UCI Preview, Part 2

IRVINE – On the way out the door this morning, I grabbed the December issue of Atlantic Monthly that I bought for a plane trip from New York to L.A. but never got around the reading. The two top stories are about the Democratic presidential nomination contest – one touts Barack Obama as a transitional political figure while lamenting the upcoming Giuliani-Clinton race and the other positing Hillary Clinton as the only one of the three Democratic candidates with the will to win.

So it’s funny how much things change in a short amount of time, especially given what was gospel a couple of weeks earlier.

I re-read my story from Jan. 18 following the Aggies’ 74-57 win over UC Irvine today in the Oakland Airport. And more and more that result seems like a lightning bolt. The Aggies led 17-0 to start the game and cruised. They hadn’t been that comprehensive before and haven’t been since. Yet, that win was born from intense angst. The Aggies had just come home from an abject trip to Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State. The players were blaming themselves and meeting to discuss it. The coaching staff was frustrated. I thought this thing could spin out of control. UCD head coach Gary Stewart had this to say after the game.

“I felt like I put too much pressure on the guys to win. Now we’re back to ‘let’s get better at this,’ and ‘let’s get better at that.’ The wins will come, but we’ve got to start really thinking about executing properly, being in the right position and executing properly.”

We pick the quotations that seem most reasonable at the time, and I thought Stewart was on the right track when he said that. I walked out of The Pavilion that night fairly sure the Aggies would reach the Big West Tournament comfortably in seventh place, that this trip would be relatively low stress. But the Aggies didn’t win again for 43 days and 11 games.

Stewart said Monday after practice that he hadn’t changed his approach at all.

“We never talked about the streak and never talked about how many we’d lost in a row,” Stewart said. “We still had the same approach to take things one game at a time, and to have a short memory in terms of the bad things that happened and have a long memory in terms of the things we did right. Obviously there’s nothing like winning. It helps with everything.”

The question to be answered this weekend is what Saturday night meant. It could merely have been a long overdue victory over a bad team – and Sacramento State is surely that. Or it could have been a sign of growing of confidence, as players said this week. They have to say that. The point is that it’s always impossible to tell. That’s part of the fun of the job and why being able to bang out 700 coherent words in an hour about this stuff is an actual skill.

Tonight’s game only matters mathematically if the Aggies win Saturday. It should be noted though that UCD’s last two wins have come on the heels of terrible losses. So make of that what you will.

O'Sullivan to Niners

ESPN is reporting that UC Davis legend J.T. O'Sullivan has been signed by the 49ers.

This report has been picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle and, in one of those strange twists of modern media, a blog on the 49ers website. Both cite the ESPN report. The 49ers have said nothing official. But the report sounds right. From everything we heard, the relationship between Mike Martz and O'Sullivan was pretty much love at first sight when the two were in Detroit together last season. I have no clue if this is a good fit for O'Sullivan or not, but one imagines he'll have a chance to compete with Shaun Hill for the back-up job.

CORRECTION (4 p.m. Saturday): Shaun Hill, not Shaun King.

Pregame at Spanos

STOCKTON – Greetings from courtside at Spanos Center, where the building is perking up slowly. Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell is listed as attending tonight’s game, so things aren’t bad on the dignitary front. Also attending the game tonight is forward Shane Hanson, who has been cleared to play after separating his shoulder in practice last week. He’s not 100 percent, but he could give it a shot.

UCD has lost nine straight, but has played relatively well over the past two weeks only to come up short. It’s not difficult to envision a similar scenario tonight. Things aren’t exactly rosy here in Tiger Town. Head coach Bob Thomason benched the entire starting line-up for Saturday’s Bracket Buster game. The second five are listed in Pacific’s game notes today, although we’ll believe that when they announce it. It’s easy to send messages when it’s not a conference game.

And just as a reminder, the Aggies haven’t beaten Pacific in men’s basketball since the 1939-40 season. That’s Steinbeck territory.

Philosophical questions

Here's a question that's been bugging me all week: When is a team's fate out of its own hands?

Take the UC Davis men's basketball team. The Aggies are 2-11 in the Big West and sitting in last place by 1 1/2 games. But as things stand at this moment, all they have to do is win at UC Riverside on March 8 and they will grab the eighth seed in the Big West Tournament. Even with the way UCD tends to play on the road, that's not an impossible task. So in that regard, the Aggies control their own destiny in the Big West.

But that's not really true. Because there's a scenario in which the Aggies could win out and still not go to the tournament. Of course, that involves the Highlanders beating Cal Poly, Santa Barbara on Saturday and Pacific a week from tonight. If they pull off any of those victories (and tonight would be the best bet, you would think) then the Aggies would need multiple victories to reach the Big West Tournament. Given the way things have gone, it's difficult to construct a scenario in which that happens.

So anyway, in their own hands or not?

Here are the remaining schedules (with non-conference games noted as not counting:
UCD: at Pacific, Sacramento State, at UC Irvine, at UC Riverside
UCR: at Cal Poly, at UC Santa Barbara, Pacific, UCD

We'll check in from Stockton late this afternoon.

Good sign of things to come?

The college baseball season is long and grinding, so it's tough to take too much out of one game. However, Friday's 4-2 win over No. 18 Fresno State is potentially a good sign for the UC Davis baseball team.

The Aggies often had trouble closing out games like this last season. And a win against a nationally ranked opponent to begin the year certainly can't hurt confidence.

The pitching was particuarly impressive. Check out these numbers: Eddie Gamboa (5 IP, 2 Hs, 7 SOs, 0 BBs), Bryan Evans (2 1/3 IP, 2 H) and Justin Fitzgerald (1 2/3 IP, O Hs, 3 SOs).

