MBB: Academy of Art (3-3) at UCD (2-2) at 2 PM Sunday 11.28 Well, we should have stayed home and watched the 49ers. We left the game with 5 minutes to go and the game was out of reach.
No doubt that this is the low point of the Jim Les era at UC Davis. I think Les is a good coach of the game and he's respected and well connected among college basketball coaches. However, I don't think he's a particularly good recruiter. Remember, this is the team that he and his staff have assembled and put on the floor. I don't question the players will to win or play hard. I think it's more a question of not having the level of overall talent that's needed to be consistently successful at this level.
Jim expects his teams to win with hard effort and aggressiveness and I think they do play hard but you can't win on effort and aggressiveness alone. The game is also about quickness, length and pure basketball skills. Perennially, the best teams in the Big West like Irvine and Santa Barbara have several impact players like that on their teams each year as does Hawaii. We've had some players like that too but not very often: Corey Hawkins, Chima Moneke and TJ Shorts come to mind. These are players who can take over the game with their overall basketball abilities. Other teams in the Big West are getting impact players much more often than us and the best teams have some on their teams each year and that's about recruiting.