I'm sure that the marketing can be more focused and improved but I'm worried that the problem goes much deeper. I think the Aggie fan culture has changed over the years since we went to D1.

UCD is rightfully known more for its academics than its athletics. The student body is huge but it is made up of mostly very scholarly students who grew up in the digital age. These students were studious in high school and most likely they were not that much interested in their high school's sports.

High school sports used to be the center of high school social activity and that is not the case anymore. Kids today have their digital devices, all sorts of social media to participate in, immersive video games and addictive cable TV series to binge on with their friends. If you didn't grow up a sports fan, you are not going to become one at college when there are so many other innovative digital things to do in between studying.

I've got nothing against "nerds," in fact, I love them and most "nerds" could give a hoot about college and pro sports. When you look around Aggie Stadium you see a lot of folks in the older generation and some families with young kids...not a lot of students.

Then there's all the concerns about CTE and the number of injuries in football and the huge financial cost of the sport. Football participation has declined among youth and high school athletics except perhaps in the deep south where it rivals religion.

Davis is a progressive and informed community and I think, that even though the population of Davis has increased dramatically recently, there is a lot less interest in Aggie football in the community than there was in the D2 days. I think the majority of Davis families see football as just too dangerous.

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, I love the game, but I think the times have changed and football, especially at our level, faces some really big hurdles in a university town like Davis.

This was a hard fought win over a very athletic Pepperdine team. The Ags started off hitting their first 4 shots and led 10-0 only a minute and a half into the game. They quickly cooled off though and and got out hustled on the defensive boards and the Waves came back to within one. The Ags built the lead up as many as 11 points in the 2nd half but couldn't shake the scrappy Waves.

Pepperdine was crashing the boards and getting a lot of offensive rebounds and 2nd chance points. They out rebounded the Aggies 45-37 overall and had 18 offensive boards that led to 18 2nd chance points. The Waves also played hard-nosed defense and the Ags were not getting a lot of open looks from 3. The Ags hit only 5 of 16 for the game after going 17 of 32 against Washington State.

Jen Gross saw that the Ags needed some more quickness and length on the floor to slow down the offensive rebounding of the Waves so she brought in Nina Bessolo and Cierra Hall and they contributed a combined 13 points and 9 rebounds in 13 minutes of PT each.

The star of the game though was Morgan Bertsch. Pepperdine was taking away the shots behind the arc so the Ags went inside to Bertsch and she responded with a monster game. She scored 27 points on 13 of 18 from the floor and 1-3 from the line. Her lightening quick spin moves in the paint are practically impossible to stop. She became only the 4th Aggie junior to reach 1,000 career points joining Carol Rische, Sydnee Fipps, and Ellen Porshneva.

Rachel Nagel had another stellar game also. She contributed 14 points on 5-8 shooting overall and 3 of 4 from the line.

If this team has a Achilles heel it may be rebounding especially on the defensive boards. Pepperdine was just getting too many offensive boards and 50/50 balls being batted around in the paint. To the Aggies credit though, they adjusted to not getting many open 3 point looks, went inside and outscored the Waves 40-28 in the paint. Good teams adjust and find ways to win and the Ags did that today. Great coaching and effort by the Aggies!

That was a sloppy first quarter for the Aggies. They turned the ball over and got out hustled on the boards.

No excuses but it must be hard for a team to come into the stadium and see it mostly empty with maybe a 100 students in the Aggie Pack. It's obvious that the students are not interested. The atmosphere in the stadium was flat and so was the team. In the Enterprise recap Maier said he was even surprised how flat the team was in the beginning.

I'm getting more and more skeptical that Aggie Football will ever regain a consistent following no matter how much better they get. There were 10,500 at the Poly game, then we trounced ISU and then we get to play the top team in the Big Sky and the stadium is practically empty...that doesn't bode well for us and it must certainly be disappointing for the team. A lot of the fans that do show up just sit there quietly and most don't even stand up for the kickoffs anymore...and that used to be a tradition...

All the better for us to play the spoiler for the Hornets but we'll need to play a lot better than we did tonight.

Sac is blowing out Poly 49-0 after 3 quarters. We may be in a world of hurt next week....

