UC Davis Men's Basketball Preview

The big question here is: "What can Jim Les do in his second year?"




Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

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2012 Big West Men's Soccer Tournament

The seeds have been set and the Big West Tournament begins today.  Representing the North Division is UC Davis and Cal Poly and representing the South Division is Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton. The matchups are as follows:

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012 2:00 PM
S2. Fullerton vs N1. UC Davis

This matchup that happened one month ago ended in a 2-1 win for UC Davis.  However, Fullerton's Ian Ramos will be the key in this matchup.  The freshman phenom has been outstanding this season, collecting 5 points and 3 assists, averaging 2.3 shots/game.  The Aggies however, have been a much more well rounded team, depending on the conference's top defense and outstanding goalkeeping by Omar Zeenni (who averages under a goal/game).  I'm going to give advantage to the defense here:

My Prediction: Aggies win 1-0

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012 7:00 PM
N2. Cal Poly vs S1. Northridge

These two teams are very evenly matched by looking at the in-conference statistics and it shows by their lone matchup this year (a 1-0 victory for the Matadors).  Northridge's Segi Lev-Ari and Mackenzie Pridam have been goal machines, collecting 12 and 11 goals each respectively.  The goalkeepers (all three of them) have been also instrumental for how well the teans have done.  While Northridge won the earlier match, Cal Poly has more momentum going right now, beating UCSB twice in front of large crowds, thus sealing their playoffs.

My Prediction: Cal Poly 2, Northridge 1 (OT)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2012 1:00 PM
*Cal Poly vs *UC Davis
Considering that two of Davis' three losses came to the Mustangs, I don't see that trend changing...

My Prediction: Cal Poly wins 1-0


Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.

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Morning Links 7/18/12

Being gone for a week plus makes updating news difficult.  So what has been cooking over the last week?  Let's find out.


From 7/5, UC Davis hires Terrance J. Tumey as new Athletic Director
This is a football move, make no doubt about it.  Tumey was a coach for UCLA and the Denver Broncos before working in the 49er front office.  How does this change UCD's potential vote for BSU in September?  My guess is that Tumey might want to throw a couple of Div-IAA games for the new members as part of the deal (which might not be so bad considering Coach Chris Petersen of BSU played QB at UCD and was a coach there as well).


Hawaii to play in the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon
WWL chose a nice 4 am EST slot for the Warriors to play basketball (which is 10 pm Hawaii Time) against Houston Baptist.  So if you're a fanatic, watch live! Otherwise, TiVo it and save it to the morning.


Fox Soccer Channel loves the Big West, ergo it will show three games this season
LBSU women will travel to the ESSEEESEE to face Texas A&M at College Station on September 7th, 5 pm PST, while the UCSB men's team will get two of their games shown both at home: against UCLA on September 21st, 7 pm PST and against Cal Poly on October 19, 8 pm PST.  For those of us who obsessively watch college football and are worried about missing WACtion or MACtion on those Friday nights (so probably only me)...RECORD NON-CONFERENCE GAMES FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR PRIDE, PEOPLE!


Rainbow Warriors and Rainbow Wahine release their 12-13 schedule
All the basketball!  Looks like it's an 18-game conference schedule for those of you actually keeping track.


See anything I missed or something you find interesting? Let me know!

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Morning Links 5/2/12

If you're living in Southern California right now, you are experiencing a strange phenomenon: rain.

Therefore, the lullaby finally applies to us:
Rain, rain, go away.
Come again another day.

Here's some links:

Anteaters are a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament
They'll play No. 5 seed LMU in the first round of the tournament on May 11 at 8:15 pm.  The interactive bracket can be found here.

UC Davis wins second consecutive Big West Title
Pacific's Alex Edfort won the individual championship with a final score of 203.  The Aggies now await their selection on May 7th.

Men's Tennis Bracket is set, with Cal Poly facing Texas Tech in the first round
Can the Mustangs pull the win out against the Red Raiders?  Stay tuned...

LBSU women to face Arkansas in the opening round
If they manage to beat Arky, they could be up against No. 1 UCLA in the second round.

