Nov. 12, 2008
Game Notes
DAVIS, Calif. -- There's plenty of reason for UC Davis fans to be excited about the 2008-09 men's basketball season. The team returns 80 percent of its scoring from a year ago, including six of its top seven scorers. In addition, an experienced trio of redshirts will see its first action in an Aggie uniform. Couple that with a promising new recruiting class, and the Aggies will undoubtedly have the deepest and most experienced squad since Gary Stewart took over as head coach in 2003.
One of the most consistent faces of the program over the past three years has been Vince Oliver. Now a senior, he has started 82 of the 86 games he has played in and averaged double-figures each season. Oliver is one of just 15 Aggies, all-time, to score 1,000 points (1,030) in a career. Additionally, he has logged 2,844 minutes in his career, and averaged 33.1 per game.
"Vince continues to work diligently to improve, and he's a much better player now than he was at the end of last season," said Stewart. "It's a credit to his work ethic. He's been through some tough times in his tenure in respect to our team, and he has been a model of consistency."
Oliver was one of three Aggies to start all 31 games in 2007-08. Mark Payne and David Carter were the others. Consistency is another trait that best describes Payne. Last year as a redshirt freshman, all he did was capture the Big West Conference Player of the Year honor as well as the national honor of CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Freshman of the Year. Along the way, Payne averaged 9.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He even posted just the third triple-double in UC Davis history.
"Going into last season, I had high hopes for Mark, and he certainly lived up to that," said Stewart. "He's such a versatile player. The concern you have for a freshman is confidence, lack of experience and the understanding of the rigors of college play and how quickly they adapt to that. He answered all of those questions. He played as well at the end of the year as he did in the start or middle of the season. He was extremely consistent with his play, and the sky is the limit for him."
In addition to Oliver and Payne's steady influence, the most potent offensive force down the stretch was Dominic Calegari. Then a sophomore and now the program's lone junior, Calegari averaged 3.1 points in the first nine games before missing the next seven due to an injury. In the last nine games of the season, Calegari led the Aggies with 17.8 points and 5.7 rebounds to finish with yearly averages of 9.2 and 3.7, respectively. He also shot better than 91 percent from the free throw line to lead the Big West and nearly 37 percent from beyond the arc.
"Dominic is such a huge factor because, when he's healthy, he catapults us to another level," said Stewart. "He not only is an excellent player, but he also makes our team better and the players around him better. He gives us something that is hard to get on this level, and that's a player with size who can score in a variety of ways."
Carter is one of four Aggies who returns for his fourth and final season. Much like Calegari, he had seemingly two seasons within a season in 2007-08. After starting out the first half of the year averaging 4.4 points, he closed the last half averaging nearly 13 points per game. He has appeared in 84 games in his Aggie career, which is second only to Oliver.
"David's had some huge, huge nights for us even back to his freshman season," said Stewart. "What we need to get from David this year is for him to stay at that magical level. As a senior, he's much more confident in what he's capable of doing."
A pair of fifth-year seniors have also been familiar faces to Aggie fans. Kyle Brucculeri enters his final season needing 385 points to reach 1,000 for his career. Of his 615 career points, 375 have come from beyond the arc in the form of 125 three-pointers. He was second on the team a year ago in treys and finished averaging 7.3 ppg. Michael Boone, another senior, was having his finest season as an Aggie last year before an injury forced him to miss the final 11 games.
Unlike 2007-08 when the roster did not have a single senior, a total of five seniors will help lead the 2008-09 squad. In addition to Oliver, Carter, Brucculeri and Boone, Nathan Clark rounds out the experienced class. Clark is coming off his first year as an Aggie after transferring in prior to his junior season.
Payne led a freshman backcourt last year that included Kevin Toth and Ryan Silva. Toth appeared in 19 games while Silva averaged 6.4 points and shot .457 from beyond the arc in the 14 games he saw action in.
Joe Harden (a transfer from Notre Dame) and Todd Lowenthal (Hawaii) will both be sophomores this season. Harden will be reunited with Payne as both played on the same high school team. Adam Malik, who sat out his true freshman season, is also a part of last year's redshirt trio.
Newcomers to the program include Derek Oestreicher (New Mexico) and Jacob Ranger, who signed in last fall's early period. Later commitments came from Julian Welch and Ryan Howley. Ranger and Howley will redshirt in 2008-09.
In addition to the number of returning players and their cumulative success, another unique aspect of this year's team is its experience over the summer taking part in a European tour. The 10-day trip afforded the squad the opportunity to play four games against various national teams.
"It's the most meaningful thing I've been associated with since I've been at UC Davis," said Stewart of the trip. "We're so much further along than we were at this stage last year in every way. It really aided in our development and has made a significant impact on our program."
In all, the nine returning Aggies have played a total of 449 games with 242 starts for UC Davis. That doesn't include the previous upper-level Division I experience both Harden and Lowenthal bring to the program as well as all of the time the three redshirts spent last year practicing with the team. Combine that with the latest recruiting class, and it's no wonder Stewart is excited about the upcoming campaign.
"Not only is there familiarity with the system, but we have the depth to sustain the type of effort that's needed to compete in the upper echelon of the Big West," said Stewart. "We haven't had that in the past because our numbers have been such that we've worn down. This year, we'll able to stay fresher because we can go deeper into our rotation."
