Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Status updates

Jesse Lopez Low has left the UC Davis basketball team due to his continued struggles with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Center Michael Boone will miss the season with a fracture and dislocation of his right ankle, which he suffered in practice on Monday.

Check Wednesday's Enterprise for a full report.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Weekend wrap

We’ll have a story about Michael Boone’s big night in Santa Barbara in Monday’s paper. But let’s clean out the notebook after 700 miles worth of basketball coverage.

The good news: The general feeling outside the locker room was positive after Saturday’s loss, but there were different reasons for that.

The players said after the first 10 minutes, they felt comfortable playing against the match-up zone. Most players said they had never seen it before, which explains why efforts to run the offense against a scout defense didn’t particularly prepare the Aggies for the game. Mark Payne especially said he’ll be ready next time, which is good because he spent most of the game handling the ball. Here’s a breakdown of the match-up zone defense that I found on the Internet. I’m not particularly sure I understand it. But I can read a box score and UCD turned the ball over just three times in the second half, which shows some definite progress.

Meanwhile UCD head coach Gary Stewart said he was happy to see his team continue to play defense when the offense broke down. That may sound basic, but it doesn’t necessarily work that way. Most coaches will tell you the sign of a mature team is the ability to compartmentalize failure on one end of the court. With the exception of the last five minutes of the first half, I thought the Aggies did a reasonable job defensively against a team with a lot of weapons.

“That’s one of the first times since I’ve been here that we struggled that much offensively, but were able to maintain the energy defensively,” Stewart said.

The bad news: A consolation prize on the road against a pretty good team is one thing. But the Aggies have now played two lousy games against teams they could have beaten – Cal Poly and Long Beach State. Those defeats seem to lock UCD into a first-day game in the Big West Tournament. It’s hard to see the Aggies climbing out of the bottom five now. That said, UCD has a bunch of home games in front of it and a chance to put some wins together. So we’ll see where this goes.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

America's Riviera

GOLETA SANTA BARBARA -- We strive for accuracy on the Davis Enterprise sports blog, so we investigated the correct dateline upon our arrival at The Thunderdome. Apparently, there is a strip of land that extends from the city of the Santa Barbara that encompasses the airport and campus. So the dateline is now correct. Don't let the LA Times tell you otherwise.

It's hard to know what to expect tonight. I have a hard time seeing how exactly the Aggies are going to win this one, but I would have said the same thing last year. And that turned out to be UC Davis' best game of the season. It will be interesting to see how the Aggies approach the conference's leading scorer, Alex Harris. Down here, last year they decided to let him get his and worry about everyone else. That was successful once and not so much the next time.

There's not a whole of new stuff to report today. The local paper reported today that Harris didn't want to use his illness as a reason for his 15-point showing against Pacific on Thursday. Gauchos coach Bob Williams didn't either. So maybe Pacific is that good. You can see for yourself on ESPN2 on Monday night.

There's also rumor that UCD commit Jacob Ranger (who hails from nearby Carpinteria) will attend the game tonight.

Frankly, most everyone in the pressroom is talking about the weather, which is supposed to be at its worst around 10 p.m., which is probably when I'll be slogging to the car. There's a hotel in SLO with my name on it, and hopefully I can make it there in one piece.

Blue Devils upset

The Davis High girls basketball team couldn’t find the basket on Friday and fell 43-41 to Valley, a team that had not won a game in league play. The Blue Devils shot 23.7 percent from the field for the contest.

Nikol Allison had 18 points and 20 rebounds – eight of which were offensive – to lead the DHS (10-10, 4-2 Delta Valley Conference) while Torryn Taylor had eight points and eight rebounds.

Torryn Taylor made one of two free throws to tie the game up at 41 with 26.5 seconds left. After a pair of misses by the Vikings (7-13, 1-5), Allison got the rebound and DHS called a timeout.

The ball went to Allison, whose shot missed. In the scrum for the rebound, Shelby Ferguson fouled Catalina Corpez, who sank both free throws with 2.9 on the clock. The Blue Devils were unable to get a final shot off.