Baseball recaps
Cal Poly's Jimmy Allen homered to beat Pepperdine in the 10th inning, Titans beat USC 4-2, Trentacosta dominated in his first career start as UCI beat SDSU 6-2, UCR got hammered by UNLV 10-1, and the Dirtbags drop one against No. 11 UCLA 2-1.

See anything I missed?  Comment below!

"Playoffs? PLAYOFFS? You kidden' me? PLAYOFFS?"

Yes...playoffs, college basketball playoffs for that.  Why are we back talking about basketball playoffs? Because while we had the open threads and some coverage, we really had no closure of the teams who made the different playoffs.  So thank you to those who reminded me that I needed to finish, this one's for you.

Morning Links 3/16/12

Happy Friday everyone! Here are some links to start your day:

Long Beach goes down to New Mexico thanks to Drew Gordon and Kendall Williams
While I did predict the upset here, it wasn't a bold choice.  The 49ers played toe to toe with New Mexico and would have won if shots fell the last 2 minutes.  Still, New Mexico is a very good team and should be easily in the Sweet 16 now.

UCD loses to Oregon State in opening round of WNIT
Courtney French was the key player for the Aggies going 4-6 beyond the arc.  Nobody else was able to get into double digits in scoring.

Softball recaps from Thursday
Congratulations to Kelly Zboralske for hitting her first collegiate home run, a grand slam.

Thursday's Baseball recaps
The Gauchos beat Rhode Island and UCI fell to Nevada as each team will continue their 3-game series today and tomorrow.

See anything I missed?  Comment below

Morning Links 3/8/12

Happy Thor's Day everyone! You ready for the men's Big West Tourney today?  Let's get linked to start the day:

SB Nation continues it's bracket coverage of Big West tourney, reminds 49ers fans that Gauchos exist to cause misery for them
Seriously though, it's a good reminder of when the games will be taking place for your entertainment. Not sure how much coverage there will be (but that's why you're reading this blog, right?).

LBSU's tournament preview
...provided by gazettes.com.  It's actually a really good in depth article about what happened last Saturday and what needs to happen this weekend.

Fullerton looks to crash the party...
They already started, but this article gives an interesting take on where these kids started from two years ago.

Preview of Pacifc vs UCSB
The big question lies here, can the Gauchos make it to the Dance for the third year in a row?

Cal Poly has a high morale about this tournament, plays UCR tonight
The Mustangs play in the late night game tonight and are using last years overtime upset to motivate them

Preview of UCI-CSU Fullerton match
The OC rivalry continues tonight, but with Fullerton riding high over their win against LBSU...no one expects the Anteaters to pull off the upset.

No. 7 Arizona rallies in bottom of the eighth, beats Davis 6-4
That would have been a great upset if the Aggies could've held on...but the Wildcats are ranked No. 7 for a reason.

UCR sweeps Eastern Kentucky, UCD loses to top ranked Cal in softball
The big news here is that the Highlanders hit 6 HR in their double header yesterday.  The Aggies need to get a strength of schedule award, and really need to start getting wins.

We're going to try something new here in a little bit, but in the meantime...see something I missed? Comment below!

Morning Links 3/1/12

Where's the time gone? It's already the first of March!  Here are some links to occupy your computer during breakfast-time:

Big West Tourney: 49ers to face Aggies in the first round
While this was predictable last week, it's nice to know that it will be official.  Now that being said, here's what happened last night:

LBSU dominates UCI in final home game of the season
Caspar Ware had 16 points and T.J. Robinson had his 53rd career double-double in what turned into an old fashioned beatdown.

Titans beat Matadors to set up for a huge Saturday night
Kwame Vaughn went 5-11 from the arc to carry Fullerton to victory.

The Sacramento Bee points out that the Aggie women can host the tourney opener with two wins
Which poses the question: why aren't the women's tourney openers hosted at the Honda Center as well.

UCSB hosts Pacific tonight at the Thunderdome
The Gauchos will look to continue fighting for the No. 2 seed in the tournament.  On a less serious note, does anyone else but me think that the Big West teams have the coolest names for their arenas?

Well that's it for this morning.  As usual, if you feel that I missed something, comment below.

