Basketball update

To hear UC Davis' coaches talk Tuesday, they believe they picked up a steal in new signee Adam Malik. Detailing his virtues during an interview, Aggie coach Gary Stewart described just about every aspect of the game. My story in today's print edition includes a description of what the coach called "the greatest high school play I’ve ever seen.” Think Tayshaun Prince in the 2004 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. By some measures, Stewart said, he might have been one of the top-15 players in the entire state. Recruiting is a notoriously inexact science. But signing day is like draft day, everyone is allowed to be optimistic.

Meanwhile changes are afoot in the men's basketball offices. Stewart has seen the future of the Aggie program and it is Princeton, as in the Princeton offense. At it's core, that means UCD will run an offense with a passing center that everyone else will orbit. Lots of teams run modified versions of the set, including Georgetown (which has had some success with it). The Aggie women have run a version of the offense for the last three years and have recorded double-digit wins the last two seasons. Based on that model, this is an excellent time for the men to install it. Assistant Jennifer Gross brought the system from San Diego State and said it took about two years to learn the entire offense. The UCD women had no seniors in 2004-05. So after a year of taking their lumps, they turned around the following year and won 16 games. The UCD men have, in eligibility terms, no seniors this year. Stewart thinks this approach is the best for the long haul, based on the sort of player he can consistently attract.

Some other housekeeping:

--With the signing of Malik, UCD will have 12 players receiving scholarship money next year. That means it can add one more, either by putting a player from the current roster on scholarship or through another signing. Likely the choice would be the latter if there's one to be had. Stewart suggested Tuesday there were possibilities floating around, but he's limited in what he can say because the NCAA forbids coaches to talk about players until they officially sign. It should be noted that in the Aggies' case there is a distinction between having a money slot available and having a scholarship available. The program is funded at 83 percent next year.

--Stewart had hoped to have the schedule out this month, but that's probably not going to happen now. UCD has a contract to play in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, although it doesn't know where it is going yet. But there are variables in the non-conference schedule as other programs have sought to move contracted games for a variety of reasons, mostly all of them relating to television.