The DHS boys basketball team (3-16, 0-6) also fell, losing 60-47 at Valley.

For more on the games, check out Sunday’s Enterprise.

- Conor Tekautz

Friday, January 25, 2008

Some Friday afternoon contrarianism

SANTA BARBARA – Some people are inclined to look at sports as a test of manhood and personal fortitude. I am not one of those people. Sure, toughness plays a part. And so does being able to keep your head when all is erupting into chaos around you. But I generally believe that better tactics generally make the difference in games.

The big shift in UC Davis’ 79-67 loss to Cal Poly occurred when Mustangs coach Kevin Bromley finally put Trae Clark and Chaz Thomas on the floor together. UC Davis’ defenders had proved earlier in the game they couldn’t keep either of Poly’s shifty guards in front of them. Together on the floor, they created chaos. That’s what keyed the 28-5 run that reversed the teams’ fortunes. I’m surprised Bromley didn’t do that earlier. Also, UCD’s defensive rotation was lousy. Dreshawn Vance had a ton of easy dunks when the Aggies helped to stop penetration. That was a function of the chaos Clark and Thomas were able to create individually and in tandem.

At the under-12 media timeout, my story was that UCD had cobbled together a road victory despite an uneven performance. Of course, then everything changed. In the final analysis, the UCD offense was good for 27 1/2 minutes, but the defense was disappointing all the way through. And although Aggie head coach Gary Stewart said there were no positives to be taken from this game, he might have been happy to see the Aggies won the rebounding margin. They actually had 14 offensive rebounds in the game.

The Aggies head into a game against a UC Santa Barbara team that has failed to live up to some of the pre-conference hype. After going 11-2 in the preseason, the Gauchos are 3-3 in the Big West (only a game ahead of UCD, actually). UCSB lost to Pacific on Thursday, although it did so without a full-strength Alex Harris. The sharpshooting guard scored 15 points, but was slowed by having the flu all week. It’s impossible to know where he’ll be health-wise on Saturday.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Courtside live

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Greetings from Mott Gym, which smells strongly of popcorn this evening. There seems to be some general jealousy on the part of Cal Poly staff at UC Davis' football schedule, which came out this week. Cal Poly is still at nine games and struggling to fill dates. But it's not football season. It's basketball and these games are just as crucial. There's not much news in the pregame. There are no surprises in terms of the starting line-ups and everyone is present and accounted for.

The Mustangs probably rate a little higher on the desperation meter. Cal Poly has lost six of its last seven and is languishing at the bottom of the league. A year ago, the Mustangs held off a furious rally to win this fixture and start their charge up the Big West table. That run ended in the conference championship game. Gary Stewart described himself as concerned at Cal Poly's offensive woes this year. In his estimation, Cal Poly has plenty of players that score, just not many who actually are. Struggling offensive teams have had a tendency to find their stride against the Aggies. So concern is warranted. For what it's worth, Mustangs coach Kevin Bromley promised big changes after a 15-point home loss against UC Santa Barbara last week.

UCD split last weekend at home, and would probably be happy with another split this weekend. Clearly this is the far more winnable game, given that Santa Barbara looms on Saturday. The Aggies can also hope that tonight's Big West battle royale between Pacific and Santa Barbara going on 90 miles south goes to five OTs.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Adventures in Reporting

The media conference call is a time-honored tradition, especially in the big conferences around the country. Some people, however, don't seem to take it that seriously. It's sort of funny in away.

Bracket Buster

I haven't gotten into BracketBuster fever this year, which is surprising to me because I love lists and numbers. The projections for the annual event are heavy on both. The actual announcement will be coming in the next few days. What is known for sure is that UC Davis will be a road team and, unless one of the camera crews gets hopelessly lost, the game won't be one of the 12 picked up by ESPN.

The good people over at caazone.com have posted their projections here, based solely on RPI and scheduling conflicts. This is not a perfect list, given that it has some teams from the same conference playing against each other, which is not allowed. Following the games cherrypicked by the WWL, the rest of the pairings are done by RPI and ease of travel. That last factor, of course, can mean a lot of things, as you can see by last year's BracketBuster pairings from the Big West:

San Francisco-Irvine; Pacific-Montana; Cal Poly-Portland State; Wright State (Ohio)-Fullerton; Cleveland State-Northridge; Eastern Washington-UCSB; Riverside-Idaho; Hawaii-Long Beach.

