Mustangs Men’s and Women’s Hoops Teams Earn Conference Honors

With the Big West Tournament coming up, Cal Poly’s men’s and women’s basketball teams have earned All-Conference honors in the Big West.

The women’s team, which is the number one seed in the Big West Tournament, received the most awards. Senior Rachel Clancy, who is a great student too, was the second Lady Mustang in two years to garner the Conference Player of the Year Award. In 2009-10, Kristina Santiago was the conference’s best player. In Santiago’s absence, Clancy has paced Cal Poly with 16.3 points per game and was also third on the team in rebounding.

Also receiving postseason awards were Clancy’s teammates Abby Bloetscher (2nd Team) and Jonae Ervin (Honorable Mention and All-Freshman Team).

Women’s Head Coach Faith Mimnaugh, in her 14th season at cal Poly, earned the Big West Coach of the Year honor by leading the Lady Mustangs to a share of the Big West regular season title despite losing the reigning conference player of the year during the first game of the season.

The Lady Mustangs start the conference tournament at home on Tuesday night. As the number one seed, they earned the right to host eighth-seeded Cal State Fullerton at Mott Gym. The game starts at 7:00 pm.

The men’s team also collected some hardware on Monday. Senior Shawn Lewis, who averaged 15.1 points per game to lead the Mustangs, earned First Team All-Conference honors.  Minnesota native, junior David Hanson, (15.1 points per game), earned All-Conference Second Team recognition and guard Maliik Love was the second Mustang guard in a row to be named to the All-Freshman team. Last season, Kyle Odister was named to the All-Freshman team. Odister has sat out this season due to injury. Love shared Fresman of the Year honors with Josh Ritchart from UC- Davis.

Coach Joe Callero’s team finished the regular season with a 15-14 record (10-6 in the Big West Conference) after finishing 12-19 (7-9 in the Big West Conference) in 2009-10. After being picked by many to finish the season near the bottom of the conference, Callero may have been deserving of coach of the year. The award, however, went to Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson. The 49ers, with Big West Player of the Year Casper Ware, finished in first place in the regular season.

The Mustang men start the Big West Tournament as the two-seed. They face 7th seeded UC Riverside on Thursday night at 6:00 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.