You had that one pegged a some days ago. Good sleuthing CA Forever!

I'm excited about the hires that Hawkins has made so far. These are high quality, very experienced coaches that he has history with so they'll work well together. I love the Zen, wisdom, and philosophy stuff that is important to Hawkins and it seems that these coaches buy into those values and I think it will play well with our scholarly athletes.

Speckman has overcome his disability and has been successful both a player and a coach. His story is inspirational and his bio says that he has been a sought after motivational speaker for big name corporations and organizations. He wrote a book about "figuring it out and getting it done." I like what he brings to the coaching staff.

My mom got her master's degree while working full time and raising 3 kids as a single mom. Whenever I would be whining about something she always used to tell me, "Quit complaining and do something about it!" It used to drive me nuts as a kid but it was one of the most valuable lessons she ever taught me. It's nice to know that Hawk and Speckman are like that too. I think they're going to "figure it out and get it done."

I would think as Assistant HC he will have a significant amount of influence about using or incorporating the fly offense no matter who ends up being the OC.

I do remember Hawkins saying in his presser that he was all about being creative and using deception to make it difficult to know where the ball is. So it makes me think he will definitely use elements of the fly in his offensive scheme of things.

So what happened?

When I left to go to a Christmas get-together the Ags were up by 9 points with 5 minutes or so to go. We were playing well and keeping a 5-11 point lead in the second half.
If I'm reading the live stats right, it looks like the Aggies went 1 for 10 down the stretch while the Bison were 5 of 6.

Ouch...this one hurts...let it get away...dang!

Did anyone hear Coach Les' post-game comments?

Excellent half of defense by the Aggies. Both teams struggled on offense for much of the first half before the Ags opened up a 9 point lead 29-20. SDSU closed within 1 before the Ags ended the half with a spurt to go up by 7.

The Aggies shot 50% overall and 50% from 3 while winning the boards 19-12. Chima has 10 and JT and White have 7 each. Nice to see JT getting into a better offensive flow and White drove the ball hard to the basket for a couple of 3 point plays.

Garrison Goode is on the bench but doesn't have a boot on so hopefully we'll see him back for league at least.

Ags take a 35-28 lead into the break in a defensive minded ball game by both teams.

Aggies official announcement: Robert Tucker named Defensive Coordinator

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/121416aaa.html

The Ags were just way over matched in this one and go down in flames 93-52. OSU was too tall, too talented and too deep for the Ags to handle. I'm not sure Jen Gross will be happy with her team's overall effort though as the Aggies were tentative from the start and just did not play aggressively.

The Aggies have struggled with rebounding all season and the Beavers compounded that problem with a huge height advantage. They also took advantage of the Ags soft interior defense which lead to too many easy shots in close for the Beavers.

The Ags must learn to block out under the basket and be more aggressive on defense overall. When their offense is sputtering, like it was today (31% from the field overall and 21% from 3), it's their defense that has to play hard to keep them within reach. Like Coach Les likes to say, "Defense travels whereas offense doesn't always make the trip."

I think the Aggies have the potential to be a pretty good mid-major program this year, but a game like this shows the big disparity between the better D1 women's teams and the rest of the field.

The Ags travel to Sac State on Sunday to tangle with the high scoring, run & gun Hornets. This will be another tough game for the Aggies.

You remember correctly..we gave that game away.

Here's a couple of things I found about the Fly Offense:

The FLY Offense is a mis-direction, ball concealing, deception offense. It has been
compared to the Wing T and an option style offense. The WR Sweep is the base play of
the offense and its most dangerous play. "Sweep till they weep" is a common phrase used
in the Fly Offense. Another big phase of the Fly offense is its use of the No Huddle.

http://www.playbookexchange.net/playbooks/Offense/01100301-FlyOffense.pdf

Why run it?
-It is a system
-It is unique/ hard to simulate
-Flexible/ adapts with personnel

Fly Sweep is the signature play
-Make them stop it
-Run it multiple ways
-Deception is key
-Have an interior run game
-Stretch the field opposite sweep with option, boot, etc.

Based on what defenses don’t like to see:
-Motions
-Shifts
-No huddle
-Deception
-Unbalanced formations
-Players in space
-False keys
-Option
-QB as a runner
-Wide splits

Also based on:
-Simplicity within complexity (easy for our guys, looks complicated to defenses)
-This is accomplished because: Backs learn paths, Line learns rules, Receivers learn concepts.
-Blocking scheme is based on down blocks and double teams- we should never have to man block a defensive lineman at the point of attack.
-Every running play fits into one of the following run blocking rules:
-Sweep
-Short Trap
-Long Trap
-Option
-Lead
-We can call any combination of shifts, motions, and running back paths that we like and our offensive linemen only ever need to know how to block 5 plays.

