UC Davis tops Sac State in meeting of ex-Kings guards. Will the series continue?
The schools have faced off in basketball arenas on campus and at venues dotted across the Sacramento and Davis regions since 1948. It is called the Causeway Cup, a clash that outdates the Causeway Classic football rivalry by seven years.
On Friday night in Yolo County on Bob Hamilton Court, UC Davis and Sacramento State squared off for the 123rd time with regional bragging rights part of the experience of teams trying to build momentum with wholesale roster changes since last season. Both teams wanted a victory because it was the most immediate game, certainly, and because there was the aim of defeating any of their Northern California program peers.
With redshirt freshman guard Marcus Wilson making two jumpers in the final minute, UCD held off Sac State 77-73 in front of an energized, overflow crowd of 3,786 inside the rocking and rolling University Credit Union Center, in a meeting of head coaches who are former Sacramento Kings guards.
Aggies players were ecstatic with the triumph, high-fiving and bear-hugging each other and then shaking hands with fans young and old.
Longtime UCD coach Jim Les even climbed into the marching band group to soak up the good vibes, while Hornets first-year coach Mike Bibby was dealt his second successive loss, evening the Hornets’ record at 2-2 after a 2-0 start to the season. UCD is 3-1.
Sac State and UCD were conference rivals from 1953 to 1985, mostly in the Far Western Conference and for three seasons in the Northern California Athletic Conference. The hope from the athletic department of both schools is to continue the series while the Causeway Classic football rivalry faces an unknown future.
“Game on!” an ecstatic Les said of playing Sac State in the future. “Absolutely would love it if we can do it.”
Sac State leads the all-time series against UCD 73-50, but few have been as good as this game, and it was a credit to both coaches for getting their teams off to such encouraging starts with new rosters. Les has nine new players from last season, and Bibby and his new coaching staff are working with 14 players who were not with the Hornets last season.
The intimate setting added to the energy of the event. From 2016-2022, a total of six games, the rivals played at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. But the venue was too cavernous, and no one complained when the schools agreed to go back to on-campus venues.
Junior guard Connor Sevilla scored 20 points for UCD, making four 3-pointers, and junior guard Nils Cooper had 14. Freshman forward Omer Suljanovic had 13 points and Wilson, the hero down the stretch, had 12. Wilson is a transfer from Washington State, and he, like everyone else, is learning Les, his staff and the “Aggie Way” on the fly.
Les said it pleases him to see UCD players mingle with the crowd after games, including exchanging pleasantries with scores of alums who have backed the program for decades.
“This community is unique and special,” Les said. “For a college town, and all those people that sit there, they’ve supported us from Day 1. We want to make sure we acknowledge them. They respect how hard these guys work, how hard they play, and that they grind and compete in the classroom at a high level here, too.”
New conferences for both next season
This is a transition season for both programs.
Sac State is departing the Big Sky Conference after 29 seasons to join the California-heavy Big West Conference starting next academic year.
UCD is leaving the Big West after this season to join the Mountain West Conference. UCD has been in the Big West since 2007, when the school became Division I.
The Aggies have enjoyed a good measure of success under Les, their 15th-year head coach, including winning the Big West two times, the Big West Conference Tournament once, and reaching the 2017 NCAA Tournament and the NIT in 2015 and 2018.
Les and his top assistants — Kevin Nocek, Kyle Vogt and Jonathan Metzger-Jones — make up the longest-tenured staff in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Nocek was a guard on UCD’s 1998 Division II national championship team under coach Bob Williams. He is in his 24th season on the Aggies bench.
“It’s been a dream,” Nocek said before the game.
Bibby tips cap to ‘really good’ Aggies team
Sac State rose to Division I in 1991-92 but has enjoyed just two winning seasons in that stretch, leading to the intrigue of the Bibby hire. His arrival has led to three overflow crowds in new Hornet Pavilion.
Bibby this week showed his team clips of some of the great San Antonio Spurs teams he played against when leading the Kings in the 2000s, to show his crew how to play the game.
Senior big man Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry led Sac State with 22 points, and senior guard Prophet Johnson had 20 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore guard Mikey Williams scored 12 for Sac State.
Bibby and Les don’t know each other much, having played in the NBA in different eras, but they respect each other. Both coaches said that they need games and practices to get their players on the same page.
Bibby said UCD is “a really good team” and that he appreciated the game.
“They’re going to win a lot of games,” Les said of Sac State. “That team is talented. Mike does a really good job with them. I told him pregame that I remember my first year as a head coach in college, and I was felt like I was drinking from a fire hose, where there’s just so much coming at you. Because it’s just not basketball. There’s a lot to do. He’s done a great job so far.”
