For those who make plans in advance

As it stands now, the first football game in UCD's new $30 million dollar stadium will be against Northeastern on Sept. 22, 2007. But if you're the sort of person who would travel in from out of town for that game, I'd wait to buy your ticket. At this level, the schedules change hourly. UCD's docket won't officially be set until the school releases the dates at some unfixed point in the future. And even after the official release, it still will be subject to change. But after the jump, you'll find the rest of the opponents on the still-unfinished slate, and a look to 2008.

Here's what the slates look like so far for the next two seasons:

2007
Home: Northeastern (Sept. 22), Cal Poly (Oct. 13), South Dakota State (Oct. 27)
Away: Portland State, San Jose State, Eastern Washington, North Dakota State, Sacramento State, Southern Utah

2008
Home: Portland State, Northern Colorado, Sacramento State, [Southern Utah, North Dakota State]
Away: Central Arkansas, Montana, San Jose State, Cal Poly [South Dakota State]

UCD athletic director Greg Warzecka said he has candidates in mind for home games on Nov. 10 and Nov. 17 in 2007.He is in talks with San Diego for a four-year deal that would have the Toreros traveling north again next year. So we'll see where that goes. Eastern Washington has bought out of the second year of its four-game deal with UCD, the first of its two scheduled trips to Davis. Next year's game would be the third on a four-year contract. I think UCD is holding out a slim hope of getting the Eagles back as a home game, but I'm not sure how possible that is.

The San Jose State games are part of the two-game deal that was pushed back a year during the Aggies' February flirtation with Cal. Supposedly there is now a pretty hefty buyout clause in the deal, which means that if the date were to be broken it probably would come from the Spartans end for a national television payout. That's fairly unlikely. I've put the Great West Football Conference fixtures in brackets for 2008 because the future of the conference is unclear. And as always, the dates and teams are subject to change.

I have been told in the past that Montana contract is a home-and-home, although I'm not sure if that's the case. Even if is, don't be surprised if the Grizzlies buy out of the return game. Montana rarely travels for non-conference games because it's 23,000-seat stadium is among the most profitable in Division I-AA, or whatever we're calling it now.

We'll keep you posted on the schedule as the winter progresses.

Live from the South Bay

STANFORD -- It is 39 months to the day that UC Davis' football team rode down here for its scrimmage with the Cardinal. Remember that innocent time, when any minor whiff of anything sort of major college athletics set the whole program's heart a-twitter. That scrimmage was the first Division I milestone for the Aggie program. Since 1,000 Aggie fans watched a practice there have so many other big moments -- many of them, interestingly enough, involving Stanford -- that it's hard to work up too much extra lather for a game against the Cardinal at Maples Pavilion. UCD is in the Division I athletics business now, and sometimes that takes you into places like this for regionally televised contests. Honestly, it's probably another milestone that the entire athletic department hasn't dropped everything and hit the road for this game

Only a couple of pregame updates at the moment. Brook Lopez is expected to suit up for Stanford today. He is one two seven-foot freshman twins for the Cardinal. UCD probably won't be able to counter that sort of size, especially without 7-foot-2 Michael Boone (academics). UCD's Kyle Brucculeri is on the trip and taking shots on the court right now during the pregame, but UCD people are saying that he isn't expected to play.

Mierzwiak-ed

Gary Stewart said after practice Monday he no longer had any recollection of his team's 100-77 loss to Sacramento State on Saturday night. He said he had removed it from his memory, a process that sounded like something out of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Given that this is the same coach that walked back to the hotel after the season-ending loss last season, I have a difficult time believing that. More likely, I expect, he wants to steer the team forward. The Aggies head to Stanford as close to healthy as they've been all year. Stewart described his 0-5 Aggies as "bloodied but unbowed." Today's paper includes a discussion of Stewart's push to bring big-name programs like Stanford to The Pavilion. A discussion of today's game is after the jump.

This looks like another tough match-up for UCD. Stanford has a lot of size, which has spelled trouble for the Aggies so far this season. Also, the Cardinal team can clamp down. It's 82-39 win over Denver (and that's one of those women's basketball blowout scores) included a 21-0 run in the second half. UCD is hurting itself with turnovers and is not shooting the high percentage it needs in order to set up its pressure. And then the team is making bad decisions when it actually does apply the pressure. Stewart says he has no plans to dial back the pressure. And honestly, no matter what you think of the overall strategy of running all the time, the Aggies are basically locked into it. It's hard to see the team giving back six weeks of work at this point.

