Cynic Turned Believer: Poly Girls Basketball and the Super-Band

Go hand in hand. Nice rhyme scheme, no?

I am sitting at Mott Gym beneath a gray dome and ambient lights— Kanye West blaring from a quadrant of amplified speakers.

Out from opposing corners, a reef of coaches— wide-eyed, serious, walk from their humble fighter’s corners amidst a chorus of rat a tat jibber jabbering drum beats.

Players peel out like ping pong balls high on a heavy dose of the oldest drug in the book — adrenaline.

It is paralyzing.

This is College basketball. Call it what you will, but this is College hoops, mates — and it’s temperamental as always.

November is shall I say, kinky? A time when coaches work through their early rotational woes, so that by January when Conference play begins they might be set and ready for a possible run into March.

In a matter of a few minutes, a tip-off followed by a blurry mess of fandom swallows the stadium whole.

Fresno state comes out drilling three point bombs left and right.

A fan yells from afar, “Is this Hiroshima?”

Kristina Santiago grabs back the run with a dose of drop step crab dribble layups. “Girl’s got game,” says a gruff man behind a Moses beard in a large winter trench coat and baggy green slacks.

Cal Poly's Kristina Santiago drives past a Fresno State defender on Sunday, November 20, 2011. Santiago scored 27 points and grabbed 23 rebounds in the game. Photo by Jamie Pereira

A turnover follows on the next play down. Fresno state 15, Poly 12.

I am taken by Coach Mimnaugh’s three out guard set. She is centered. Her demeanor quiet and calm, defiant in her team’s up-tempo pace.

I am less taken with her team’s scattered haze of defense. Fresno is having their way with an inside-outside guard attack. Stop, pop, lean back, cross over, attack, rebound, and Fresno is drilling Poly 30-21.

Yet that never stops the bands “Hoorahs!” They’re situated Westward side behind the visitor’s basket—a lilting left-right montage of Fansmanship wildly displaying faithfulness to their beloved classmates.

Years from now I’m sure they’ll remember these moments: hand in hand, brass piece in brass piece under one united hedge way: Cal Poly. A school long known for cow patties and long rows of farm tractors, now an upturning sport school with a basketball program worth rooting for.

And it works.

Poly’s inspired play is recognizable; Each Lady Mustang swelling in her belief that an early deficit is as I said a kink in the long strand of a forty-minute chain.

Two uncharacteristic defensive stops, two more Santiago lay-ins and the score is equalizing. Fresno state 32, Poly 31.

I tweet @SLOcollegebeat (local Tribune beat writer Josh Scroggin) “Watching this game is like a speedy welter weight classic.” He returns, “It’s sure a shock to the system after covering yesterday’s men’s game.”

And boy is it. These girls are speedier than Gonzalez himself. They hip hop dribble around a court faster than the ball they carry. Halftime: Poly 41, Fresno state 40.

Then a raucous celebration, Poly band lets loose a charming diatribe of the Macarena and Smooth Operator. A small child enveloped in a Poly sweatshirt bobs her braid to the tight tunes of the Mustang band.

Now back to the game: Tempo is stilling.

It is amazing how turnovers can distill an up-tempo basketball game. Lady Mustangs and Bulldogs look tired and disoriented.

Until a streak in the name of point guard Jonae Ervin fire cracks in a huff. A drop pass to role-playing spark Ashlee Burns for a layup ignites a much needed mini run pushing Poly back in the game.

Coach Mimnaugh lets loose a smile. Her team is elevating again. Fresno state 49, Poly 47.

This welterweight is becoming a slogged bash between two tiring squads. Shooting percentages are decreasing. How could one imagine they wouldn’t, after this sort of up and down haggle?

Ashlee Burns is doing her spark plug deal again. She just hit a corner three, pulling Poly back into a deadlock.

Cal Poly's Ashlee Burns (00) takes a three point shot from the corner on November 20, 2011. Burns scored 18 points including four three-pointers. Photo by Jamie Pereira

Cal Poly 57, Fresno state 57.

Then we spar. Both teams make a run and the other responds. Santiago goes coast to coast on a stunning steal and layup,
but her counterparts answer with a three point field goal.

“No let up! No let up!” Coach Mimnaugh yells from her sideline.

And both sides for a moment must have heard the coach in her grace. Fresno’s unrelenting press disturbs Poly’s inbound possessions, leading to various turnovers.

Now in the final two-minutes Poly answers with a similar turnover. A poor inbound pass by the Lady Bulldogs leads to a two-shot foul. With the score tied pressure is mounting. Christine Martin steps to the line and drills one of two free throws to tie the game.

42.6 seconds, crowd a riled pack of hungry dogs.

Lady Bulldogs answer with a quick layup and confuse the Poly inbound pass. As it dribbles to the sideline out of bounds, Ashlee Burns the effective Mustang guard, loses her cool. “Calm down,” Mimnaugh says, patting the wet back of her energizing guard.

Again the Bulldogs answer. Quick foul results in two-more free throws and the Mustangs are forced to heave a dramatic half-court shot.

It clangs. The chain breaks. Fresno State 79, Cal Poly 76.

It took forty minutes to officially change my perception of things.  I’m more of a believer now in the women’s game, watching as my cynical ego shyly suspends into the rafters and out into a cold starry world.