With an airport 15 minutes away, UCD has a high ease of travel factor generally. There are also direct flights to Chicago, New York and Washington, which makes an East Coast trip a major possibility. According to this list, the current pairing RPI-wise is Eastern Michigan. Manhattan (which, as NYC geography fans all know, is actually in the Bronx) and Northern Illinois are pretty close in RPI and not all that difficult to get to air-travel wise. So that will be interesting.

It will also be interesting to see if the Big West can get two teams on television. UCSB and Northridge are hovering around that cutoff. That sort of exposure would be pretty good for everyone involved.

Whoever the Aggies are drawn against will be obligated to make a return trip to The Pavilion next season.

Friday, January 18, 2008

And back in Davis ...

The Davis High boys basketball team made just five field goals and shot 14.7 percent from the field on Friday in a 62-28 loss to Kennedy.

After a Channing Jones' jumper with 7 minutes, 10 seconds left in the second quarter, the Blue Devils wouldn’t score again from the field until just 2:47 was left in the game. Additionally, DHS (3-14, 0-4 Delta Valley Conference) went scoreless for the entire third quarter.

The Cougars led 33-14 at halftime but used an 18-0 run in the third quarter to blow the game wide open. The Blue Devils turned the ball over 10 times in the period – they coughed it up 26 times in the game – and only attempted six shots in the third.

Diere Bentley led Kennedy (9-6, 3-1) with 12 points and four Cougars finished with eight points apiece.

Tanner Mohr and Abbot Koehler each had seven points to lead DHS while Brandon Bunfill added five.

For more on the game, check out Sunday's Enterprise.

- Conor Tekautz

Cougars are fierce

SACRAMENTO - Kennedy High School's girls basketball team may have lost flashy guard Jazzi Johnson to graduation, but the Cougars haven't missed her much in the Delta Valley Conference. Kennedy used a 16-4 run in the second quarter on Friday to pull away from Davis for a 76-50 win.

The Blue Devils came into the game having won three in a row to begin league play, but they could not muster a comeback against a deep and talented Cougars team that figures to go unbeaten in the DVC.

DHS did make a nice run early, recovering from a 10-2 margin with eight of the next 10 points to close to 12-10. Kennedy, however, would lead 23-16 at the end of the quarter and then poured it on in the second period as the lead reached 20 points.

Cydhi Matsuoka scored a game-high 19 points, Melanie Khlok added 17 points and Deja Kinsey chipped in 14 points. Khlok might have had the biggest impact of the three with eight assists and four steals.

Malika Wilkins scored a team-high 12 points for DHS, Khaliya Wilkins added 11, all in the fourth. Nikol Allison had 10 points, all of those in the first half. Shelby Ferguson chipped in nine.

For more on the game, check out Sunday's Enterprise.

The Band-uh (and by extension, the Aggies) get some love

Midmajority, a blog devoted to basketball outside of the power conferences, was on hand for Thursday's 74-57 win over UC Irvine. Kyle Whelliston was apparently impressed by the Aggie band, giving them a shoutout in this post.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Devils run through Herd

The Davis High girls basketball team finally put a full game together on Friday and never trailed in demolishing Elk Grove 51-27. Nikol Allison had 20 points and 14 rebounds in the win.

The Blue Devils (8-8, 2-0 Delta Valley Conference) jumped out to a 17-6 lead after the first quarter behind 8-for-11 shooting from the field. Elk Grove cut the lead to eight briefly in the second quarter, but a jumper by Khaliya Wilkins with just over five minutes left in the half put the Blue Devils back up by double digits.

The DHS lead was no less than 10 for the remainder of the game.

After the Thundering Herd (12-4, 1-1) cut the lead to 10 at the end of the third quarter, the Blue Devils went on a 16-0 run over the first 5:45 of the final period to put the game away. Elk Grove scored only three points in the final period – all of which were free throws.

