Cal Poly alumnus, Jordan Lewis, is looking to make a bigger impact in his second season in Israel.

After sitting out a season to complete his degree at Cal Poly, Jordan Lewis completed his rookie campaign in Israel’s second division. This season, he’ll go back for his second season.

Lewis discussed what got him to Cal Poly, his year off, what made him pick Israel as a place to play, and where he was when last year’s Mustangs made it to the NCAA Tournament.

Because I’m sometimes a YouTube junkie, I recently came across a highlight tape from Cal Poly alumnus, Jordan Lewis’ first season as a pro in Israel. Best I can tell, Lewis averaged just over 12 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in 24 minutes for Maccabi Beer Yakov last season. I’m pretty sure he played for at least one other team in Israel last year, but couldn’t easily find stats online. If you find more, please post below!

Either way, the highlight tape below shows what Cal Poly fans already knew — Lewis, who last played for Cal Poly in 2011-12, can use his strength to get separation and score in the paint, or he can step back and hit outside shots.

What a highlight tape probably doesn’t show is the fact that Lewis can probably still guard multiple positions in the league he’s playing in. If Jordan is back in SLO, I’ll try to get him on our podcast, but in the mean time, enjoy the highlight tape.

Jordan Lewis scored 7 points in his professional debut on October 15. By Will Parris.

Kristina Santiago, Drake U’u, and Jordan Lewis have all gone from Cal Poly to a professional contract in a foreign country over the past few years. But in some ways, Jordan Lewis’ journey to a professional contract is the most impressive.

Unlike the others, Lewis signed a contract 19 months after his final college game. His game at Cal Poly centered around doing what was needed for the team. Most of the time, that meant playing solid defense, moving the basketball, and I do remember a pretty big three-point shot at Mott against UCSB early in his career as well.

Now, Lewis has signed a professional contract in Israel. Actually, he is only a town away (less than 10 minutes away) from fellow Mustang Kristina Santiago. Here are some of his thoughts on being a rookie in Israel for Maccabi Be’er Ya’akov.

Fansmanship: What team do you play for and where?

Jordan Lewis: I am playing for Maccabi Be’er Ya’akov in the beautiful country of Israel.

Fansmanship: When does your season start?

Jordan Lewis: The official season opener is on October 15^th however we have had a few preseason scrimmage games over the past few weeks. The season here is long, it reaches all the way into May.

Fansmanship: What’s the city like where you are living?

Jordan Lewis: The city I live in, Be’er Ya’akov, is a small city located between three larger cities: Rishon LeTsiyon, Ness Tsiyona and Ramla. Like I mentioned Be’er Ya’akov is a small city with one post office a couple of gas stations and couple of markets. But it is growing at a rapid pace, just walking down the street you will see new state of the art high-rise apartment complexes being built left and right as well as construction on new roads and sidewalks.

Fansmanship: What has the biggest adjustment been so far with playing professionally vs. college?

Jordan Lewis: There are many differences between playing professionally and in college. Playing professionally has opened my eyes to the business side of professional basketball. As far as playing the game basketball is played a bit more loosely with more opportunity for players to play more freely. The professional game is a more simple game than the college game. I will say that there are things you can get away with at the professional level that you couldn’t get away with in college. In college there is a very strong sense of family within the team which grows over years with players in a program, at the pro level players commonly move from one team to another which changes the way team chemistry is built.

Fansmanship: What do you miss most about college?

Jordan Lewis: I miss a lot of things about college and I’m sure I always will but I graduated now so that’s that. Laughs. I miss my basketball family back at Cal Poly including the amazing Cal Poly fans and supporters. I will be following the Cal Poly team this season any way I can. I also miss all my friends back in San Luis Obispo and being able to see them every day.  I had a great time living there for the past 5 or so years, and I plan on living back in there after this season is over and hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with some friends and exchange some stories over lunch.

Fansmanship: Why did you go to the team where you are?

Jordan Lewis: I came to Maccabi Be’er Ya’akov because they showed interest in me and I have a good opportunity to play good minutes and contribute to the team’s success.

Fansmanship: Is basketball perceived differently in the city you’re in? In what ways?

Jordan Lewis: Well I can tell you that when I visited Israel for the first time I was surprised to see how big basketball was here. Basketball is arguably the top sport in Israel. If you ask any Israeli who their favorite team is they will spit out the name of their favorite team before you can even finish asking the question. People are fanatic about basketball here, so in a way people are more die-hard fans here versus back in the States. During the games the crowd is a mix between crazy soccer fans hitting drums, blowing horns and chanting their clubs song and wild college fans heckling and yelling.

Fansmanship: Any new languages or lingo you can share? How about local foods that you like?

Jordan Lewis: Unfortunately for me, my Hebrew is absolutely terrible so I communicate in English mostly. There are a few words I have picked up however. The word “Sebaba” means “cool”, also during the games you will hear people yelling “Yalla! Yalla!” this means “let’s go! Let’s Go!” and if someone were to ask you “how’s it going?” you would simply answer “hakol beseder” meaning “it’s all good.” The food in Israel is great and I think everybody in Israel knows how to cook. I make a lot of pita sandwiches but I would say that if you come to Israel you have to try the shawarma which is like the Middle East version of a burrito in my mind.

Fansmanship: What is the hardest thing about living where you live?

