Cal Poly men’s basketball roster will look a lot different next season

The Cal Poly men’s basketball team has finished 7th place in the Big West standings for five straight seasons. In 2018-19, at least seven names on the 17-18 roster will be gone, including four that have been announced since the season ended. As this school year nears its end, the 18-19 roster has started to come into focus.

Players leaving include seniors Luke Meikle and Victor Joseph, graduating junior Aleks Abrams, and Josh Martin and Trevor John — both of whom announced their intention to graduate and leave the program after the season ended. 

Joining those departures are Eric Toles, who redshirted last season, and walk-on Jared Rice. The departures left a bunch of question-marks, many of which were filled last week.

Incoming Freshmen

Four of the seven open spots will be filled by incoming freshmen. Junior Ballard and Daxton Carr figure to contribute on the wing. Tuukka Jaakkola, a center from Finland was announced later in the school year. Cal Poly is not a deep team in the front court, leading me to believe the Jaakkola will likely be a candidate to play and not redshirt, though I never know with players who I’ve never seen in-person. (I actually never know with anybody…). 

One guy I have seen play in person — a lot — is Mission Prep’s Kyle Colvin. Colvin was announced by Cal Poly after accepting enrollment into school. I’ve seen him play for the last three seasons and think he can be a contributor during his career at Cal Poly. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s a Division I player. Getting him as a presumed walk-on (?) will add depth to the Mustang roster. 

Transfers

Cal Poly has been active in making offers to junior college players. Last week, Job Alexander committed. Alexander is another lanky wing who can shoot from long range. While depth is always a plus, the Mustangs seem to have a lot of those. 

More to come?

Currently, their roster has 12 players on it, one of whom may be a walk-on. So Cal Poly still has 1-2 scholarships available, if they choose to use them (I can’t imagine they wouldn’t). Just four of the 12 players currently listed on Cal Poly’s roster will be upperclassmen next season. We’ll see who the Mustangs have up their sleeve and whether they can get one more impact player. The depth on the front court seems really thin with the current roster construction. Getting some kind of 6’9″ beefcake who can defend and rebound to commit to Cal Poly would seem to be a priority, though getting a real impact player this late seems like it would be difficult. You never know. 

Kevon Davis (left) was announced as a new assistant coach at Cal Poly after Paul Mrozik (second from left) left for a job at Mercer. By Owen Main

Mrozik moving on

After just two seasons, Associate Head Coach Paul Mrozik will be leaving for a job at Mercer. Taking his place on the coaching staff is Kevon Davis, who was Cal Poly’s Director of Player Development last season. Davis joins Sam Kirby and Mitch Reaves on Joe Callero’s staff.