These kids will play their hearts out. Win or lose...busting with Pride for them!

I think Hexter is in Tulsa...pic: https://twitter.com/UCDavisAggies

This kids make it easy to be an Aggie fan...they're such great people...humble with integrity...so nice to see in college athletics...

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I know most everyone will be in the middle of watching the Aggies play Kansas at the time that the women take on Utah at 5 pm. However, I hope you'll keep another window open on the live stream of the women's game too and check in on how they're doing every now and them. This is a huge game for them also.

Go Ags!

The amount on publicity that UC Davis is getting from the Aggies run is phenomenal. I just found a article by CNN on Chima Moneke. I hope the higher-ups in Mrak are following all press and media attention that this basketball team is generating for the school. It's high time they recognize that value of what successful D1 athletics can do for promoting public awareness of the whole university and start giving athletics more support.

Excerpt: "It's been a long journey for Chima Moneke, and it's not over yet.
The son of Nigerian diplomats has lived on five different continents. He hasn't seen his parents since 2009, when he moved back to Australia. He considers Canberra his home town."

"Now in North America, Moneke is a junior forward at the University of California Davis. For the first time in program history, the Aggies are in the NCAA tournament, the premier college basketball postseason bonanza that can turn obscure student athletes into pro prospects overnight."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/16/sport/ncaa-tournament-uc-davis-chima-moneke/index.html?utm_content=bufferd498e&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Here's the link to the article mentioned by movielover. It's a really good read about the "darlings of the Midwest region:"

Excerpt: "Kansas brought a ton of fans to Tulsa, plus a Hall of Fame coach and the likely National Player of the Year. It’s a treat having the Jayhawks in town, but it’s nowhere near the best story at this NCAA regional.

For that, we turn to Charles Cook, who plays trumpet in the UC Davis band. Cook told me about his university’s annual “Picnic Day,” where “clubs come together and do different things, and professors put together science shows and do stuff where they put something in a balloon, pop it and have sparks shoot out, and the crowd goes, ‘Woooo!’"

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/osusportsextra/guerin-emig-uc-davis-might-not-beat-kansas-but-they/article_bcc1756c-f77a-50f7-ac52-ac8cdea777ed.html

Ailene Voisin writes about Jim Les' upset of Kansas 11 years ago and how the Ags are approaching today's game:

Excerpt: "TULSA, Okla. Jim Les remembers where he was, how he prepped his players, what transpired in the closing minutes, how he felt after his 13th-seeded Bradley Braves shocked No. 4 Kansas in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

Auburn Hills, Mich. Defend hard throughout and control the final minutes. His emotions spilling all over the court. He wanted to laugh and cry and scream, and before the party ended, he already was plotting for the next victim: Pittsburgh.

What Les didn’t realize until the late hours this past Wednesday, well after UC Davis slipped past North Carolina Central in the play-in game in Dayton, Ohio, was that the 11-year anniversary of his favorite March Madness moment – as a coach – was only days away. Actually, only one day away."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/ailene-voisin/article138989723.html#storylink=cpy

Interesting article on what it will take for the Aggies to beat Kansas:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/theres-always-a-chance-and-heres-how-ucd-can-do-it/

Bob Dunning's take on the Aggies' victory:

Excerpt: "ALL HAIL OUR HARDWOOD HEROES … I realize that “Cardiac Kids” and “Cinderella” are already taken and way overworked to boot, but someone has to come up with a name for our death-defying Aggie basketball team before we beat Kansas and ruin 44 million NCAA office pools …"

http://www.davisenterprise.com/update/bob-dunning-march-16-death-defying-aggies-keep-the-ride-going/

Ailene Voisin article from the Sac Bee with photos:

Excerpt: "Wait till her husband starts prepping his team for the next opponent: Kansas. Yes, that Kansas. The top-seeded Jayhawks already are resting at the Midwest Region in Tulsa, Okla., plotting for the upstarts/unknowns from Northern California, the ones who work the farm, study like scholars, and in contrast to most of their tournament peers, stay in school long enough to earn degrees."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/ailene-voisin/article138815943.html#storylink=cpy

Recap and post-game quotes from Coach Les, Chima, Brynton, and Lawrence...scroll down for the quotes:

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/031517aab.html#

Nothing like having to play Kansas in their own backyard too!!!

I believe we get $1.6 million but it goes to the Big West Conference and, I believe, it is paid over a number of years. I assume it is shared among all the schools.

If someone knows the fine details...please post up.

Illinois State 85 UC Irvine 71. The Redbirds should have been in the NCAA tournament. They would have done some damage there.

Illinois State 43 UCI 34 at the half. I'll tell you what, I'm glad we are playing the Redbirds in NIT. They are a really good basketball team (also the arch rival of Bradley when Les was Bradley's coach). They can flat out shoot the basketball. Irvine is actually playing pretty well but they have to get a few stops to get back in this one.

The #8 UC Irvine @ #1 Illinois State game in the first round of the NIT iis about to start on ESPNU.

Go Eaters and the Big West!

The Aggie win just fot the Big West Conference a tidy, little $1.6 million...you're welcome Mr. Commissioner!

It was a very entertaining basketball game between two very evenly matched teams. Chima was the x-factor for the Aggies and Lawrence White was the unsung hero that played one of his best games ever in an Aggie uniform.