In a "normal" (whatever that means) QB world, Cleeland enters spring taking the #1 reps, with Eason and Kollock splitting the remaining reps until one of them emerges. You'll be able to tell what the coaches think of 2 and 3 by how they're managed after a few practices. Cleeland and Eason will have an edge early because they know how to manage Plough's huddle and all the formations and shifts/motions, etc. If Kollock is a dude, he'll pick that up quickly and then they'll be better able to assess him vs. Eason first, then Cleeland. If he's not a dude, he'll be bottle-fed for a while, and if Eason is emerging, he'll get some of Cleeland's run to simulate competition. If Cleeland is clearly the dude, the battle will be for QB2.

This seems to always be the case for Aggie Athletics compared to most other schools we are trying to be competitive with.

Great game between pretty evenly matched UCI and Hawaii. Defenses are really going for steals, Irvine leads with 6 thefts, to UH's 4, but the Rainbows are up by a slim 31-30 score. Whoever either of these teams might play iin the first round of the NCAAs had better be ready for a tough game.

I don't think CA CFB would miss 'em much

Thanks for the informative write up. It might be interesting to look at the NIL budget for each team specifically for basketball. My guess is Jim is going to have to do “more for less.”

Complaining about "pot shots" is comical. The victim mentality doesn't work when you come out swinging at the FCS, lying, embellishing, and the sh*tshow concerts, publicity stunts, etc. He put a target on his school's back with his behavior. He made his own battle tougher.
North Dakota State had ZERO push back from their conference mates or the country for that matter. Nobody was making fun of them. Their program was respected, and that wasn't just because of the winning. Big difference between the way the two schools went about things.

Hopefully Sac is successful. Failing and folding the program would not be good for CFB in CA.

We already know that the Mountain West’s 10 team basketball schedule will involve the same home and away round robin that the Big West has been using. That’s a good thing for the sake of fairness. I do not like the way larger conferences can’t possibly do that with 14 to 18 schools, so there is an automatic imbalance in their schedules.

For what it’s worth, here are the nine teams that UC Davis will be playing next season with their MWC (unless otherwise noted) 2025-26 records, including any league tournament games in brackets [ ]:

Air Force (3-28, 0-20) [MWC 0-1]
Grand Canyon (20-11, 13-7) [MWC 0-1]
Hawai`i (Big West, 22-8, 14-6) [BW 1-?]
Nevada (20-11, 12-8) [MWC 2-1]
Nevada Las Vegas (16-15, 12-8) [MWC 1-1]
New Mexico (22-6, 13-7) [MWC 1-1]
San Jose State (8-23, 3-17) [MWC 1-1 ]
Texas El Paso (Conference USA, 11-20, 7-13) [None]
Wyoming (18-13, 9-11) [MWC 0-1]

Leaving the Mountain West are Boise State, Utah State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Fresno State. They are joining Oregon State, Washington State and Texas State in the Pac-State-12 conference.

Given the above, where do you think the Aggies might finish next season? My guess is no lower than 7th because there seems to be three pretty bad teams in the Mountain West, but no higher than 4th because there are three pretty good teams (assuming they don’t change much).

For future reference, I think this is a free online streaming service for MWC basketball: https://themw.com/watch/?sport=13

Listen to Gross or Les in defeat compared to a Pasternik - speaks volumes of how they feel about their players.

Valiant effort by the Aggies against a very good SD team that played very well today but this was yet another great Aggie team coached by Jen Gross and her staff.

The Ags need to tighten up their perimeter defense...way too many wide open shots from 3 by SD.

Oof, 16-2 UCSD run. Not ideal.

The Ags raced out to a 11-2 start then got stung by a 20-4 run by SD. Ags trail 22-17 after the 1st.

if you look at the NET rankings of the new conference, we’re at 8 ( I think) ahead of San Jose and Air Force.

Second OT win in 2 days for Hawai'i.

Les likes to play small. Almost all our big guys leave unless they like to shoot threes. That is our entire game. Les' career was about being a sharpshooting 3 pointer and he seems to have a preference for that play. We do not penetrate low for easy 2 pointers often.

Tamba left for a much better team and is getting playing time. If we really aren't getting good talent, then who is to blame?

Great call in coordinating that date

Fairness is a central tenet of sports, if not law. It's also not well considered. This past season is a good illustration. Some teams get hot near the end, as Fullerton has done, and go on to do a lot better than their seeding would predict. Teams that could have been a top seed (e.g. UCD) suffer injuries but, if the injured return, could be a lot better than their seeding. Finally, the Big West seedings this year were based on tiebreakers and since the 3-7 seeds, were separated by only one game, the seedings were based on the outcomes of one game per team. In other words, seeding is not always a measure of the best teams.

He was on point with how he said he thought the game went. I like both coaches, seem like great dudes. Thanks for sharing the videos!

holy shit this is genius!

This is a great idea! Unfortunately, we'll be in London and we miss the game.

Tim adding to the “new” tradition

I felt for Wilson. He had a big group from Albuquerque there for the games and he gets two ticky-tack fouls in the first 2 minutes (and the wrath of Les), and sat for the next 18. Second half it looked like he felt the weight of the world in his shoulders and tried to carry us back into contention - but he really struggled. Tough kid.

Comeback was fun but the fouls just kept coming and never let us complete the miracle. The ref that called the T seemed to be taking things a bit personal - we got no calls from him and some odd ones on the other side.

On the plus side, wife continued her slot streak pregame at the Green Valley Resort. Defies the laws of probability.

They had no legs tonight - in person, you could really see we were just a step slow on both ends. Fullerton is athletic and aggressive which compounded the problem - lots of second chance points and touch fouls ( many that were questionable). Too ending but not unexpected when we were basically seven deep (and in foul trouble!).

Top four remain - just shows how important getting a bye is!

As disappointing as it is this game illustrates why Jim Les is a great coach. He got his team to improve their rebounding and defense fighting through their fatigue to play Fullerton pretty even in the second half. It's pretty clear that the players like and respect him as evidenced by the fact that he loses very few players to the transfer portal. He is able to recruit intelligent players seeing potential in them that he is able to bring out, probably through good teaching. His play designs, especially on in-bounds plays has been remarked upon my numerous commentators. Davis needs to keep him next year not only for stability but because he has shown foresight in recruiting a lot of young players who will likely stay at UCD next year and well all improve. The Ags only lose Rocak and Daughtery for next year. All of the underclassmen will be better. I like our chances in the MWC next season as many of thebetter teams will be gone.

Going to miss Rocak.

Hard to blame anyone for what appears to be a loss in the last Big West game the Aggies will ever play, but especially the coach. This team has been inconsistent all year and with the injuries, fatigue and playing a hot team, this was going to be a tough one to win,

This is brutal. Can’t we just end it ha

Jim looks pissed.

Gut says it’s over. Only hope is a full second half with Wilson and have him takeover.

Not clue why he only played 4 minutes.