The Legend of UC Davis' schedule

The men's basketball schedule has been finalized, with UC Davis opening the year in something called the Legends Classic. When the schedule came out last month, the Aggies were expected to play in the 2k Sports College Hoops Classic. So what happened?

UCD had gotten involved with the 2k Sports event in hopes of being placed in the Kentucky bracket. UC Davis coach Gary Stewart said he liked the symmetry of starting the official Division I era in the state where the Aggies had won a D-II national championship. But the deal with the Gazelle Group, which runs numerous tournaments, gives the organizers the right to move teams around as circumstances warrant. As the entrants and fixtures were coming together, it appeared that the Aggies were being shuffled into the Connecticut region. That normally would have been fine. But UCD already has a trip planned to the East Coast -- a two game jaunt through the Ivy League on Dec. 1 and 3. It's safe to say that the Aggies learned a lesson about excessive early season travel last season.

The Legends Classic was initially planned as event to get four games for eight teams. The initial plan had four "big" schools and four "little" school pooled into Groups A and B respectively. Each Group B school would play games at two different schools from Group A. Then all eight would go to a central site and play a knockout competition against the other teams from its group. The Group A schools will still do that. The Group B ones will not. Instead UCD and Group B teams got the right to schedule two exempt games, which don't count against the NCAA maximum. As Stewart said in the press release and to me on the phone today, getting more games for a young team is really important. The 2k tournament would have guaranteed two games, Legends guarantees four.

The Aggies picked up LaVerne and restored the UC Santa Cruz game to a countable contest rather than an exhibition. Certainly those games won't carry the luster of, say, Oregon State, but getting 15 home games (16 if you count the exhibition with Cal State Maritime) is something of a coup for a Big West program.