Morning Links 2/27/12

The weekend is over and there is a lot of news to go over, so lets hop to it:

LBSU clinches conference title with low scoring, but dominating effort over UCR
If "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" I hate to think what the conference tourney is going to be like...

Davis beats Fullerton in shocking victory
If you had watched this game, Davis started out on a 12-0 run and never looked back.  If Fullerton wants to have a shot at LBSU in the conference tourney, they better look more alive than last Saturday night.

Lady Mustangs win a share of the title over in Women's BB
Interesting to note that the only team that can share with them is the team that they beat (Northridge).

Gauchos move into a tie for second as they beat Cal Poly
The Blue-Green rivalry intensified as UCSB evened up the season series to 1 a piece.  Orlando Johnson had 16 points to become UCSB's all-time leading scorer.

The Big Vote occurs all this week
It's an older article but relevant specifically to this week as UCSD students are voting to either move the Tritons to Div I (and with that the Big West) or keep them in Div II.   UCSD is the largest academic institution with an athletics program not in Div I.

Baseball weekend recaps
Fullerton takes the series from the Horned Frogs, Gauchos sweep the Spartans, Dirtbags beat Cal to take the series, Mustangs sweep LMU, Aggies drop series to CSU-Bakersfield, Anteaters go 1-2 against Washington, Pacific falls to the San Diego schools, UCR falls hard to ASU, goes 1-2 in the series.

UCI Invitational: UCLA upsets Stanford in final
In actual Big West news: it wasn't a great showing as UCI was the highest placed BWC team (9th).

Softball weekend recaps
Gauchos split their games in the Gaucho Classic I, Cal Poly splits their games, LBSU and Northridge drop both their matches in the Cathedral City Classic, UCR goes 3-1 in the aTen Construction Tournament

As always, leave your comments below, especially if I missed something.

Big West Baseball: One week done in the season with a big weekend coming up

We are one week done with the season and so far, the teams have not really managed to follow the Preseason Poll.  Only 4 games have been played though, with a huge slate of 3 game series this weekend.  Let's look at them:

Cal Poly (3-1): @Loyola Marymount (Feb 24-26)
UC Davis (3-1): @Cal State Bakersfield (Feb 24-26)
UC Irvine (3-1): vs Washington (Feb 24-26)
Cal State Northridge (2-2): vs Northwestern (Feb 25-26, Feb 24 game was cancelled)
LBSU (2-2): vs Cal (Feb 24-26)
UC Riverside (2-2): @ASU (Feb 24-26)
Cal State Fullerton (1-2): vs TCU (Feb 24-26)
UCSB (1-3): @San Jose State (Feb 24-26)
Pacific (0-5): @USD (Feb 24, 26) @SDSU (Feb 25)

So what can we predict from the outcomes? The big ones obviously are UCR traveling to Tempe to take on the No. 13 Sun Devils and the Titans hosting No. 15 TCU.  Both of these series' will obviously be a success if UCR and Fullerton can take 2 of 3 or sweep, reestablishing Big West competitiveness against other western conferences.  Cal Poly is going to take on a very tough LMU (2-1) who scores a lot of runs, but gives up a lot as well.  The Aggies are going to have a challenge themselves against potential future Big West members Cal State Bakersfield (3-1).  The Roadrunners have outscored their opponents (Kansas State and Fresno State) 24-11.  The Anteaters are facing off against a high octane Washington (2-2) team who, like LMU give up runs as much as they score: the Huskies have scored and given up 29 through 4 games.  If UCI can force Washington in a pitchers duel, I can see them winning the series.  Due to weather conditions in the Midwest, the first game of the three game series between the Matadors and the Wildcats (1-2) was cancelled.  However, Northridge should like their chances as Northwestern didn't fare so well in the Big Ten/Big East Challenge.  LBSU will have to play their best if they want to win against Cal (3-0).  However Cal beat up on Pacific, so they haven't really been tested yet.  UCSB has a very evenly matched series with the Spartans (1-3) who have seemed to have a hard time finding an offensive rhythm.  Pacific looks to gain their first win against either USD (2-2) or future Big West mates SDSU (1-4).  Look for the Tigers to gain that first win against the Aztecs because the Toreros put the whipping on KSU 15-1 in their last game.

Good luck to all Big West teams this weekend.