Seven-foot-two center Michael Boone still hasn't been cleared academically and Kyle Brucculeri did not participate in the last half-hour of practice on Monday, so they're probably out. Boone is day-to-day. Check in later today for updates from Maples Pavilion.

A triumphant farewell

The lights went out immediately after UC Davis' win over San Diego on Saturday, to the point that the postgame press conference was conducted in the dark. The running joke was that the ghost of Toomey had brought that on, causing some sort of disturbance on its way out of the old place. The final game was a cracker, as the game Toreros pushed the Aggies close to the limit. Having not seen San Diego on a weekly basis, it's hard to tell whether that performance was indicative of its general level of play, or the act of a motivated team trying to prove itself on the biggest test it would face. We'll wrap the season this week, as well as start talking more about Aggie basketball. UCD heads to Stanford tomorrow, looking to spring an upset.

Nader, err, Stig for Coach of the Year

The Division I-AA awards ballot arrived this week. The ballots come with a watch list. The only Great West representative on the watch list for The Eddie Robinson Award, named for the legendary Grambling coach, is North Dakota State coach Craig Bohl. And you can make a pretty convincing argument for him. His transitional team went 10-1 and might have been the best in I-AA. But I’m tempted to place my vote a little bit further south in the Upper Midwest. I’m talking about South Dakota State coach John Stigelmeier. I’m worried that I’d be throwing away my vote. What I’m wrestling with is whether principle matters more.

Here’s my case for Stigelmeier:

He rallied his team from the depths of despair and had it playing for the conference title in the toughest I-AA conference in the country. The Rabbits opened the season with a home loss to a D-III team, a rout at Montana and a collapse at Northern Iowa. And then SDSU rallied to win seven straight. And these weren’t seven easy routs (there was just one, William Penn). The Rabbits staged dramatic comebacks at Cal Poly and at home against UC Davis, and they were within a possession fairly late against a North Dakota State team that was drastically more talented.

Stig got the most out of his team, which was not necessarily physically gifted, but that had great belief that it was never out of a game. Stig said all year that it was in the players, but some of that has to go down to coaching. But he’s not on the watch list, so he’s not going to win. The ballot is due Wednesday, which should give me a little time to think.

Here’s how I voted in my final regular season ballot in the Sports Network’s Top 25: 1. Appalachian St.; 2. NDSU; 3. Montana 4. Youngstown; 5. Umass; 6. James Madison; 7. Furman; 8. Southern Ill.; 9. Tenn-Martin; 10. Eastern Ill.; 11. Illinois St; 12. Hampton; 13. New Hampshire; 14. Portland St.; 15. Northern Iowa; 16. South Dakota St.; 17. Cal Poly; 18. Coastal Carolina; 19. Wofford; 20 Central Ark.; 21 McNeese; 22 Montana St.; 23 San Diego; 24 Towson; 25 Princeton

Game on

Next week's game against unbeaten San Diego will go ahead as planned. The Toreros were left out of the 16-team field for the NCAA Division I Football championship. The fixtures for the first round of the tournament can be found after the jump. Aggie fans will probably see some familiar names.

Coastal Carolina (9-2) at No. 1 Appalachian State (10-1)

Furman (8-3) at Montana State (7-4)

James Madison (9-2) at No. 4 Youngstown State (9-2)

Illinois State (8-3) at Eastern Illinois (8-4)

Lafayette (6-5) at No. 3 Massachusetts (10-1)

New Hampshire (8-3) at Hampton (10-1)

McNeese State (7-4) at No. 2 Montana (10-1)

Tennesee-Martin (9-2) at Southern Illinois

Highlight of the selection show on ESPNews: Watching the anchors trip all over themselves trying to get I-AA's new name right. I'm still not clear on the nomenclature, but I'll work on it. I live to serve. By my untrained eye, I'd say that Portland State (7-4), and not unbeaten San Diego, was the 17th team.

