Let's schedule UCD next season

[basketball nut]

Was talking to a friend yesterday and mentioned that if BU wanted to have fun next year that they should schedule UCD next season @ home and make it Hersey Hawkins/ Jim Les night.
What fun that would be w/ Corey Hawkins playing on his dad's home court one time.
Might be one of the few times that an opposing teams coach and even one of their players would, possibly, get a standing ovation when introduced.
Maybe even do a HH/JL bobble head.

[Da Coach]

I like your idea, except for one point, Corey Hawkins graduates this year, and won't be on their team next year. But it is still a great idea. I suspect Jim would love to play BU in Carver Arena next year or any year.

[basketball nut]

I like your idea, except for one point, Corey Hawkins graduates this year, and won't be on their team next year. But it is still a great idea. I suspect Jim would love to play BU in Carver Arena next year or any year.

That was my fault as I was thinking that Corey had only played 2 years at UCD but I still like the idea.

[Tommy]

I wonder if we CAN play UC-Davis. After all, wasn't Les kicked off of campus?

Let's hope CR fixes that debacle.

[Da Coach]

As long as we play them at the Civic Center, we'll be OK.

[Tommy]

As long as we play them at the Civic Center, we'll be OK.

LOL! Good call!

[wily coyote]

I think it would be great to play JL and UCD. Now that JC and MC are gone we need to mend a lot of fences that we have destroyed.

[AZ BU Fan]

Do think UCD would want to schedule down to play BU next year?

Would BU have to give up two at UC-D to get one at BU?

[tornado]

another UC-Davis first - they had a successful post-season banquet with a packed house of fans & as expected - Corey Hawkins won most of the team awards..plus their AD met with Coach Les for 3 hours to work towards extending his deal - he just finished year-4 of a 5-year deal...
and their local media guy reported that University of San Diego " came hard after Les"....but he wants to stay at UCD..

Their AD had a lot to say.......

"Gould knows where the gold in Blue-and-Gold lies.

???I very much need him as a key advocate for me to continue to help build the (athletic) culture and the infrastructure, because he gets it,??? Gould said. ???He knows what it should be like and he can help me in that regard.

???So it??™s hugely important for us to retain him. I believe Jim wants to be here ??¦ and I believe he will be here.
I think the (Chancellor Linda Katehi) and the other key people on this campus know that and are committed to (keeping Les).???

Gould continued:

???We just experienced with men??™s basketball what a robust, successful, intercollegiate athletic program can mean to an institution.

???National-television exposure, the other media coverage, the excitement in the community, the excitement among our alumni.
All of those things are part of what athletics mean in the educational enterprise.???

Not many UCD athletic programs have put the Aggies on the map like Les??™ guys did.

A couple of UCD assistants told me they can??™t remember being busier this time of year.
Those recently planted trees of exposure and success are bearing fruit.

People in the Timbuktu now seem to know where UC Davis is located.
My guess is that some of those 3-point-shooting, 7-foot-tall brainiacs we never heard from before have Les on speed dial.

???This community is excited about what Jim is doing,??? points out Gould, the former deputy athletic director at Cal.
???The kids are having a great experience. There??™s a lot of momentum right now ??”
and that momentum is a byproduct of the years that came before while he was building the program.

???I??™ve talked about that before. It takes time (to build into Division I contention),??? she continued.

???Retaining Jim and having him be part of our picture here ??” not only as the men??™s basketball coach, but as a leader ??” is a goal.

???I believe he??™ll be here for a very long time.???

[tornado]

As UC-Davis is in the process of hiring a new AD a couple questions have come up again...

There are TWO major factors that place UCD at a substantial recruiting disadvantage - and the discussion now is whether those two things should be changed...

#1- should UC-Davis lower their extremely strict admission standards that are tougher than Stanford and create a tough recruiting environment?

#2 - should all coaches also have to teach classes as they currently do? This also takes coaches away from the time needed to recruit.

This writer seems to think they should change both these.. if they want to be competitive...

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/andy-furillo/article19001964.html

[tornado]

Was talking to a friend yesterday and mentioned that if BU wanted to have fun next year that they should schedule UCD next season @ home and make it Hersey Hawkins/ Jim Les night.....

anyone still up for this??

I would like to see it happen, I know there was once some animosity, but I think it would be a big hit!!

BTW- Coach Les just landed one of the top juco point guards (Cochise College APACHES) in the NATION..
a kid named Arell Hennings - averaging 16.3 ppg & 7 assists
..and get this - his juco team shoots 50% FG accuracy as a team - outstanding and a testament to good PG play
Hennings hits 38% from the arc and has a great 2.3 Assist/Turnover Ratio

http://www.svherald.com/sports/cochise-guard-hennings-commits-to-uc-davis/article_a18fcfa2-ef8a-11e5-a651-27936e8e81ff.html

His assist numbers place him in thew Top 12-15 of all of NJCAA juco kids

[basketball nut]

anyone still up for this??

I would like to see it happen, I know there was once some animosity, but I think it would be a big hit!!

BTW- Coach Les just landed one of the top juco point guards (Cochise College APACHES) in the NATION..
a kid named Arell Hennings - averaging 16.3 ppg & 7 assists
..and get this - his juco team shoots 50% FG accuracy as a team - outstanding and a testament to good PG play
Hennings hits 38% from the arc and has a great 2.3 Assist/Turnover Ratio

http://www.svherald.com/sports/cochi...36e8e81ff.html

I think it would be great PR for BU and the community.

[tornado]

Coach Les building a program out there at UC-Davis- just landed three solid commits over the past 24 hours...

http://nebhssports.com/slider/norfolk-forward-logan-strom-commits-uc-davis/

http://verbalcommits.com/players/gio-nelson

http://www.espn.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/223090/delveion-jackson

[tornado]

It's early, but past BU great Jim Les is having a solid start to 2016-17...
they blew out UCSB to start the Big West season and are currently 9-7 overall...

but even more impressive - at a school that historically has had extremely little DI success, and which has had a very hard time developing a DI-caliber fan base...
Coach Les is getting it done....as both recruiting & fundraising are 24/7/365 jobs - LINK
The fan base and athletic donors are growing

https://twitter.com/Rocko_DeLuca/status/817066423218409474

and they had the biggest year in their history in fundraising and Athletics is becoming a big part of that.

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-has-best-fundraising-year-history/http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/ucd/ucd-receives-38-5m-largest-ever-gift-from-individual-donor/

and one of their recent donations to UC-Davis sounds intriguing

http://www.capradio.org/87212

[pfcmsh]

Great To Have Jim Les Back

What a great idea to have UCD play here and honor Jim Les and Hersey!

Jim Les should be re-welcomed back to campus. He was a class act as a player and our coach. He is doing a great job at UCD too. Who ever once didnt want him back, I hope is long gone, but I do not claim an understanding of all that went on. What ever happened is over. Any time we can get a great player back and great coach like Jim Les to come back, we should. By gones are by gones. I would hope that Jim feels the same. It wasn't the fans or the masses that didnt like Jim, it was a few very bad administrators. I hope we can get him to come back! Game or no game.