dent then the more expensive sports would be cut. Also please consider that cuts to Olympic sports would have to be done surgically so as to comply with Title IX.