Link aggregation

Here's something to spice up Causeway week. The Oregonian's Portland State football blog has checked in with a suggestion that Sacramento State is looking to leave the Big Sky Conference for combination of memberships in the Great West for football and the Big West in everything else. It's not a new rumor, and one that makes sense given how much trouble the Hornets have drumming up interest in their sports programs. Cal State Northridge and UC Riverside are probably bigger draws than Portland State and Northern Arizona.

When it comes to joining the Big West, Sac State is missing only a reasonable Division I basketball venue. Hornet Gym seats about 1,300 fans, which simply isn't large enough. A lot of people at UC Davis thought Sac State's old dorm-and-arena plan was a play by the administration to jump to the Big West. But then school officials decided to take that money and invest it in new offices for the football team. It did put to rest those rumors that Sac State was about to drop football. The Big West would like to expand to 10 teams for ease of scheduling. From what I've been told the preference would be to take a school from Northern California in order to increase the league's state-wide presence. Sac State would make a lot of sense. My guess is that the Great West's expansion likely will occur in the middle of the country. North Dakota and South Dakota are fairly locked into making the move, meaning a five-team league when the Dakota States leave for the Gateway. Nebraska-Omaha is discussing a jump as well.

I'd want to ask Sac State AD Terry Wanless about this during the Causeway weekend, but he's in Indianapolis as part of the Division I-AA playoff committee.

Meanwhile, in Fargo...

I asked UC Davis coach Bob Biggs to pick the winner of Saturday's Great West Football Conference title game between North Dakota State and South Dakota State. For his answer, unedited, check the jump.

"North Dakota State's the better team. To be honest with you I think they win by three touchdowns.

"South Dakota State, they have unbelieveable guile. Because they're not a great football team. That's not to discredit them, that's actually to credit them. They get the most out of their potential. They know what they're strengths are. They know what they're weaknesses are, and they don't play to their weaknesses. They play to their strengths. Give them credit. It's amazing what they've done."

Biggs went on to say North Dakota State is the best I-AA he's seen on film this year. The only reason he won't tab them the best team in the classification is because he hasn't seen No. 1 Appalachian State on film. But it's really too bad NDSU is not eligible for the postseason, because Bison would make things quite interesting.

Torero trouble, again

Sports Network Director of I-AA Football Matt Dougherty has posted his weekly playoff forecast, suggesting that San Diego’s playoff hopes are not as high as Toreros Jim Harbaugh would have every one believe. This is a side issue at the moment, but UCD (assuming, and this is no longer a safe assumption, it takes care of business against Sac State) needs San Diego not to be invited in order to have shot at continuing its 36-year winning-season streak. I quoted Dougherty earlier this week in a piece about San Diego’s chances. He seems to be echoing the company line that holds San Diego simply has not been tested enough this year to have earned a playoff spot.

Here’s the argument for San Diego: The Toreros went 10-0 and killed everyone on their schedule. The average score in their games was 46-11.

Here’s the argument against San Diego: The Toreros went 10-0 and killed everyone on their schedule. Their average score in their games was 46-11, because they played nobody. San Diego’s non-conference slate included such powers as Dixie State (one year removed from being a junior college) and Azuza Pacific (which is in the NAIA and went 3-7) this year. Its conference is basically glorified Division III football. Non-scholarship I-AA football exists because D-I basketball schools must play at D-I in all sports. The choice for schools like San Diego, Valparaiso and Dayton is not between scholarship I-AA and non-scholarship. It’s between dropping the sport or keeping it and playing on the cheap.

There are some things that would hurt the Toreros chances: Montana is a lock for the postseason, but if it loses to Montana State Saturday, it would take one of those at-large slots. There’s a three-way tie in the Ohio Valley Conference, there are a lot of scenarios and possible auto bid winners, and only one team, Tennessee-Martin, that looks like a pretty good at-large chance. The at-large spots taken, the fewer there are for San Diego. The field will be announced Sunday at 10 a.m. PT

Here’s how I voted in these week’s Top 25 poll: 1. Appalachian St. 2. NDSU; 3. Montana; 4. Youngstown; 5. Umass; 6. Illinois St; 7. Furman; 8. James Madison; 9. Southern Ill.; 10. Hampton; 11. Eastern Ill; 12. Tenn-Martin; 13. New Hampshire; 14. Portland St.; 15. Cal Poly; 16. South Dakota St.; 17. Northern Iowa; 18. Coastal Carolina; 19. Montana St.; 20. Alabama A&M; 21. Towson; 22. Delaware St.; 23. Wofford; 24. San Diego; 25. Central Ark.

