Happy fun time

SANTA BARBARA -- There were no basketball adjustments made at halftime of UC Davis' 72-68 loss to Cal Poly on Thursday. Instead UC Davis coach Gary Stewart walked into his locker room and preached fun, saying that was the department in which the Aggies were lacking. Maybe he was right. The Aggies won the second half by 10 points and played perhaps their best half of the season. It wasn't enough, of course. But at this point, with so much youth and so many losses already in the bank, even a coach that abhors "moral victories" like Gary Stewart will take small pleasures in the little things. The hope, obviously, is that those little things will eventually add up into actual wins.

There were a couple of things of note from Thursday:

--I wrote at length about in my Friday game story about the emergence of the freshmen, and that bears repeating. UCD has started to see marked improvement from its younger players. Thursday, Dominic Calegari led all scorers with 15 points. Bussey Ellis, who may have made the biggest strides of anyone, hit a three 3-pointers in first half to keep the Aggies in the game. And Shane Hanson hit some big 3s in the second half during the rally. Stewart was so high on this group of first-year players in the preseason, and that's starting to show up.

"They're evolving," UCD coach Gary Stewart said. "The first place you see that is in practice. Their fundamentals are improving, their overall basketball is improving. They’re getting used to the speed of the game. All of them. We expect them to be pretty good players."

--Also, the Aggies may have finally started to figure out how to accomplish things against the 2-3 zone defense, which they have been facing pretty much non-stop for last two weeks. Mostly a UCD team with a lot of shooters has seemed content to launch shots from the outside, which is actually what teams that play zone want you to do. UCD scored 22 of its 68 points in the paint Thursday. That's not an overwhelming number, but it does demonstrate a consistent to work the ball inside. Santa Barbara has more big bodies, which could make the zone an effective tactic Saturday. But maybe it won't be as crippling.

--UC Davis coach Gary Stewart smiled on Thursday night. With 11:41 remaining in the second half, and his team in the midst of a comeback, he watched Thomas Juillerat dive to the floor after a loose ball. It looked like it was going to be a held ball (possession Cal Poly), but Juillerat somehow wrestled the ball free and induced the Mustang player to foul him instead. Those are the kind of the plays that really excite Stewart, and a grin crept across the coach's face. Stewart has been frustrated recently and at 2-12, it's hard to blame him. That bubbled over last Saturday. Maybe that was rock bottom, for both the team and for the coach. If that's true, things might be starting to look up. I'm a wait-and-see sort of guy, so that's where I'm filing this for now.