March 1, 2007
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
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THE SERIES VS. UC RIVERSIDE: The Aggies and Highlanders are tied 22-22 in the all-time series between the programs that began in the 1960-61 season... UC Davis had won five straight between 1998-2005 but UC Riverside has won three of the past four, including the last two... Thomas Juillerat scored 17 points and had seven rebounds for the Aggies on Jan. 27 but the Highlanders won in Riverside, 70-50... CHRIS JOHNSON scored 19 points to lead UC Riverside while CHRISTIAN SOTO and HENRIK THOMSEN each had 10 boards.
ABOUT UC RIVERSIDE: The Highlanders have lost their last two games and five of their last six... Prior to that, they had won two in a row including an 82-76 win over second-place Cal State Fullerton, their lone win in the Big West Conference season so far... UC Riverside has four players in double figures, a quartet that includes LARRY CUNNINGHAM (12.9), HENRIK THOMSEN (10.4), JUSTIN BELL (10.3) and CHRIS JOHNSON (10.1)... Cunningham is also the leading rebounder at 4.9 ppg... The Highlanders are being outscored 72.5-63.7 ppg and allowing opponents to shoot .470 from the floor... Bell has 64 three-pointers to pace UC Riverside while Thomsen (43) and Johsnon (38) have also shot the ball well from the outside... Bell's 119 assists are more than twice as many as the next closest player.
THE SERIES VS. CAL STATE FULLERTON: UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton played once during the 1960-61 season (CSF, 85-56) but did not play against until the 2004-05 season... The Titans hold a 6-0 advantage over the Aggies, including earning an 84-77 win at Fullerton on Jan. 27... Thomas Juillerat scored 22 points and Vince Oliver had 13 to lead UC Davis while SCOTT CUTLEY had a big night for the Titans, scoring 35 points... BOBBY BROWN and MARCUS CRENSHAW each added 16 points.
ABOUT CAL STATE FULLERTON: The Titans are in search of their fifth 20-win season in school history, playing only the Aggies this week before competing in the Big West Conference Tournament next week in Anaheim... Cal State Fullerton is hoping to secure the No. 2 seed and bye into the semifinals which is dependent on how the rest of the league season plays out this weekend... BOBBY BROWN, an NABC All-District honoree, is averaging 20.4 ppg and 5.4 apg, one of four starters in double figures... SCOTT CUTLEY (16.1), FRANK ROBINSON (11.6) and JUSTIN BURNS (10.4) are also part of that group... Brown is a finalist for the Cousy Award and is just eight three-pointers away from the Big West record and has 77 so far this season.... He is shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc... MARCUS CRENSHAW is averaging 12.0 ppg off the bench... Cal State Fullerton is shooting 46 percent from the field, 38 percent rom three-point and averaging 38.9 rpg.
OLIVER EARNS DIVISION I INDEPENDENT PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS: Sophomore guard Vince Oliver turned in one of his best performances earlier this season vs. Cal State Northridge and Pacific, averaging 26 points over two games. For his efforts, Oliver was named the Divsion I Independent Men's Basketball Player of the Week. Oliver had 52 points in UC Davis' two games, including a career-high 30 to lead the Aggies to a, 93-88, double-overtime victory over Cal State Northridge. He was 9-of-18 from three point range and 11-of-13 from the free throw line for the weekend. He also had 14 rebounds in the two games.
UC DAVIS SAYS GOODBYE TO SENIORS: The Aggies will try to send off their senior class in winning fashion this weekend... Thomas Juillerat and Ari Warmerdam are each in their fourth season on the court for UC Davis while Rommel Marentez, who played just two games his freshman season before being injured and receiving a subsequent medical hardship, is in his fifth... During his career, the hard-nosed Juillerat posted just the second triple-double in school history and is a 1,000-point scorer; Warmerdam has made 41 of 45 (.911) free throw attempts this season after being sidelined by injury most of last year; and Marentez was an All-Division I Independent honorable mention selection last year and has started 68 games in his career... The three players will be honored prior to Saturday's game against Cal State Fullerton and will be joined by Nick Karvelas, a reserve guard who is in his first season with the program.
AGGIES HOPING TO END SEASON ON HIGH NOTE: UC Davis is hoping to reach at least five wins with its final two home games on tap this weekend... The Aggies have not finished with four wins since the 1960-61 and 1959-60 seasons... They last had five wins in 1962-63.
ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS: The Aggies' victory over the Gauchos in Santa Barbara was UC Davis' lone road win of the season and first since winning at Cal Poly, Feb. 4, 2006. UC Santa Barbara was 5-2 at home heading into its game with the Aggies and also ranked No. 25 in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll. It has since dropped out of the rankings.
PERCENTAGES RISING: Not only did the Aggies upset the Gauchos, but they did it in fine form. UC Davis had its highest field goal percentage of the season (52.1%). In fact, the Aggies enjoyed one of their best weekend's of the season, going 29-of-33 from the free throw line (87.9%), including perfect performances from Vince Oliver (8-of-8) and Rommel Marentez (6-6) and a near-perfect weekend from Thomas Juillerat (9-of-10). Juillerat was also 8-of-11 (72.7%) from the field in the two games.