Greetings from Cameron

DURHAM, N.C. -- So here's how we'll end this today. The atmosphere here at Cameron Indoor is unbelievable. Simply, the students are amazing. And while I suspect that some of them are preening for television cameras, the energy is just constant and completely hostile. I quite enjoyed it. The whole thing is a pretty convincing argument for what big time Division I athletics do for an university. There is no reason for anyone to have heard on a tiny private college in North Carolina (and, there are a few, like say, Davidson, that play D-I sports and you probably haven't heard of). Great basketball can do that for a school. Maybe great football can do that for a school too, although there aren't a whole lot of tiny schools that are really good at football.

Final: Columbia 95, UCD 90: The teams traded lulls in the second half. UCD's cost it the lead. Columbia's saw the Aggies pull to within a point with just under three minutes to go. It was a better showing, but you'd expect that against an inferior team. Columbia has a chance to be competitive in the Ivy League. Georgia Southern, based on the first part of the season, is a better right now. The game story will be in tomorrow's Enterprise. I'm going to stick around here for the Duke game.

Halftime: UCD 46, Columbia 41 UCD dialed back the fullcourt pressure as the half wore on. There are nine players dressed, but Gary Stewart appears to be using Jesse Lopez Low judiciously. UCD had a spurt before the half, but a ticky-tack foul call and Brett Loscalzo's 35-footer to end the half made it closer. We'll see if the Aggies can keep it up. The crowd is starting to fill in. Mostly, they're holding space for the Duke game tonight. A large portion of the contingent seems to have brought its homework. That might catch on at UC Davis.

1:17: UCD is trying to play uptempo without as much in the way of manpower, but having success. The pressure is causing Columbia problems. Columbia has been lights out from 3-point range to start. The most energy in the earlygoing, however, has come from the skeleton crew of Cameron Crazies, who spent the first two minutes running up-and-down the mostly empty bleachers chasing the ball. A bit of trivia: both teams lost by 43 points last night.

12:30 p.m.: Thomas Juillerat and Rommel Marentez are wearing suits today, and probably will for the foreseeable future. Both are on crutches (which is was a problem because UCD only travels with one pair of crutches). Juillerat had X-rays at Duke Medical Center, running into noteworthy Blue Devil alum Jason Williams while he was there, and those were negative. But Juillerat said it was pretty bad. I was told that Marentez's injury is a bad sprain. There are no timeframes yet, but think weeks, not days.

12:10 p.m: It is 80 minutes before tip-off and I’m sitting in the most unassuming building on earth. Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium is a small gray stone building on a campus full of gray stone buildings. About the only thing that appears to set it apart is the sign were the 10 or students already camped outside and waiting to get in. UC Davis vs. Columbia at lunch time on the West Coast probably was not the game my bosses had in mind when they green-lighted this trip. But here we are. I’ll be keeping this updated throughout the day as best as I can.

After the fall

DURHAM, N.C. -- Watching the second half of UC Davis’ 116-73 loss to Georgia Southern tonight, all I could think of was the scene in Anchorman where, following a fight between San Diego’s news teams, Ron Burgundy sits nursing his wounds with the Channel 4 crew and marvels, “Boy, that escalated quickly... I mean, that really got out of hand fast.” I had walked into the press room at halftime believing that the Aggies were still in that game. I thought Georgia Southern had looked ragged in the final three minutes of the half and UCD was a couple of misses on absolute sitters away from being in the game. I still don’t think I was wrong. But by the 8-minute mark, my emotions were echoed by the shirtless guy with blue face paint and a kilt, who just wanted it to be over.

Gary Stewart opened his press conference tonight by calling his team’s performance against Georgia Southern “a complete abomination.” It was pretty bad. UCD played tentatively in the second half and was athletically overmatched from the jump. The overall quality of Aggie player has improved, but Stewart has nothing on his roster of counter a guy like Louis Graham, who is a pretty good shooter has great (I can’t believe I’m using this term) length.

