Aggies defy all the odds: Team is primed for the playoffs

Like a thermos bottle that keeps hot things hot and cold things cold -- How does it know? How does it do it? -- the UC Davis men's basketball team keeps on winning.

The Aggies have been Northern California Athletic Conference champions the last four years, going 14-0 twice (1996 and this season), and are 52-4 over that span. At 24-2 this season, they also posted their fourth consecutive 20-win campaign.

What is unique about this season is that despite losing three starters to injuries, the Aggies are No. 9 in Division II nationally, the highest ranking in school history, and No. 1 in the West Region.

Jason Cox, Davis' leading scorer and one of its leading rebounders, has missed most of the second half of the season with a stress fracture in his left leg. Justis Durkee, who shares the rebounding lead with Cox, has been hobbled by an ankle injury for two weeks and is playing at about 80 percent. And J.C. Timmons has played sparingly the last two weeks because of a hand injury.

Nevertheless, the Aggies roll on. So how are they doing it? The good, old-fashioned way: the team approach.

"We have a lot of guys who bought into the system two, three years back and it's finally coming to a head," said senior Chris Vlasic. "The system here is total team in every aspect. We know we don't have anybody who will score 40 a night or grab 20 rebounds. We all know we have each other, and we all have confidence in each other so none of us has to play out of character.

"As a matter of fact, you can see someone trying to do too much. He sticks out like a sore thumb. That is not how the system works here."

The system is directed by eighth-year coach Bob Williams. Only six teams have enjoyed 20-win seasons in Davis history; Williams has had five of them. Of all the Aggies' teams Williams has coached, this group has commanded his utmost respect.

"I trust them completely, probably because I've seen such a commitment out of them," Williams said. "I have had no struggle with egos on this team, mine or the players. We are all worried about the end product and winning rather than our egos. It is nice we all checked our egos outside the door on the welcome mat at the Rec Hall.

"I've talked about the commitment they made last spring and the commitment they made to winning. We've (coaches) talked to teams in the past, asked them what their goals were and what they wanted to accomplish. They all said they would like to get out of the West Regional and to the Elite Eight."

Fifth-year senior J.P. Bergez said the team's offseason commitment has been instrumental in its success.

"I think before it was a case of, 'You had to do those things' if we wanted to be successful. Now it is, 'We wanted to do those things,' " Bergez said. "When we started this year, after all the hard work we put in in the offseason, every one of us thought, 'Why waste everything we went through, all the dues we had to pay to get to a point where it matters?' That was like a springboard into this season."

When Cox and Durkee went out, senior Jonathan Surface, community college transfer John Surina and freshman Scott Darmstadt, all reserves, stepped in. When Timmons missed a game, senior Rick Gonzales, who had been averaging fewer than 10 minutes a game in conference play, with a 4.2 scoring average, scored 27 points against Cal State Hayward, including the game-winner.

"There's no doubt, those guys had to step up to a higher level," Williams said. "I think you could say it was a silver lining in the cloud to have the three starters go down and to let more players have playing time and boost their confidence.

"But now it becomes a black cloud again if we can't integrate our guys back into the lineup and keep playing at the level we have been playing by the time regionals come."

Williams might not have a healthy team when the regionals start. Cox returned three games ago but had to sit out the next game because of soreness. He played sparingly in the Aggies' NCAC finale Saturday at San Francisco State. Durkee is still hampered by the ankle, and Timmons played a half against San Francisco State. Still, there is the rest of the team.

"That's the system," Bergez said.