ENCORE PERFORMANCE: Following their near-perfect performance at the free throw line vs. UC Santa Barbara, the Aggies were 14-of-14 at the line in both overtimes vs. Cal State Northrige to clinch the victory and shot a season-high 91 percent from the FT line (22-24) two days later vs. Pacific.
OLIVER HELPS SNAP STREAK: UC Davis snapped a four-game losing skid when it defeated Brown University, 49-47, Jan. 2. Vince Oliver, who was just 1-of-6 from behind the arc, hit his lone three of the game at the buzzer to help the Aggies avoid going 1-11 to open the season for the first time since the 1960-61 season when they opened the year 1-13.
ROAD WARRIORS: The 2006-07 season began with a four-game, eight-day trip to Duke, UTEP and Portland that covered nearly 5,900 miles... The Dec. 23 trip to Colorado would have pushed the season total to more than 10,000 miles, however that game was cancelled due to inclement weather... The Aggies are taking a cue from the football team, which traveled nearly 11,000 miles and played in each of the four timezones in the continental United States during five straight road games to start its 2006 season.
BRUCCULERI MAKES RETURN; BOONE ALSO BACK ON THE COURT: Sophomore Kyle Brucculeri, who injured his non-shooting elbow during the early part of preseason drills, made his first appearance of the 2006-07 season on Dec. 9 during the Aggies' loss at Idaho State... Brucculeri, who had a team-best 63 three-pointers last year and was third on the team in scoring at 10.9 ppg, made his first start of the season Dec. 19, scoring seven points with a three-pointer. C Michael Boone also played for the first time after receiving academic clearance... Boone, the Aggies' tallest player at 7 feet, 2 inches, averaged 2.0 ppg. and 1.2 rpg and led the team with 14 blocks last season... He scored two points but fouled out in just 10 minutes of action in his first game back.
AGGIES FEATURE YOUTHFUL ROSTER: Of the 14 players on this season's active roster, nine are underclassmen... Bussey Ellis and Shane Hanson are true freshmen while three other players are redshirt freshmen... Five sophomores, a junior and three seniors comprise the remainder of the roster... After injuries sidelined Rommel Marentez and Thomas Juillerat during the season-opener against Georgia Southern, UC Davis played the final three games of its roadtrip with just one upperclassman (Ari Warmerdam), five freshmen and three sophomores.
JUILLERAT POSTS TRIPLE-DOUBLE: F Thomas Juillerat achieved just the program's third triple-double ever when he scored 12 points with 12 rebounds and 10 assists against Cal State Fullerton in a triple-overtime loss last Jan. 28... The only other triple-double in school history came on Feb. 15, 1991 when MATT CORDOVA had 12 points, 10 rebounds and a school-record 13 assists on Feb. 15, 1991... G Vince Oliver nearly added another for the Aggies when he had 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists against Columbia on Nov. 13. Juillerat added a double double against Brown, scoring 13 points with 12 rebounds. The Aggies are 2-0 this season when Juillerat has a double double.
MARENTEZ AND JUILLERAT RETURN FOR 1,000-POINT QUEST: Seniors Rommel Marentez and Thomas Juillerat missed most of the first four games of the season, playing just 11 and five minutes, respectively, against Georgia Southern before ankle injuries sidelined the Aggie duo... They both returned to the lineup against Sacramento State... Both players entered the season closing in on the 1,000-point club at UC Davis with Marentez needing just 41 points and Juillerat passing the mark last week at UC Irvine... He now has 1,015 career points... Thirteen players in the history of the program have reached the career plateau... Ryan Moore (2001-05, 5th with 1,358) and Fowzi Abdelsamad (2000-05, 9th with 1,235) were the last two Aggies to do so.
WHAT'S IN A NAME: With the transition to Division I comes more attention from national media and, as a result, more media outlets referring to UC Davis in a number of different manners... Simply, the university is either "UC Davis" or "University of California, Davis"... Incorrect references we have seen in media outlets: California-Davis, Cal-Davis, U.C. Davis, Cal St. Davis, Davis State and U.C.-Davis... A new one spotted last season was U-C Davis... An new moniker noticed on a luggage tag earlier this year was "U-C David"... Wow.
DIVISION I OR DIVISION II? A LESSON IN RECLASSIFICATION: UC Davis is in its fourth and final year of a four-year reclassification to NCAA Division I status... Officially, UC Davis (like all other institutions currently reclassifying) is a Div. II institution until its first active year of Div. I (for UC Davis, that's in 2007-08)... However, the university was required to follow all NCAA Div. I rules and regulations, including those governing scheduling, beginning in 2004-05... Similarly, UC Davis began counting two years ago as a Div. I team for its opponents' strength-of-schedule purposes, started to be included in Div. I stats, and has been added to most media coverage of Div. I athletics, primarily because of its competition... UC Davis will become official members of the Big West Conference in 2007-08 but has been fully integrated into regular-season scheduling in all its member sports, including men's basketball.
PRESS TABLE: KSAC (1240 AM) airs all Aggie men's basketball games this season... SCOTT MARSH will handle play-by-play duties and be joined by BILL HERENDA, who will provide analysis... Games are also available on the internet at www.ucdavisaggies.com.