It is too early to start making judgments on the run-and-gun system the Aggies have installed this fall. But with the style UCD wants to play, it’s impossible to hide flaws for very long. There are too many possessions in the games to do that. The Aggies need to get better, and the good news is they have time to do that. The bad news is that to get there they may have to endure some more nights like this one. It's hard, though not impossible, to create momentum that way.

UCD plays Columbia Nov. 13 at 1 p.m. Pacific. There's no TV, and I don't know if the game is going to be on Internet radio.

The East Coast beckons

UC Davis forward Kyle Brucculeri, apparently, suffered his elbow injury on the first day of practice when he slipped off the rim while dunking. This is probably a double-edged sword for Aggie fans, who want to see players throw down but also want to see them healthy enough to play in games. Coach Gary Stewart has so far refused to rule out Brucculeri for the trip, and said that he would be evaluated today. We'll try to catch up with that for Friday's paper.

The radio broadcasts are set as well. Both games will be on KSAC (1240 AM). As we reported Wednesday, the audio will not be available on the Internet because that is the way ESPN wants it. KSAC's Sports Fanatics show will do some sort of preview of the team and the tournament during its 1-4 show on Saturday. I'll let people know the exact time if I hear more. I don't know what the web access situation is going to be like at Cameron (I assume very good), but I'll try to offer updates during the game for the one or two of you who have not found their way to ESPNU. It's a small step toward liveblogging, which is the direction everything in the business is moving toward.

Upon further review

Comcast is running its broadcast of the UC Davis-North Dakota State game on demand for the next two weeks, which I’m sure will send all you Aggie fans around here scrambling to your cable boxes. The Aggies took the day off practice and will meet Tuesday. Obviously the team has plenty to talk about. After the jump, my poll votes and a look ahead to what’s coming up this week.

Here’s how I voted in this week’s Sports Network Top 25: 1. Appalachian St.; 2. Montana; 3. NDSU; 4. Umass (8-1); 5. James Madison; 6. Youngstown; 7. Illinois St.; 8. Tenn-Martin; 9. Northern Iowa; 10. Furman; 11. Cal Poly; 12. Hampton; 13. Eastern Ill. 14. Southern Ill.; 15. New Hampshire; 16. Portland St.; 17. Coastal Carolina; 18. Montana St.; 19. South Dakota St.; 20. Richmond; 21. Charleston Southern; 22. Maine; 23. Alabama A&M; 24. San Diego; 25. Harvard.

Coming up this week in the printed paper: We’ll catch up the football team as it tries to catch its breath following another gut-punch game. We’ll follow a veritable cornucopia of playoff action. And we’ll preview the upcoming UCD basketball seasons. Did you realize the men’s nationally televised (well, ESPNU-televised anyway) season-opener is less than six days away?

Picking up the pieces

Want an interesting read? If you can bring yourself to relive Saturday’s epic collapse, check out Fargo Forum columnist Mike McFeeley’s live blog of the game. It’s a reminder of just how dominant UC Davis was in the first half, and just how shocking the turnaround was in the second. I don’t think it diminishes North Dakota State’s accomplishment to call this a total Aggie meltdown (on the field, on the sideline, in the stands, total). The Bison were very good in the second half; that last drive was an instant classic. But North Dakota State also was in the right place at the right time. UC Davis lost its emotional edge and, just as last week, lacked the resolve to push back against downward rolling boulder.

Tactically, North Dakota State relaxed its blitzing in the second half, doing what everyone does to the Aggies these days, sagging more players into coverage and then running up and making tackles when UCD threw the ball short. You could say the Aggies abandoned the running game in the second half, and you would be partially right. But, really UCD entirely abandoned offense in the second half. It only snapped 24 plays after the interval. The Aggies had six second-half possessions, starting four with runs and two with incomplete passes. Its shortest second down distance to go was seven yards. Quarterback Jon Grant overthrew some short screen passes, but I didn’t see a whole lot of open receivers down the field. The two waved-off catches by Tony Kays didn’t help matters, but once you’re relying on acrobatic catches to pull you through, you’re already in trouble.

UCD continues to commit bad penalties and yield large chunks of yardage. I can’t pick out any one flag that hurt more than the others Saturday. But in the big picture, when you give up the winning score with four seconds to go, it’s pretty clear that any extra yardage you could have made your opponent travel, time you could have made it use, would have made some sort of difference.

