That would be great but I think that is an error. Ruchena transferred from Cal to the Aggies in 2025 as a graduate student and played the entire season for the Ags. I believe he has used up all of eligibility. I'd love to be wrong!

This is a great Aggie Pride Podcast episode:

This is a nice game for us. NDSU is a good mid-major program. They went 27-8 last year and one of their loses was to at Davis 80-68. That was a good win for us early in the season. The big difference in the game was that the Bison shot a miserable 3-27 from beyond the arc compared to us going 8-16. Connor Sevilla had his one of his best games as an Aggie shooting 8 of 20 overall from the field including 6-7 from 3 and 4-4 from the line for 26 points.

If Sevilla can stay healthy this year he could have a great, final season for us but he'll also have to contend with the bigger players in the MW guarding him. He got off to a hot start last season but was slowed down by injuries later in the season and Big West teams started focusing on taking him out of the game and playing him very physical. I imagine that the MW teams may try and defend him like that this season also.

Schedule so far that we know:

vs Incarnate Word on Nov 11
at Sac State on Nov 15 at 5 pm
vs Alabama State on Nov 17
at North Dakota State on Dec 3
vs Cal Baptist on Dec 14
vs Idaho State on Dec 17 at 6 pm

Spain wins their second World Cup beating Argentina 1-0.

Spain dominated the game but the the Argentina goalkeeper, Emilio Martinez, had 11 saves which is a new record for a World Cup final to keep Argentina hanging around even though they played the final 30 minutes of additional time down a player after Enzo Fernádez got sent off after receiving his second yellow card in the 93rd minute.

Sac State has released their men's basketball schedule. The Aggies will play at Sac on Saturday, November 14 at 5 pm. It will feel a bit strange to be playing against former Aggie player, Marcus Wilson.

https://hornetsports.com/documents/2026/7/16/2627_mbb_schedule.pdf

Idaho State at Davis on Thursday, November 17 at 6pm

Schedule so far that we know:

vs Incarnate Word on Nov 11
at Sac State on Nov 15 at 5 pm
vs Alabama State on Nov 17
vs Cal Baptist on Dec 14
vs Idaho State on Dec 17 at 6 pm

Big posts and power forwards who have great size and athleticism and who can both defend solidly and score consistently are the most sought after players in college basketball. The vast majority of those players end up playing for the P4 programs. So good mid-major programs are often built around elite guards and smaller wings who can use their quickness to score, shoot a high percentage from beyond the arc and defend aggressively.

Big men who can dominate on both ends of the floor are not common at the mid-major level. Consequently, the good big men that mid-majors do get are usually solid defenders and rebounders but, generally, they are not elite scorers. Oftentimes, they are "projects" who wouldn't get much playing time at a P4 school but will get a chance to play and grow at the mid-major level. Nico Rocak was a great example recently for the Aggies. In his time with the Ags he became one of our best big men ever and an outstanding team leader even though he was only 6'9 and was often defending against bigger players.

Francesco Borra, 7'0 265 was with the Aggies for 5 years. He was big and raw when he arrived here. He was never an elite scorer but he made good progress as a big body in the middle and would back up Rocak when Nico needed a blow or got into foul trouble. Unfortunately, he was injured for his entire final season and it really hurt us since we didn't have another player like him coming off the bench who could use his size and muscle to defend in the lane.

I remember former Aggie coach, Bob Williams, saying that, like Les, he wanted his big post to be a tough, solid defender and rebounder first and foremost and it didn't bother him if he didn't score much.

Les builds his teams around tough, disciplined, defensive minded players first and foremost along with elite guards who can get to the basket and can shoot well from 3. He's a big believer that defense can keep you in the game even when the shots aren't falling. That's a pretty good formula for mid-major success. The 3 ball can be a great equalizer against teams who are bigger inside and quick, crafty guards who can drive the ball and score can be frustrating for big men. These smaller, quick players with good hands can create TO's that lead to transition points too. That has also been a staple of Les' teams.

Looking at our roster at this point, it looks like we'll have more size than usual and we've added some good talent through the portal. A player like Szymczyk at 6'10 and 250 may not score much but he could be important to us being a tough defender and rebounder who could get valuable minutes for the Ags.

I like what I'm seeing with our recruiting and I'm excited to see the Aggie program grow as we compete in the Mountain West.

Basketball Australia's annual National Performance Camp was just as intense as you'd expect from an event that's held to prepare the nation's best up-and-coming athletes for what's ahead in their careers.

ESPN was in attendance for multiple days of the camp; here were the several players who emerged as clear standouts.

Koby Moir - 6'2 guard (2008-born)

Koby Moir really quickly emerged as the player at this camp who was, perhaps, best equipped to handle the intensity and disciplined nature of it.

The South Australian is a mature point guard who was comfortable performing against and absorbing physicality, and used his handle and quickness to get to his spots on a regular basis. Moir looked comfortable as a leader, and showed an IQ beyond his age, particularly in the three-on-three session, where players were forced to make quick decisions in a not-so-comfortable style of play.

What he projects as moving forward as a smaller guard is still yet to be seen but, regardless, Moir is the type of player any coach would want on a team right now.

https://www.espn.com/nbl/story/_/id/43618661/basketball-australia-annual-national-performance-camp-scouting-report-olgun-uluc

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

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.

Spain shutout the favorite, France, 2-0 on Tuesday and, in one of the greatest soccer matches I've ever seen, Argentina came back from a late 1-0 deficit to break England's heart by scoring in the 87th and 93rd minutes. This sets up a monster game for the championship between Spain and the defending champs, Argentina, on Sunday. This is soccer at it's very best!

Wow...that's some rough stuff. What a nightmare for Rocko and the Athletics Department.

As Rocko stated, some of them went way over the line and their behavior is shameful. Flooding social media with uniformed and inflammatory comments in order to rile up the equestrian community throughout California and even the throughout the whole country goes beyond the pale. It is similar behavior you might expect from a of a bunch of privileged, spoiled brats. Unfortunately, it appears to have served the purpose of making the larger equestrian community feel extremely upset and now they are piling on as well with angry comments and false assertions.

Also from the newsletter:

I just received the June UC Davis Football Newsletter and it's packed with information about many things that are happening with the program. I don't know if this newsletter is available to everyone or just to donors to Aggie football or Aggie Athletics. Anyway, here is schedule of upcoming events:

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.

Let's hope we find some more deep pocketed donors who will to do the same for Aggie Athletics as well.

Unfortunately, intimidation, bullying on social media, distortion of facts, outright lying and superfluous lawsuits have become far too prevalent in the American culture nowadays and it is often led by wealthy, powerful, influential people and, from there, it spreads easily to anyone with a bone to pick. So sadly, as shocking as the behavior of some of the equestrian folks has been, it also isn't all that surprising.

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?