Day 6 - Matteo Perez and Kavir Bains

Day 5 - Porter Connors, Mitchell Dixon and Coach Plough:

Day 4 - Ernesto Nava and Markeece Alexander:

Day 3 - Trent Tompkins, Josh Gale and Coach Plough:

Day 2 - Miles Hastings, Zach Kennedy and Coach Plough:

Day 1 - Lan Larison, Rex Connors and Coach Plough:

Wonderful video! I can't wait to see where Plough takes this team this fall and in the future.

I like these position previews and I agree that they serve to introduce players and coaches to the public while generating some early season interest. I'm for all the publicity that the Athletics Department can generate. The more fans in the seats this fall, the better!

Yes, that's the primary Les playbook: hard-nosed, disruptive defense, create TO's and push the ball in transition. It looks like we could have good depth this year so we should be able to play fast and hard at both ends of the court. Should be exciting!

I don't think we'll play multiple QB's on a regular basis either but bringing one in on occasion that has something special that they can do might mix things up a bit. Let us know what you see and hear if you make it to a practice next week.

Article about the 3 transfers that Les brought in this year:

https://ucdavisaggies.com/news/2024/8/1/uc-davis-mens-basketball-finalizes-2024-25-roster-with-trio-of-transfers.aspx

I'm sure that some of these QB recruits will end up playing in other positions as well but, if we had several QB's that all brought something special to the table, it could make it maddening for an opponent to prepare all the possibilities we might be able to put on the field at some point in a game.

Yes, I noticed that as well, Toke. Even highly regarded HS recruits often take quite a bit of time to adjust to the speed and physicality of the college game. They also have to learn how to balance their academics with the time demands of their sport especially at schools that require their athletes to actually do well in the classroom like Princeton and Davis. He may have been nursing and injury too.

He looks good on film and I know that Les is a master at developing "diamonds in the rough" who have been largely overlooked and are hungry to work hard and show what they can do. He seems like a great fit for us and I look forward to seeing him play this year.

I like what I see in that video: athletic, glides to the rim, soft shooting touch.

The 2024-25 MBB roster is now posted and it shows that we added a transfer from Princeton:

Derek Sangster 6'8 200 lb G/F Sophomore.

247 Sports shows that he had offers from Washington State, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, San Jose State, San Francisco, Montana, Loyola Marymount and Princeton coming out of Archbishop Mitty HS in San Jose in 2023.

This bio is from the Princeton Athletic website:

2023-24: Appeared in 13 games … scored 11 points, went 3-for-5 from three and had five rebounds along with two blocks in a home win over Delaware Valley on Dec. 22

Before Princeton: 2023 Conference Player of the Year … 2X First Team All-Conference … 2X Central Coast Section Scholar Athlete of the Year … 3x member of the California All-State team … 3x Conference Champion … 1x Central Coast Section Champion … member of the 1000 Point Club … member of the California Scholarship Federation and National Honor Society … Principal’s Honor Roll list for six semesters (4.0 academic GPA or higher for a semester)

https://goprincetontigers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/derek-sangster/21797

I didn't realize that we did that well bringing in transfers.

Hugh Hogland played for the Aggies in the 2020-21 as a grad student transfer from Portland where he played for 4 years from 2017-2020. He only appeared in 2 games for the Ags and decided not to use his additional Covid year of eligibility.

After he left Davis, he went to Japan and signed with the Ryukyu Golden Kings of the professional B League. He suffered a serious elbow injury and underwent 3 surgeries before returning to play in 2023 and helped his team win the B League title and he is still with the team. He is currently a member of Japan's Olympic team in Paris. He was also an Olympian on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games as well.

Lots of information about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Watanabe