Jordan Lewis: Other than the fact that I am 10 hours ahead of my friends and family back home, which creates some problems when trying to reach them…I would say the toughest thing about living in Be’er Ya’akov is making it to Tel Aviv and back. When put in perspective it’s not the biggest of problems.

Fansmanship: Anything else you think Cal Poly fans would be interested to know about your foray into Israeli professional basketball?

Jordan Lewis: As part of my journey to Israel to play basketball I obtained Israeli citizenship through a process called Aliyah. Aliyah is a process in which Jews around the world immigrate to Israel. So I now hold Dual citizenship in the US and Israel. I feel very lucky and privileged that I have this opportunity to play basketball professionally and on top of that live the amazing country of Israel.

In his first game last week for his new team, Lewis scored 7 points in 11 minutes. 

While three seniors have started every game for the Mustangs this season, Lewis has been left out in the cold. After playing significant minutes over the past two years, Lewis is second to last on the Mustangs’ roster in minutes per game — even behind fellow senior Matt Titchenal.

With senior Jordan Lewis in the starting lineup, Cal Poly is setting their sights on the Big West Tournament. Photo by Bryce Ashland

Off of manternity leave, the Tribune’s J.D. Scroggin outlined the lineup changes the Mustangs are making this week, namely putting Jordan Lewis into the starting lineup and moving Chris Eversley to be the 6th man.

While different players, including Kyle Odister, Dylan Royer, Eversley, and Titchenal showed flashes of offensive prowess early-on in the conference season, Lewis waited patiently.

And putting the 6′ 5” senior front-and-center was precisely the right move for a Cal Poly team trying to regain its defensive and hard-nosed mentality.

Sure, Cal Poly has some talented shooters. Callero has gushed about some of the shooting prowess of his guards this year. But his squad has made its mark with hard nosed play and defense.

So where have they gone awry?

It may have been January 21.

That’s the night Cal Poly made their first 11 3-point shots and scored 100 points on a televised game in a home win over Cal State Northridge. For the game, they finished 15 of 21 from behind the arc. Everyone who ever shoots 3’s seemed to contribute for the Mustangs.

Then they went on the road. And came back to Earth.

Generally speaking (and there are exceptions), when the Mustangs shoot fewer than 15 3-pointers, they are successful. When they shoot 15 or more (again, with acknowledged exceptions), they are playing at a tempo that is not in accordance with success they have had over the past two years.

Jordan Lewis is an undersized power forward, but his leaping ability and strength help make up it. Photo by Bryce Ashland

While losing six of their past seven road games (including four of five in-conference), the Mustangs have lacked identity — a crucial thing to have if you want to win road conference games. Usually having a senior-laden team ensures avoidance of identity crises, but that has not been the case for this team.

After giving up 91 points to Cal State Fullerton on the road, 84 to Northern Colorado, and 68 to UCSB, Coach Callero inserted Lewis into the starting lineup for tonight’s home matchup with UC Davis.

Sure, the game they’re playing tonight is against a conference doormat — but it’s a doormat they almost lost to in Davis. And the only team behind Davis is CSU Northridge, who they also were defeated by at the Matadome.

Over the past two seasons, Mustangs fans were smitten with a coach and program that had tough, hard-nosed players who generally worked hard and who could always bank on their defense. This conference season, the Mustangs have lost some of that identity, and props to Callero for trying to get it back. As UCSB showed last year, it’s never too late to make a run in the Big West.

Photo by Bryce Ashland

On Thursday night, Fansmanship.com was in attendance at the Honda Center as the men lost an overtime thriller to UC Riverside. While they had got the better of the Highlanders twice during the regular season, Riverside started the game hot, while the Mustangs didn’t seem to get any easy first-half shots. Cal Poly overcame the deficit and led the game at the end before two free throws sent the game into overtime.

“There was no crying in the locker room because these guys played their butts off,” said Callero after the game.

While there is nothing anyone would have liked more than to advance in the tournament, the team didn’t leave anything on the court and doesn’t seem to have any regrets about the game. It’s what a coach should hope for from student-athletes and for that, they should all be proud.

The women’s team was in attendance, enthusiastically cheering for the men on Thursday.  On Friday, the women won their semifinal game before being beaten by UC Davis in the Big West Final on Saturday.

Like the men’s team, the women’s loss came largely due to a sub-par first half. Despite a late-run, Cal Poly couldn’t overcome a 13-point halftime deficit to beat the Aggies.  Though they probably won’t be an at-large invitee to the NCAA Tournament, they automatically qualify for the Women’s NIT tournament.

While neither team accomplished everything they wanted to this week, the future is bright. Kristina Santiago will return to a women’s team with postseason experience who will lose only two players, though one of those is Big West Player of the Year Rachel Clancy.

The men’s team will return next season with a lot of experience. All-Big West First Team player Shawn Lewis is a sizable loss in both scoring and general explosiveness, but next year’s team will feature seniors Will Donahue, David Hanson and Jordan Lewis. Along with senior leadership, the Mustangs’ roster will include six guards with experience, which could prove vital in late-season conference and tournament play. The Mustangs should also see the return of Will Taylor, who red-shirted this season.

Next November is far away still, but signs point to both programs being on the upswing. There were many “firsts” this year for the men’s and women’s teams, and there will an additional dynamic leading up to the 2011-12 season – something Mustangs teams have not experienced in some time – excitement building up before the season and higher expectations.