I hate to say but that seems to be par for the course. If the Athletics Department wants to get more fans in the seats, they need to get the word out much sooner than 24 hours before tipoff.

The coaches and the players of both the men's and women's teams have done their part and we have two exciting programs right now. They deserve better promotion and public outreach.

I get the Enterprise online and get both the paper and online versions of the Bee.

The Enterprise is a throwback paper of the old style that I read more for the local news and commentary. I've enjoyed reading Bob Dunning's columns for years and Debra DeAngelo is one of my favorite columnists who has a wicked sense of humor and isn't afraid of expressing her feelings in a personal and direct manner about important social and political issues.

I've also read the Bee since the mid 70's and I think it is an excellent newspaper. I wish they covered Aggie sports in more depth, of course, but, in regards to important issues at the local, state and national level, I think they do a very good job.

All newspapers, except perhaps for the most notable papers like the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post etc, are undergoing difficult times trying to compete with internet news sites. I guess I'm old school and still appreciate papers like the Enterprise and the Bee.

It was a fun show with interviews with Jen Gross, Jim Les, Rachel Nagel, Pele Gianotti, Chima Moneke and Siler Schneider. Scott Marsh kept the questions flowing and the players seemed to enjoy themselves.

One thing that came across clearly is the the women players are really tight with Jen Gross and obviously love playing for her. Jen feels like the sky is the limit for this team and she spoke about how much fun they are to coach. Rachel said she plans to apply to medical school and Pele says she would like to play pro ball in Europe. They both talked about what a positive influence Coach Jen has had on their lives.

Coach Les was complementary about his players and how he was pleased he is about how the team is coming together. Chima talked about his circuitous route to playing basketball at Davis. He said Coach Les saw him at a JC combine and offered him quickly. He said he'll always remember a text Les sent him that said Davis is a great school and community and there a lots of beautiful women on campus. That got some laughs and Chima replied that that sealed the deal. Siler talked about relishing the moments to make a critical play. He said it's what he dreamed of as a kid playing ball in the driveway where he would count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then take a shot and imagining what that would be like to be able to do someday.

The coaches and the players were all classy and articulate just as you would expect from the Aggies.

Marsh said there will be another show next month.

Anybody watching this? The feed keeps stalling for me.

So the Athletics Department just posted their previews for both the men's and women's games. There are some promotions listed in the men's write up:

Promotions
- Free long sleeve t-shirts for the first arriving students
- Schedule posters/cards
- Budweiser Clydedales will stop outside the Pavilion at approximately 6:30 p.m.
- Home basketball doubleheader: one ticket provides admission for both games; reserved tickets only for lower bowl seating at men's game
- Multicultural Night, Campus Clubs and Club Sports Night
- Cesar Chavez, Fairfield, Patwin, Pioneer, Willett Elementary School Night

This is the first I've heard of these promotions and the previews were only just now posted. I wonder if the public and/or the student's are just now finding out about this? We need to build a fan base but I'm not sure the word is getting out..,?? Anyone else hear about these promotions earlier?

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120517aai.html

I'm going to tune into this show. Is anyone planning on attending?

I think our SOS hurts us a bit. We are currently #47 in the NCAA Women's RPI rankings even though we're undefeated. WSU (4-4) is #28 and beat them solidly so the rest of our wins must not carry much weight. In the games ahead Yale (4-3) is #51, St Mary's (5-2) is #58, Central Florida is #63, Oregon State (5-2) is #110 and San Francisco is #205. I think we would need to win them all to move up.

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d1/ncaa-womens-basketball-rpi

It does seem that way. SOS is huge. One of the reasons the Aggies' RPI is so high is that many of the power schools play down in the early season and pad their records with wins over mid-major schools. So, even though we have a great RPI at the moment, it's deceptive because many of the big name schools have not played challenging schedules but, in reality, they are very tough teams.

We're seeing more and more schools recruiting international players and it is elevating the level of talent in college basketball.

I think that poll comes out today...?? If we move up we're getting into some rarified air!

I was curious as to how rpi is actually calculated.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The rating percentage index, commonly known as the RPI, is a quantity used to rank sports teams based upon a team's wins and losses and its strength of schedule. ... Thus, the SOS accounts for 75% of the RPI calculation and is 2/3 its opponents' winning percentage and 1/3 its opponents' opponents' winning percentages."

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_percentage_index

It's official. The NCAA released their official RPI rankings yesterday and we are indeed ranked #22. We are sandwiched between a couple of heavy hitters: #21 Kentucky and #23 West Virginia. How's that for some elite company! :-O

For some perspective, the following are some current rankings of teams of interest to Aggie fans:

A few Big West teams:

UCSB #31
UCI #113
LBSU #116

Teams the Ags have played:

Utah Valley #47
Washington State #57
Washington #105
Northern Colorado #152
Pacific #197
Sac State #305

Some upcoming OOC games:

Nevada #7
Lamar #145
Pacific #197
San Francisco #240

Some other west coast teams:

SDSU #35
Boise State #42
USC #48
Gonzaga #60
Montana State #75
Fresno State #81
Portland State #87
St Mary's #92
UCLA #96
Bakersfield #130
Poly #193
Stanford #201
Cal #282
Santa Clara #338

http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-rpi

Great to see the Ags get some recognition.

I hope I'm wrong but my guess is that we will not see Doss in an Aggie uniform again. Good luck to him for the Payton Award!

I think you may have forgotten that Corey Hawkins was "an effective slasher driver in the D1 times." The thing I like about TJ is that, not only can he slash and drive to the basket, but he has lighting quick hands and can pick players pockets. He is also an excellent passer and can dish out the assists. He's an exciting player!

It’s fun to speculate but I don’t see us as the clear favorite in the Big West at this point. We have shown some exciting potential but we’ve also been very inconsistent especially on offense. Good D emerges before good offense with a team like the Aggies with so many new players. Hopefully, the WSU game was an indication of what’s to come.

There's something wonky with the realtimerpi.com ranking system.

Nobody recruits Australians like St Mary's does. Maybe they should change their nickname from the Gaels to the Koala Bears or the Tasmanian Devils...

Here is a link to an excellent post-game interview with WSU Head Coach Ernie Kent. He is a classy, articulate coach and he had high praise for Chima. He said you would expect to see a player like Chima at Oregon, Arizona, UCLA or USC. He said Moneke is a deceptive athlete that plays very quick and "we had a lot of trouble with him."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqoi3OVUZk8&feature=youtu.be

We were able to listen to most of the game on the Tunein app while driving out in the boonies of Nevada. We lost cell service for the last half of the first half and, when we got it back, the Ags were up 23 early in the second half. I nearly drove off the road!!

Great win by the Aggies! This, along with the NCAA Tournament win, are the signature wins of the Jim Les era.

Congrats Ags!