Catcher Jake Jefferies hit third and went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and the Aggies had 12 hits despite the rain. Coach Rex Peters hinted that Jefferies might be ready for a breakout season and the opener did nothing to dispel that theory. Ryan Royster had two hits and stole his first base.

Today's doubleheader has been moved up to noon. The Aggies are expected to face Western Athletic Conference preseason pitcher of the year Clayton Allison in the opener.

No Cinderella slipper

TRACY - The 15th-seeded Davis High School girls basketball team has grown to like playing teams in the southern part of the Sac-Joaquin Section. But West of Tracy got the better of the Blue Devils this season, posting a 52-37 win on Thursday in the first round of the section playoffs.

The No. 2-seeded Wolf Pack (23-5) may not be as good as their record, but they were strong enough to eliminate DHS, a section semifinalist the last two seasons. Star Whitney Howard had 19 points and 10 rebounds for West.

The Blue Devils got 12 points and 14 rebounds from junior Nikol Allison, although Allison was just 4-for-24 from the field. Torryn Taylor added seven points for the Blue Devils (13-14), who lose just one player to graduation.

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

- Conor Tekautz

Midweek Madness

Cal Poly is banged up coming into tonight's game, but UC Davis may have responded with two fresh injuries. As reported in today's newspaper, the Aggies could be without the services of Kyle Brucculeri (ankle) and Shane Hanson (shoulder) tonight in a must-win against the reeling Mustangs. Both will attempt to play, but neither would be at 100 percent. Poly will be without three of its top four guards in the game, which means this game may have an entirely different feel to the last one. In the previous meeting, the Mustangs' backcourt speed was too much, as dribble penetration shredded UCD's defense. Poly's front line is still big, athletic and dangerous, but the short-staffing at guard could change the way this one plays out. The Aggies will have most of their primary ballhandlers.

Elsewhere in the Big West tonight, Northridge travels to Long Beach, Irvine is in Riverside and Pacific hosts Santa Barbara. For tiebreaker reasons, Aggie fans should be rooting hard for the Anteaters, who have struggled on the road (3-9) this season.

Devils are in!

Despite losing three of its last four games, the Davis High girls basketball team has qualified for the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs. The Blue Devils (13-13, 7-6), who finished in third place in the Delta Valley Conference, will hit the road to take on West of Tracy (22-5, 8-2 Tri-City Athletic League)in the opening round on Thursday at 7 p.m.

DVC champion Kennedy earned the top seed in Division I and will take on the winner of a play-in game between Golden Valley and Grace Davis. In Division II, Elk Grove is seeded fourth and will host No. 13 Monterey Trail on Tuesday.

In other local girls action, Dixon and Pioneer both qualified for the Division III playoffs as the No. 13 and No. 14 seeds, respectively. Dixon will take on No. 4 Placer and No. 14 Pioneer will go to No. 3 Del Oro with both games taking place on Tuesday.

On the boys side, No. 10 Woodland and No. 11 Dixon made the Division III postseason though neither will travel far for first-round games. No. 7 Foothill of Sacramento will host the Wolves and the Rams will go to No. 6 Natomas. Both games are on Wednesday.

From the DVC, champion Elk Grove was seeded second in Division II and will host No. 15 Oakmont in the first round on Wednesday. DVC runner up Franklin earned the second spot in Division I and will host No. 15 Grace Davis on Friday. Kennedy will travel to face Edison in the 8-9 matchup in Division I.

– Conor Tekautz

Devils still probably in

The official Sac-Joaquin Section playoff brackets will not be released until Sunday but expect the Davis High girls basketball team to be included in the Division I field of 16.

According to my calculations – and this is assuming the results posted on maxpreps.com are correct – the Blue Devils (13-13, 7-5) would get the No. 15 seed and would face West of Tracy (20-5, 8-2 Tri-City Athletic League) in the first round. This is the same first-round matchup as last year when DHS pulled out a 60-46 win over the host Wolf Pack.

The Blue Devils put their hopes in jeopardy by losing both games of the Delta Valley Conference tournament when winning one would have assured them a playoff berth. They fell on Wednesday to fifth-place Franklin and lost to third-place Elk Grove, a team they had defeated twice this year, on Friday.

In my spreadsheet, DHS tied Golden Valley for 15th place. But because DVC foe Kennedy should get the top seed and the CIF’s tendency to not match up teams from the same conference in the first round, Golden Valley will likely be seeded No. 16 to create an all-Cougars matchup in the first round.

Interestingly enough, the Blue Devils may have been bailed out by former MEL rival Napa which defeated Vintage on Friday night. Had the Crushers won, they would have been in the playoffs ahead of DHS and Golden Valley, which would have been tied for the final spot in that situation. The CIF doesn’t list tiebreakers on their web Site, so not sure which team would have gotten the final spot in that scenario.

– Conor Tekautz

Live from behind the Orange Curtain

FULLERTON -- A trip to scenic Fullerton might not have been my first choice for Valentine's Day, but, alas, we live at the mercy of the schedule. The only major piece of news I have comes from the Fullerton side. Guard Marcus Crenshaw (who, like me, is from Detroit) is expected to play tonight in a mask after breaking his nose aganst Cal Poly last week. He wasn't wearing the mask during the warm-up. UC Davis' Kyle Brucculeri wore a mask during the early part of the season and reported not liking it all. The Aggies can only hope it slows Crenshaw down. He hit four 3-pointers the previous meeting.

UCD has posted info on Friday's 10th anniversary game on its Interweb site. That's about everything on the logistics side. The Aggie had a nice story about the event today. We'll have one in Friday's paper. We also dug out some extra old photos from the 1997-98 for our Web readers. So have fun with that.

While we're on the subject, rivals.com posted a story about about Division I growing pains. I'm not sure it covers any real new ground, but it's worth a read if you have some time.