Ags lose 4-3 on penalty kicks. This is the part of soccer that I hate...games decided on penalty kicks suck...even if you win...

The Ags and the Titans are all knotted up at 0-0 going into the 2nd OT

Lots of comments from former Aggie and SUU head coach, Demario Warren, in today's Enterprise. Also, Ken O'Brien and the 1882 team will be honored. Great day for Aggie football!

Excerpt: Notes: "There will be tons going on off the field Saturday. First, the 14-member Aggie senior class — Darryl Graham, Bua, Grant Hilton, Justin Williams, Julian Bertero, Andrew Carriger, Keleen Culberson, Derek Baljeu, Brock Dale, Erik Holmer, Desmond Lewis, Kyle Sulka, Ryan Green and Brandon Weaver — will be honored. Then former Aggie QB Ken O’Brien and the 1982 Davis team that made an appearance in the Division II national championship game will be feted. O’Brien, who later had a brilliant career with the New York Jets, is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. He will be honored as the first player commemorated on the new Pride Wall at Aggie Stadium. …Trivia Time (and if you’re a UCD fan and miss this one, go to the back of the class): Q. Who was O’Brien’s fullback in ’82? A. None other than current Davis head coach Dan Hawkins."

http://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/davis-defense-goes-hunting-for-sudden-satisfaction/

I wish we still had our wrestling program.

It's always fun to watch both of the twins when they are on the floor at the same time. They have a certain chemistry where they just seem to intuitively know what the other twin is going to do.

I was impressed with the ball handling skills of the Aggies. The Cougars full court pressure didn't really create a problem for the Ags. I think I only saw 2 or 3 steals for the entire game that were caused by WSU's pressure defense. The Aggies did have a few too many unforced TO's mostly of the variety of an errant pass to a position on the court. I think some of those can be attributed to not having everyone on the same page. The Ags played an up-tempo game and, when you push the ball like that, you will turn it over at times.

There's always room for improvement: cut down the TO's and continue to work on winning the battle of the boards but, overall, it was a great performance by the Aggies.

Morgan Bertsch redshirted her freshman year. I'm not sure if anyone else did.

More and more we are seeing college basketball teams, both men and women, with very international rosters. WSU has 2 players from Australia, one from Serbia, one from Bulgaria, one from France, one from Portugal and one from Greece. They also have 3 players from Hawai'i so they cast a wide recruiting net!

(Y) The big difference was the Aggies 3 point shooting. They were 17 of 32 from downtown compared to only 4 0f 14 for the Cougars.

The Aggies get their revenge against WSU as they get their first win of the season against a PAC-12 team. This game was not as close as the final score.

Four of the Aggie 5 starters scored in double figures led by Morgan Bertsch with 19 points and Rachel Nagel with 16 on 6 of 7 shooting including 4 of 4 from 3. The Ags shot 48% overall, 53% from 3 and 82% from the line. This is a very deep team with a lot of weapons and they got 23 points from their bench. The Ags also had 23 assists and that is a sign of a veteran team.

Nina Bessolo is much improved and plays with a lot of energy. True freshman, Cierra Hall, plays with a lot of poise for a freshman. She has the athletic ability to step right in and play at the D1 level and has the potential to be terrific player.

The Ags return to the Pavilion Sunday to take on the Waves of Pepperdine at 2 pm.

Great game Ags!

72-50 Ags at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The biggest differences in this game so far is the 3 point shooting for the Aggies and being very active on defense. We were 10 of 15 for 67% from 3. The 6'0 true freshman, Cierra Hall, is very athletic and plays with a lot of poise for a true freshman.

Aggie Athletics just officially announced the signing of Damion Squire.

“The coaches were genuine, I feel my skills fit the system well, and I really appreciated the family atmosphere. I was impressed by how high the energy was during my official visit and practice, everyone wanted the best for one another. This was the best fit for me,” said Squire.

His bio is pretty impressive.

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/110917aai.html

I'm looking forward to that one.

Go Ags!

Coach Les has said, "We are just swimming in their wake." They could be very special this year since they lost only one back-up player and they have gotten even deeper. Their goal is to make it into the NCAA tournament and win some game. They'll be exciting to watch this year and deserve to be supported by Aggie fans.