DHS also shut down Herd star Kara Boyles – who torched the Blue Devils for 32 points in one game last year – and held her to just two field goals and nine points.

For more on the game, check out Sunday's Enterprise.

– Conor Tekautz

Thursday, January 10, 2008

More preseason baseball

Rivals.com has released a college baseball preview, which includes a look at the Big West Conference.

UC Davis is picked to finish sixth with Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, Cal Poly and UC Riverside picked one through five.

Rivals selects Cal Poly to be the team on the rise and Dave Serrano, who moved from Irvine to Fullerton, as the coach on the rise. George Horton went from Fullerton to Oregon. The site also released a preseason all-conference team, but no Aggies were listed.

Friday, January 4, 2008

No radio tonight

Hello from courtside at The Pavilion.

Tonight's game against UC Riverside won't be available on KFSG-1690 AM. A power outage at the studios, thanks to today's storm, has wiped out that broadcast. You'll have to go ucdavisaggies.com for the broadcast if you can't make it out here.

Bakersfield to the Big West? Hmmm.

There was a healthy media contingent at Rabobank Arena on Wednesday night, all of them very curious to ask UC Davis coach Gary Stewart and some Aggie players how their Roadrunners stacked up as members of Division I. I'm sure those media membes are finding, as I did over past four years, that the move offers no end of easy stories to do about perceived milestones. Playing a couple of ex-CCAA foes over past couple days -- the Aggies and Riverside -- qualifies.

It seems that things are progressing reasonably well at Bakersfield. My belief is that anyone who makes this move without a conference lined up is setting itself up for an extemely difficult transition. CSUB wants to join the Big West, a move I previously thought was all wrong for the league. After my trip, I have relented somewhat. From my narrow perspective, the Roadrunner program probably would have something to offer the league. For one thing, Bakersfield is more of a distinct media market than I gave it credit for. It even can charge a rights fee to broadcast its home basketball games. And for another, Rabobank would immediately rival Spanos Center for best basketball arena in the league (losing out, I think because it is not on campus). I admit I don't know much about the school's academics or campus. CSUB would bring the league to 10 schools and give Northridge an obvious travel partner.

That said, I'm not sure it's in the best interest of the Big West to bring in another newly reclassified program. People will start to talk. Also, the balance of CSUs and UCs is currently a perfect 4 and 4 and CSUB is much smaller than the other public schools. Private Pacific is the odd program right now, and maybe another private school would be a better fit. There are a fair number of those around California, although most already have conferences.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Baseball anyone?

Collegiate Baseball released its 2008 preseason poll in December and named University of Arizona its top team.

There are four Big West Conference schools in the poll: Cal State Fullerton (16), Long Beach State (17), UC Irvine (26) and UC Riverside (35). Fullerton and Irvine both advanced to the College World Series in Omaha last season.

Fresno State, a team UC Davis opens the season with Feb. 22-24, is No. 21. Two other schools the Aggies play, Cal and Stanford, are 39th and 69th, respectively.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Countdown to tipoff

BAKERSFIELD -- UC Davis' final pre-conference game will take place in the delightful Rabobank Arena, which reminds me of the Fargodome in spirit. Radio guy extraordinaire Scott Marsh, seated to my right, said this place is a dead ringer for Stockton Arena, a building I haven't set foot in. So as Bakersfield agitates for a spot in the Big West, this building may be a reasonable selling point. It's a multi-use sort of place, and we have to clear out pretty quickly because they have to get this place ready for Bakersfield Condors hockey. Given the date, a large crowd in this 10,000-seat arena isn't likely.

Here are some updates:

--Jesse Lopez Low isn't here for UCD, but is expected to play against Riverside.

--Cal State Bakersfield's top inside player, Santwon Latunde, is out for the rest of the season after separating his shoulder in practice. That means there probably won't be a heavy emphasis on post play tonight, which may suit the Aggies just fine.

--I will be seated between UCD radio and local television at courtside tonight, so I'm a little sorry I don't travel with asprin. I will be halftime guest on radio tonight.