So what next? I’m wary of placing too much weight on a full emotional analysis of any team. Too often that sort of reading reflects the opinion of the analyzer rather than any relation to the facts on the ground. But for the first time in my four years on this beat, the burden of proof is on the Aggies to show they still have the internal confidence to snag late victories. Monday is the 35th anniversary of the Miracle Game, when UCD scored 16 points in 22 second to upend Cal State Hayward. In 13 days, the Aggies take on their long time whipping boys over at Sac State. For many years, UCD got by with inferior athletes against the Hornets thanks to a firm belief in its own abilities. When they meet at Toomey, however, the teams will have traveled alternate trajectories. Sac State has won four of its last seven and might have turned a corner. And the Aggies, well, two straight collapses does not necessarily lend itself to confidence.

Pre-game updates

Good afternoon from Toomey Field. We’re about 60 minutes from kickoff.

The big early news is that WR Brandon Rice is expected to play today, although not start. He is dressed and going through warm-ups.

The field itself looks a little worn, although it is in better condition than the pitch up at South Dakota State, which was hard and slippery. There is no contrast between gold in the logo at midfield and the gold-ish colored grass surrounding it. I would have thought they might have given it a fresh coat of paint, given the presence of television cameras.

Prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law

It’s no longer my job to track the daily comings and goings of the UC Davis women’s basketball program. Chris Saur has that honor. But watching the first half of the women’s exhibition against the Melbourne Roos, you really get a sense of how difficult the Aggies’ Princeton-style offense is to learn. Last year’s veteran team, after a season of growing pains, really had the scheme down. Thursday night, there were times when the veteran players were actively directing the younger players on the court. It’s pretty easy to see this year playing out a little like the 2004-05 season, with the team finally clicking late in the season. It sets up an interesting 2007-08, UCD’s first charge toward the Big West Tournament.

There were a couple of exciting moments, most notably, when a student (a name wasn’t immediately released) threw a fairly full Powerade bottle from the second deck onto the court. Luckily, it didn’t hit anyone. And it was fairly telling to see just how quickly security reacted. According to people who would know, someone who throws something onto the court at The Pavilion has his or her building privileges revoked and their case referred to UCD’s judicial services for possible charges. Most likely there will be meetings to review security. And the clubs who use the space behind the bleachers will probably have to find new places to meet.

Making an appearance at halftime, during the interlude where people are invited onto the court to shoot free throws, men’s head coach Gary Stewart and assistant John Lamanna both hit their shots.

Well, that was fun

Here’s a little piece of trivia about The Pavilion. The small scoreboard behind the student section was installed because Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef didn’t like having to look into the corner for the score and time. The board, however, may be woefully inadequate for this season’s Aggies. It only has two digits available for the score. So late in the game, with Aggies up by more than 60 points, it read Home 32, Visitors 71. UC Davis coach Gary Stewart has talked in vague terms this fall about playing “more uptempo.” That apparently means he has reinvented the Aggies as the Phoenix Suns.

Actually, on the media request slip sent up to the Aggie locker room postgame, someone asked for “Coach Westhead,” a reference to the former Loyola Marymount coach who was famous for his up-tempo style of play. It was, in short, a night to build confidence and get the fans excited. UCD’s athleticism has clearly improved, and C.J. Portz’ dunk off an alley-oop from Bussey Ellis was legitimately sweet.

We will, however, moderate our enthusiasm for now. It’s relatively easy, however, to wreak havoc on an NAIA team. Simpson University was never really in danger of changing the tempo or forcing UCD to even kick it down to fourth gear. You would expect Division-I guards to be able to handle some of the pressure. I came away will very little sense of how much progress the Aggies have made in their halfcourt offense, simply because they didn’t really ever have to use it for extended periods. As the opponents get better, we’ll see how UCD responds.

One other note: I was extremely impressed with Rommel Marentez Wednesday. Even with a system that invites a frenetic pace, he dished 11 assists and never really seemed out of control. He only had two turnovers. UCD also recorded 24 steals, a number you usually only see in some of mismatches in women’s basketball.

The full game report will be in today’s printed paper, as well as a preview of Davis High’s tough game against Nevada Union and a look at the match-ups as UCD prepares for No. 5 North Dakota State. And coming Friday, we catch up Ejiro Evero, the standout safety at UC Davis who is now a promising young coach for the Aggies.