They are fortunate to not be finishing against the top teams in the conference. Of their last 3 BW series (counting the one they're in) only UCSD has a winning record. There's really not much of a path to 5th place for the Aggies, so no ticket to the Big West tournament. As a result their season will end a week earlier this year.

They get locked in a fair number of these low-scoring wars of attrition because the team hitting isn't very good (.250 batting average is pretty weak considering aluminum bats are being used). It seems like all of the returning players except Nick Leehey (who seems to have missed significant time with injury), Ryan Lee, and Braydon Wooldridge are not hitting as well as they did last year. I wonder what's behind that-rule changes (such as an adjustment to the strike zone) ? A change in team hitting approach ? They do seem to be drawing more walks. I seriously doubt all of them went into a prolonged slump at the same time for no reason.

I'm not concerned with the freshmen. Players like Gentil, Story, and Houston Hirschkorn have shown some real promise. I seem to recall there was a game in which Gentil had two triples. He's a catcher. Catchers usually aren't supposed to be hitting triples !

These statistics are a little telling though. UCD has been shut out SEVEN times this year, to go with 8 times they scored only 1 run. In those 15 combined games they are (2-13) and scored 8 total runs.

What's really weird is the team batting average has been at or near .250 each year since Nicholson took over as head coach (per the historical stats on the UCD website). They hit .238 in 2022 but probably would have hit .250 had the hazing scandal not resulted in some of their regulars ditching the program. So this year is- consistent ?

One crucial element they've mostly been lacking is power. Seventeen team homeruns would've been ok in the D-II days. Homeruns end these types of games much faster than piecemeal offense (walks, getting hit with pitches, etc). They hit 33 last year and the year before that. Must be missing Damian Stone more than they imagined. He was the only major bat they lost to graduation last year. Seventeen is how many they hit in '22 (6-34 won-loss record). The 2022 Aggies hit that many in 5 fewer games.

Pitching, on the other hand, has improved significantly. The team ERA alone has dropped a lot in each of the last 3 years.

Well, let's see. They won 7 games this year. Doubling that in year 1 would qualify as success.

If the hornet men's team makes it to the WBIT or WNIT, they will win it when all the other teams forfeit

I don't know that this deal with Bibby will necessarily translate into a winning program. He's done well at the high school level, but this is a totally new level of competition.

There is an invisible ceiling above most, if not all, of Sac State programs, just like UCD. They can bring in very good coaches, like Brian Katz and Reggie Christiansen, but they're still stuck at the very modest success level. They don't win conference championships for the most part, but they do alright. So they try to recruit better players because the coaches aren't the problem. So does everyone else.

Bibby's name value may give them a boost, but Sac State is still Sac State. What can it reasonably do to attract the elite talent as a commuter school that offers an alright but nothing special experience ?

That UCD won 2 of 3 in baseball means they will again host 2 in 2026.

It will be interesting to see what the schedule will look like when they enter the Mountain West. None of the Big West opponents are fits for mid-week games, so it will probably the usual suspects minus Nevada. I think they will be relieved to not be obligated to play UCI, Fullerton, and UCSB every year.

I wonder if, with all the additional conference travel, they will play fewer mid-week games.

Per her Wofford profile Helen is originally from New Zealand. I wonder if she watched and liked "Flight of the Conchords" ?

Wofford plays their home games at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. I'm glad they make the distinction for the benefit of fans who might wonder if Wofford basketball games are played outside.

Exactly, they have no guarantee these talented misfits will be able to play well together. Does the new coach have a magic elixir that will make the troubled players into model student-athletes that the previous coaches didn't know about? We'll find out. Right now Marion might as well be Adam Sandler's character in "The Longest Yard" (haven't seen the original). Like Paul Crewe he'll be looking to get out soon.

I hope this first roster is merely Marion doing an initial jumpstart with players of his choosing (like re-decorating your new office when you get promoted), and not his long-term strategy. It won't be good for Sac State's image if they get a reputation for being Jailbird U., not that any program is flawless.

Not failed. I enjoyed posting some ridiculous ideas. If you see me posting something like that it's for my own enjoyment. I know better than to expect anyone else on this board to have a sense of humor when it comes to football or really anything.

Kind of presumptuous to have him pictured in a Sac State uniform before he's even been presented an offer.

This positional allocation of rooms seems like an inefficient use of space. The kickers and punters can just use a couple of storage closets because they're typically rather thin-ish men, right ?

The running backs and wide receivers can just go meet outside or on the treadmills in the gym becauase running is kind of their thing. Or better yet, Coach Plough can just make a bunch of YouTube videos in which he draws all over the screen like John Madden, and they can watch these on their computers at home. That way they don't all get COVID-25 from each other. Then maybe they could convert the football rooms into student housing and use Toomey Field (yes, I know they don't play there anymore) as green space for all the campus hippies.

Why do the QB's get their own room ? They couldn't just put up a poster that says, Throw the ball to your teammates, not to the other team !". If anyone should get their own room it's the linebackers because they physically take up more space.

Fresno State is the only game in town in Fresno for much of the year. Before the economic downturn in the late 2000's (and the later demotion to Single-A) the Fresno Grizzlies also used to draw very well despite not being very good.

Memorial Auditorium is better suited as an event space for graduations,plays, or concerts-events where people are using the stage. In it's current configuration it's not well-suited for basketball.

Cost was likely a huge motivation to move the games back to campus. I think I remember someone saying they were trying to get more students to attend. It is over 3 miles from the school. That said I think it really was about money. They had to pay for the upkeep of Hornet Gym regardless of whether or not they played games there, so why not use it and stop paying to use a venue that was too large anyway ? I believe Cal State Bakersfield came to the same conclusion with its basketball arena.

In my opinion Sac State will always have problems getting students to attend most sporting events regardless of where they're hosted. This is just because it's more of a commuter school. People don't have time to hang around school as much when they have jobs/families to support/they live off-campus. The notable exception is football (especially the Causeway Classic). That it's largely a barbaric sport, full of yelling, hitting, and tackling, played on Saturdays, gives it a wider appeal. Also, the Causeway Classic always draws out the low-brow types who just want to get drunk and be nasty.

@fugawe09@agalum In this case I was making a pun based on the wording of the article title.

I don't care how endowed the assistant coach is-that's too much money.

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It's a sad state of affairs. The line between student-athlete and professional keeps getting blurred, and it makes it difficult for me to want to support NCAA sports teams (well, ones that would be affected by NIL anyway) .

I already shred any letters UCD Athletics sends me asking for money because I don't support NIL payments, FBS aspirations, or any of the student-athlete-only programs. It's not making a difference, but not contributing to causes I don't agree with makes a difference to me. Everyone else can just continue to do what they've been doing.

If people were actually that concerned about the state of the NCAA they could vote with their wallets in a similar fashion, but they won't. The lure of nationally-televised football and basketball is too great.

Davis wants to play for Sac State ? Ever notice how no players surnamed Sacramento ever want to play for Davis ?

And just the other day I was asking, "what is happening w/UCD's Adidas and BSN partnersips ?" Asked and answered.

Pinnick's also on the baseball roster, but I doubt he plays given the football time commitment. He was a .160-ish-batting outfielder in HS according to Maxpreps.com ; did Nicholson consider converting him to pitcher, because of the whole quarterback having transferable skills thing ? At .160 he would know a lot about making outs; the trick would be applying that to getting other people out.

Is this now the longest-running topic in aggiesportstalk.com history ? If so, the longest -ever thread is about Sac State. That's no small feat considering some of you guys post a reaction to almost every single play during football games.