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As the Aggie women hope to continue to soar over a conference they dominated this winter, the UC Davis men now set their sights on ending this weekend with another win streak and a return to the Big Dance.
Such are the local goals at the Big West basketball tournaments this week at the Honda Center in Anaheim.
It all gets underway when head coach Jim Les leads his guys against Cal State Fullerton on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. The No. 6-seed Aggies come in 11-19 after a disappointing conclusion to a 7-9 BWC campaign. The No. 3 Titans are 14-16 but 10-6 and third place in league.
"We've shown we can do it," reports Les.
His men had a five-game conference win streak and have been in a half-dozen other losses down to the wire.
"We can play at a high level at both ends of the floor, we just haven't been as consistent as we'd like," the eighth-year Aggie mentor told me.
"That's a little better feeling than if you've never shown it and didn't think we had it in us. This group has it in them … now it's a matter of the consistency, putting two halves together, doing it at both ends of the floor on the same night.
"Our guys are excited about the challenge on Thursday. We know (Fullerton) is a really good basketball team. We're going to have to play our best to get the win."
This season will be a little different than the past two Big West Tournaments for Les and Company.
Last year, as regular-season champs, the Aggies lost to these same Titans, but automatically went into the WNIT (where they lost at Utah). The year before, UC Davis won the tourney and advanced to the NCAA postseason for the first time in its Division I history, winning a First Four game before losing to Kansas in the Midwest Regional's opening round.
But now it's win or go home for seniors T.J. Shorts II, Siler Schneider, Garrison Goode, A.J. John and Colin Russell. Shorts, a 2019 first team all-league selection and last season's Big West Player and Newcomer of the Year — the first dual-award winner in conference history.
As for the women, well, there's this invisible little monkey...
Having won 55 games in the two previous seasons and going 23-6 with a 15-1 BWC mark this year, the No, 22 mid-major Aggies want to send their senior trio off with the school's second D-I NCAA dance.
Most of 2018-19 has revolved around Big West Player of the Year Morgan Bertsch.
Anyone orbiting within a light year of The Pavilion knows the Bertsch story by now. She's the school's all-time leading scorer. The No. 6 most-prolific point-maker in the land and a three-time all-league player is fourth on the Big West career scoring list with 2,348 points. She comes into Friday's noon double-bye contest (against the to-be-determined lowest remaining seed) with a 23.4 points-per-game average.
"Morgan is such an unbelievable player and person," says head coach Jennifer Gross, the reigning three-time conference Coach of the Year. "Put the basketball aside, she's one of the most incredible individuals that we've had the opportunity to coach. She's fun to be around, she's really easy to coach and we're just so happy for her. She's put so much time and work into her game, you can really see her grow over the last couple of years."
But these Aggies are no one-trick pony.
Senior twins Kourtney and Karley Eaton — given a chance this season to start side-by-side in what some consider the West Coast's best backcourt — have been a catalyst in the Aggies' remarkable 14-game win streak. It's a stretch in which the locals haven't had a team come within 11 points while the average margin of victory is almost 20 points.
A super-deep roster includes junior wing Nina Bessolo (who earned honorable mention status on the all-BWC team), glass-clearing sophomore forward Cierra Hall (one of the emerging stars of the conference), guard Sophia Song (a long-range bomber with a penchant for defense) and a reserve platoon that often this year has seen all hands on deck.
Asked whether UC Davis felt pressure (there's that monkey again) going into Friday's game, Bertsch pooh-poohed the thought:
"At least for me and the twins, this is our fourth go-round. We've had these pressures at least for the last two years: winning (regular-season titles), then expected to win the tournament.
"We're more relaxed with the idea of it now because we know if you're going in there and playing with certain expectations for yourself, certain expectations for your team … you never do your best," she continued.
"It's something we've been talking about as a team these last couple of days. Making sure we don't have those expectations and we're not putting pressure on ourselves. You're never playing loose, you're never playing at your best when you have anxiety, pressure and expectations weighing you down.
"This season we've been playing so loose, having so much fun and I know that's something we need to continue doing," Bertsch added.
"We have our goals set, we have the things we want to accomplishment, but not by putting so much pressure on (ourselves). Enjoy the time we have left with each other, the experience of the tournament.
"We want to have fun with all this; and play with love for each other."
Notes: UC Irvine (27-5 and 15-1) is the No. 1 men's seed. The Anteaters are ranked No. 6 by CollegeInsider.com ... On Thursday, the men's play-by-play with Scott Marsh will be broadcast on MONEY 105.5 FM and streamed via ESPN3. If UC Davis advances to Friday, the radio moves to The Answer 1380 AM (6:30 p.m. semifinal) or Sports 1140 KHTK (9 p.m. semifinal), but ESPNU handles the television. The finals — 9 p.m. on Saturday — are on ESPN2 with radio on Aggie flagship KHTK 1140 AM ... Each Aggie women's game is on KDVS 90.3 FM with Greg Wong calling the action. The women's tourney throughout is streamed via ESPN3. If Davis wins Friday, it plays at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. All Aggie games are at the Honda Center ... Visit bigwest.org or ucdavisaggies.com to see more BWC Tournament up-to-the-minute scores and developments.
What others are saying...
From Hawaii women's coach Laura Beeman: "(UC Davis women) are a tremendous team. They execute their stuff. They have a prolific scorer and coach's-dream kind of kid in Morgan Bertsch. Coach Gross obviously does an amazing job with them.
"You can look back and say 'We were the only team in conference to beat them,' but I think bigger than that it shows we were able to beat everybody in conference at least once. I think it shows where we stand as a team."
(The Rainbow Wahine are 10-6 in the Big West and the tourney's No. 2 seed. Hawaii beat UCD, 65-60, on Oahu in January.)
"Any given night, any opponent can win," Beeman continues. "So, kudos to Davis for doing what they've done this year. For us, it's just a matter of showing up every night, trying to play decent basketball, which early on we struggled with that."
Former Aggie player (Class of 1997) and Fullerton men's coach Dedrique Taylor: "I have so much admiration for what coach Les has done with those guys. I don't think their record is truly indicative of how good their team is and what a quality ball club they have.
"We'll definitely have our work cut out for us. At this point of the year, everybody knows what everybody's doing."
(This is Taylor's sixth season at the Titan helm. Fullerton knocked Davis out last year and went on to win the tourney as a fourth seed. It was the eighth consecutive season that a different Big West team advanced. UCD and the Titans split during the regular season.)
— Bruce Gallaudet is the former sports and managing editor of The Davis Enterprise. He's been covering local sports since 1979 and writes "Aggie Corner" each week in The Enterprise, in addition to his "Inside Aggie Nation" appearing weekly at ucdavisaggies.com. Reach Gallaudet at 530-320-4456 or bgallaudet41@gmail.com
