Coach Les gets a raise

[Old Coach]

Tornado you are so right. It is very hard to recruit to a team that always looses. Who wants to play there? It is going to take a very long time to correct this sinking ship. I really believe we need to recruit the local talent hard and this will help get us on the right path. What do you think guys?

It can be done, as Jim Les is doing it right now at UC Davis. Coming into this season, over the previous 10 years, the Aggies were 98-203 with six 20 loss seasons. Now, Jim has them 16-4 (6-1) and first place in the Big West.

As far as the ship. I don't think it's sinking any longer. It's just sunk. Everything moving forward from here will hopefully be a part of the resurrection.

[Local Brave Fan]

Local Brave Fan

I hope you are right about the ship. But looking east hasn't been a good idea. Illinois State looked east and got a monster. However they were smart enough to get rid of it early. I know I protected the university for 29 years.

[Da Coach]

I'd be interested in you expounding on what you mean with your statement-
"Illinois State looked east and got a monster. However they were smart enough to get rid of it early. I know I protected the university for 29 years."

[Local Brave Fan]

Local Brave Fan

I mean there last Pres.

[tornado]

a couple UC-Davis notes - so look away if this you know this will agonize you


1st - Corey Hawkins is Big West Player of the Week - 2nd this season & 4th overall

2nd - article in their local paper (Sacramento Bee) praising UC-Davis & Coach Les' accomplishments - given the fact that
it is extremely hard to recruit to UC-Davis because of their strict general admission requirements that apply to ALL students including athletes.
UC-Davis' requirements are on par with or stronger than Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard, or Duke...
and yet Coach Les has the players to compete with anyone else in his conference...

NOTE - the average GPA of incoming freshmen is 4.2!! (yup, that is 4.2 on a 4 point scale - an A-plus!)
The minimum is B-average

http://www.theaggie.org/2013/04/11/admission-to-uc-davis-tougher-every-year/

http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/admission/freshman.html

[Da Coach]

I've mentioned this before here, but just to show how strict the entrance requirements are at UC Davis, I was told personally by Coach Les that there was a point guard recruit that he really wanted, but he did not meet the requirements for admission to UC Davis. That point guard then was accepted to Harvard! This was the kid- http://verbalcommits.com/players/tommy-mccarthy

[lefty]

I've mentioned this before here, but I was told personally by Coach Les that there was a point guard recruit that he really wanted, but he did not meet the requirements for admission to UC Davis. That point guard then was accepted to Harvard! This was the kid- http://verbalcommits.com/players/tommy-mccarthy

What kind of requirement differences would that be between Harvard and UCD?

[tornado]

gotta google that but probably course requirements and ACT score, although not sure how you'd know unless the admission counselor could speak
...but that really is amazing....

wonder if the UC-Davis kids chant "If you can't go to UCD - go to Harvard!"...

[tornado]

Rogers Printup is a 6'4" big shooting guard who is a 2015 UC Davis commit and who is one of the best pure shooters on the West Coast.
YouTube video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gabBDepvXPw

Here is one more story about Rogers Printup, who is deaf-
http://www.ocvarsity.com/articles/ro...p-hearing.html

wow UC-D Commit Printup was 8-9 from the arc and finished with 32 pts...
good thing they already have him signed..
His Orange County team (19-3) is ranked 2nd in Southern California but their next game is against powerhouse program, Mater Dei...

Printup's team ranks 2nd behind is this perennial powerhouse - but check who is he only team to beat them in the past eight years
Should be a good high school game Wednesday..

http://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/varsity-times/la-sp-vi-mater-dei-is-861-in-trinity-league-basketball-20150202-story.html

btw- UC-Davis just landed another verbal yesterday from a top 3-pt shooter out of Kansas

[tornado]

"uncharted territory"

http://www.theaggie.org/2015/02/03/les-leads-basketball-team-into-unchartered-territory/

The editorial staff of "The Aggie" admit they were a harsh critic of Coach Les less than a year ago but
"Les has done a stellar job so far this season. ....and we thank Les for his work so far this season."

"giving credit where credit is due"
"increased national exposure - more media deals and sponsorships"

[LongTimeFan]

and I guess that's why names like Jerrance Howard, etc..and other locals ....keep coming up...
even tho I know our Board will NOT want these guys - they seem to always want to look east and pull a rabbit out of a hat.... worrisome...

I don't know about the looking east part, but I will be surprised if the BOT would pick someone that has not been a head coach at sometime in his career. Exceptions probably would be a respected assistant at a big ten school.

[tornado]

2 thoughts..

-the more you restrict your options or stiffen the requirements, the more you limit good candidates from even applying

-I thought we had advertised the women's head coaching spot with the requirement that it must be someone who had head coaching experience.
Then we ended up hiring one of our assistants who did not meet the requirement

[tornado]

Veering a little off topic....but did you know...?
The Bulls signed a free agent E'Twaun Moore and he's played pretty well in limited action as a reserve for the Bulls - especially given frequent injury losses among the Bulls' guard corps.
He's a Purdue grad (2011), native of East Chicago, IN.
Appearing in 31 games so far, Moore averages only 8 minutes per game and 2.1 ppg, but hits almost 42% from the arc!

As a high schooler at East Chicago, IN Central HS - especially as a senior - he was being recruited by both Matt Painter & Kelvin Sampson - but before he got the big-school interest, before he got ranked and even before he grew to 6-feet, and when he was only the 3rd or 4th best player on his AAU team (Robbie Hummel, Scott Martin, Harangody, etc..)
he was actually getting interest from Illinois (Bruce Weber, Tracy Webster), and Bradley and was considering them!
Unfortunately, when he blew up, he got all the bigger interest & offers....

[tornado]

1st Place Collision tonight

http://www.ucirvinesports.com/sports/m-baskbl/2014-15/releases/201502042wg9pj

former BU opponent UC-Irvine plays UC-Davis tonight

When UC-Irvine played Bradley they were just 3-5 - but since then they have gone 9-3 including their current 6-game winning streak

[AZ BU Fan]

.......would love to have that kind of excitement here...

62-59 last night in Pia vs top 20 team. Tough loss, but, tremendous effort. Pretty exciting, yes?