Has the outlook for the Big West Conference changed?

Cal Poly’s Maliik Love is one of four seniors on this year’s team. By Owen Main

This season hasn’t always looked great for Cal Poly men’s basketball.

Before the season even began, two players who were supposed to play vital roles — Taylor Sutlive and Zach Gordon — were lost to knee injuries. A third player, Reese Morgan, has knees like a weathered 35 year-old David Nwaba, the player Cal Poly could least afford to lose, had wrist surgery in the offseason that kept him from playing in the preseason scrimmage. His status was also uncertain.

The Mustangs started the year 3-4, losing all their road games and winning all their home games. But they were shooting well below 50 percent from three point range and two of their wins were against teams that weren’t NCAA Division I teams.

So to be skeptical seemed to be reasonable.

Then the Mustangs really started to figure things out. After losing the opening game of a seven game road trip at Fresno State, they’ve reeled off three out of their past four games and have found a way to beat legitimate competition in tough environments.

Their one recent loss — to Gonzaga in Seattle — was a game that never looked too big for the Mustangs.

Cal Poly was within single-digits most of the game. Their game plan was spot-on and they made Gonzaga look like something other than the eighth-ranked team in the country.

Cal Poly fans should be optimistic. There are eight home games remaining this year. They should all be worthwhile to go to if you are a hoops fan in or around SLO.

Let’s be clear. Right now, they aren’t the best team in the Big West. UCSB, UC Irvine, and Long Beach State will be monsters this season. Teams who I thought would really struggle haven’t. UC Davis is 9-1, Hawai’i is 10-4, and UC Riverside is above .500. Cal State Northridge, who should be in the top half of the conference regular season standings, is only 3-10 thus far.

I’ll have a post before Conference play starts with some more specifics about who all will come into town in 2015.

In the mean time, what I am saying is that Cal Poly is showing signs that they have the ability to keep themselves in games throughout conference season. It should make for some good home basketball at Mott Athletics Center. For a team coming off their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, this has all the makings of a good home conference season.

A month ago, I might not have said it.

Trackbacks

1. Taking Cal Poly’s Big West season one (home) game at a time - Fansmanship says:

   12/29/2014 at 9:07 pm

   […] what about the Mustangs. I wrote this about them earlier this week. Things seemed kind of bleak early in the year. Taylor Sutlive and Zach Gordon were lost for the […]