RIVERSIDE -- Greetings from the Inland Empire and what I think rates as the least pleasant gym in the Big West. It's 23 minutes to tip-off and there are exactly two people beside the band sitting in the student section. Perhaps that will change. Our pregame notes are minimal given that what really matters tonight is the result. What's at stake here is eighth place and the right to play UC Irvine in the first round of the Big West Tournament. So the absolute value isn't a ton.
But from where I sit -- five feet to the left of the mid-court line -- this is a pretty big night for the UCD program. It comes to this: people in the administration believe that program's biggest goal should be establishing itself as a force among its peer institutions in California. Failing to score an invite to the league's signature event -- the men's basketball tournament -- would suggest that the program is not ready to do that. Athletically, maybe its not. The funding's not at 100 percent (although that hasn't been a problem for women's basketball) and it's only just the first year. But in a two-year process, milestones are important. Squirting through here would count, although it wouldn't rule anything out for next year.
Our study of the early warm-up suggested that UC Riverside appeared the looser group. That means that UC Davis is either 1. tight or 2. so locked into the business trip mentality that it's focus is unshakable. We believe reading body language is a dubious proposition at best.
2 comments:
The Rec Center at UCR has the same scoreboards that are in my middle school. That is pretty sad. It looks like more people showed up than previously anticipated.
It's sad that we lose to school such as UCR to not make the tournament. 5th year of the transition. First football doesn't finish above 500. and now we have basketball not even make post-season. Tough year for the Ags in the major sports. Let's hope the women can make us proud like our Men's Soccer team.
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