-We are based out of split back which allows us to have a similar running attack as a split back veer team. We have similar misdirection and blocking rules as a wing-t team. And we have the ability to go to a single back look which suddenly gives us a spread formation and philosophy.

Read more: http://coachhuey.com/thread/8497/fly-offense#ixzz4SqXownGM

The rout continues as the Beavers extend their lead to 37 points after 3 quarters 72-35.

Ooof..Beavers 44 Aggies 22 at the half. Just as they did at Stanford the Ags have been plagued by cold shooting and poor rebounding. OSU has a big size advantage but the Aggies are not blocking out and get caught flat-footed much too often.

The Ags need to come out much more aggressive to keep this game from being a huge blowout. They played much too soft and tentative in the first half.

OSU 23 Ags 11 after the 1st period. Cold shooting (29%) and getting out rebounded 16-6 has put the Aggies in a big hole early.

So we offered him even after his verbal to Montana State? Are we're trying to convince him to change his mind?

I think JT is a stalwart emotional leader on the team too. I'm not quite sure why this team seems to be bogged down at the moment. We have 4 seniors in the starting lineup yet we are playing so inconsistently. We need to play like we did in the second half against Cal for the whole game. If we do that, this team can be competitive in the rest of our games. We can't come out tentative and lackadaisical and dig a big hole. We just don't have the offensive weapons to make big comebacks. I think this team will be in a lot of close games even when they are playing well. We're not the kind of team that's going to blow people away with offense.

According to this Enterprise article the process is still chugging along letting no stone go uncovered:

“As of December 2, the search advisory committee has reviewed approximately 525 individuals to date.”

Read more here:

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/dunning/bob-dunning-our-chancellor-less-campus-is-doing-just-fine/

I'm sure no one is more disappointed than JT about how things have gone overall. I agree that his confidence may still be shaky about those knees now. In my opinion, he wins the Aggie tough luck award and the Aggie perseverance award after those two devastating knee injuries and surgeries. He seems to have lost some quickness in his ability to react defensively especially when he needs to move laterally quickly and, as a result, has been getting in foul trouble. I hope he has a couple of breakout games and things take off for him. He's a great kid with a big love for the game.

Schneider plays hard all the time but gets out of control on offense especially when he lowers his head and shoulders and drives the ball into traffic and gets stuck. He's a warrior who plays with a bit of a chip on his shoulder and isn't afraid to play physical. I see him more as a small shooting guard than a point guard. I don't think he has the quickness necessary to play point comfortably.

I've been thinking about who is going to take over for Graham next year. Darius drives the team as a good point guard should so we'll have some big shoes to fill. We have Arel Hennings but he's probably not going to see much PT this year.

We also have TJ Shorts 5'10 165 PG transfer from Saddleback JC coming in next year. He'll have to learn fast but he seems to have the skills to take over the point. Saddleback is a juco basketball power. They lost in the state championship game last year so he has been playing at a high juco level. This year he is averaging 20.3 ppg and is shooting 54% overall and 58% from 3. In his last game against Riverside JC he had 33 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. It looks like he may be able to come in and step right in next year.

I used to go to Aggie games in Hickey Gym and, yes, some of us are still alive and kicking! It was packed, hot and loud. Coach Hamilton would be stomping, yelling, chewing on his towel and even going up in the stands to sit with the students when he was really going wild.

Ham was half the fun of being there. He would get so riled up and passionate that it was a wonder he didn't keel over and drop dead in the heat of the moment. He was never abusive and was always respectful of the refs and our opponents. He was great coach and a unique character.

I agree. We'll have to play better even to finish in the middle of the Big West. I try to stay positive about the direction of the program and I get it that it's not easy to build a competitive D1 program. We should be competing for Big West titles year in and out. Heck, I even think that a university like UCD should be, at least, a top mid-major competitor in basketball. I just don't see that much progress though.

So, at this point, I don't think Coach Les is getting it done. It has nothing to do with the great kids that we do get. They are true scholar athletes that have great character and I pull for them in every game. But, the fact is, we are still a struggling mid-major program and, just as in football, it needs to get a lot better.

This great university, the students and Aggie fans deserve that, and the greater Sacramento area is hungry for a exciting D1 college basketball program. It's time for Blue to assess the program and make a plan for the success of basketball just as he has for football. We need to get the basketball train rolling too!