The Aggies #45 RPI ranking will be short lived after today's disappointing loss to Jacksonville whose RPI was #104 entering the game with the Aggies.

Jacksonville came out aggressive and physical in the second half and the Ags failed to match the Dolphins physicality and energy and lost 61-54. The second half of this game was one of the worst halves of basketball the Aggies have played this year. Jacksonville wanted it more and deserved to win. This was a very disappointing loss for the Aggies because of the way they got out played in the second half.

The Ags turned the ball over again and again with lazy passes and players not being ready to receive the ball. They got hammered on the boards, gave up 20 offensive rebounds and just did not play with energy and determination. We got beat on the 50-50 balls and stood around flat-footed on the rebounds and failed to box out.

The Ags were rolling in the first half when both teams were playing "nice" and no fouls were being called. In the second half Jacksonville turned up the pressure and energy and got physical and the Aggies played on their heels and failed to match the intensity.

This is not the way Coach Gross wanted to see her team play just before entering league play next week. I think that the Big West teams now know that the way to play the Ags is to pressure them defensively, crash the boards and play physical.

Only thing to do now is to learn from it and move on but there's no way to sugar coat the poor effort in the second half. The Aggies will need to look at the game film and prepare for the Big West teams to play them very physical when league starts.

One good thing that the Ags can point to in this game is the return of Rachel Nagel to the line up. She returned from her injury and led the Aggies with 16 points.

Jacksonville came out in the 2nd half and got physical and the Aggies responded with tentative play and sloppy ball handling and only lead by one at 44-43. The Aggies only managed 6 points in the 3rd quarter.

The Aggies came out in the 2nd quarter and went on a 16-2 run and take a 38-25 lead into the half. The Ags have been doing a great job of running the break and also finding the open cutter in their half court sets and are shooting 62% overall. The only bugaboo for the Ags is that they gave up 9 offensive rebounds but still did a good job overall defensively by holding the Dolphins to just 29% shooting.

The Ags trail 17-16 at the end of the first quarter. Too many TO's have hampered the Aggies early and Jacksonville is doing a good job of bottling up Bertsch so far.

Nice article from the Enterprise about the game with some quotes from Coach Jen Gross about her team and today's game at Jacksonville:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/so-far-florida-is-the-sunshine-state-for-ucd-women/

More recently, if I am remembering correctly, Gould closed his practices to the public after he lost his first game at North Dakota because he believed that ND knew too much about the Aggie play calling during the game. He said he believed that they had scouted our pre-season practices but offered up no proof.

I don't know if he called everyone "babe" but I think he liked being around all the pretty, young coeds on campus.

The last time I spoke with Ham I was sitting at a table at Blake's with a friend who was cute as a button and Ham was sitting by himself at another table having a drink. I happened to look over and caught his eye and got up and walked over to our table and started chatting away in that raspy, coarse voice of his.

He started going on about how we were going to build a first class basketball facility (Pavilion) and how excited he was for the future of Aggie basketball. But, at one point, he just stopped himself in mid-sentence and said to my friend, "You've just cute as ever and have a really great twinkle in your eye." She blushed a bit and we all laughed. He was a unique character who just lived and breathed Aggie basketball.

I think they can be grouped with our best ever teams. They're young and have matured a lot as the season has progressed this year. If they continue to grow and avoid injuries, they have the potential to be very, very good and should be in the battle for the Big West title. Next year could be scary good!

I have been impressed with how they have addressed the serious problem they have had with rebounding. They have been holding their own on the boards in the past few games and are clearly playing more physically around the basket. When they are ticking on all cylinders they have great ball movement and are finding cutters open under the basket with precise passes. They handle pressure well and have players that can get hot from 3 and, really, are just playing well in all aspects of the game.

I hope Aggie fans will get out to Pavilion and support this team. They're fun to watch.

Yes, when Hickey was packed and the Band-uh was blaring away, it was deafening and often sweltering hot as well. When I first arrived at UCD I couldn't believe that a university the size of Davis was playing D2 basketball in a crackerbox gym. It was a lot of fun though and it never felt empty like the Pavilion can when the fans stay home.

Great recognition for Keelan!

We literally survived after squandering a 16 point lead with 9 minutes to go but, like you, I'll take the W as well.

I saw that. He looked a little lame going into the dressing room at the half. We can hardly afford to lose him.

So far we've neutralized him pretty well and the Aggies are pushing the ball at every chance they get. Ags take a 39-27 lead into the half and we are winning the points in the paint 24-14. Good energy, good defense and excellent ball movement by the Ags so far.

Fun basketball game to watch at the moment with the Ags up 6 24-18. Chima is amazing for a 6'6 player. He really has a nose for the ball.

Seattle leads the all time series 6-3 but they do seem to have our number for sure. We have not played well up in Seattle. IIRC it seems like the last time we were up there the we were sluggish and sleepwalking. I don't know what the deal is but it seems like we mostly go to Seattle and they don't come to Davis very often.

I think this is an important game for the Ags. We've been going backwards.

Today's win over USF is one of the best wins in history for the Aggies. The Knights had only lost to two undefeated D1 teams, #17 Virginia Tech (12-0) and Buffalo (10-0), and those two loses were by a combined 4 points total.

The Knights are athletic and talented and featured the 6th best defense in the nation and ranked 4th in steals. But, the Aggies put up 77 points on them which is 26.7 points more than the Knights have allowed on average per game (50.3 ppg). The Ags shot 52.5% and held the Knights to 38.7% for the game. Most significantly, the Aggies were only out rebounded by one board 40-39. This is an area that they have struggled in most of the season so they have done a great job of shoring up that problem.

Morgan Bertsch led the Aggies with 20 and Pele Gianotti had 15 and Sofia Song 12.

This is a very impressive win by the Ags and shows that Jen Gross has this program on the fast track to becoming very good in D1 basketball.

Good job Ags!

HUGE win for the Lady Ags as they beat Central Florida 77-71!

The Aggies stretch the lead to 8 at 53-45 at the end of 3.

This is an outstanding article that really shows the brilliant influence of Coach Sochor on the Aggie coaching tree. It sums up what we do here in Aggie Athletics and why it is special. I think it should be required reading for all Aggie athletes and could be used to acquaint potential recruits with what we are all about.