It was just the first game, and already strange things are afoot at the Honda Center.

In what amounted to a huge upset, seventh-seeded Cal Poly withstood a 7-0 run from UC Santa Barbara to begin the game, led by as many as 30 points, and downed the Gauchos 69-38. The Mustangs, who scored more points in the first half (41) than UCSB scored all game, were paced by freshman point guard Ridge Shipley, who came off the bench to score a team-high 15 points.

For some reason, UCSB was a good matchup for Joel Awich this season. By Owen Main

“This is clearly a very special team and a very special game,” said Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero. “We didn’t do one thing. It is a testament to just be better, the game of basketball is a fair game. If you do everything well, magical things can happen.”

Four other Mustangs scored at least nine points and senior forward Chris Eversley, the team’s scoring leader all season, was held to just five points. Ten Cal Poly players scored in the game — nine in the first half. Cal Poly scored 41 points in the first half. The Gauchos managed just 38 the whole game.

“They punked us offensively and defensively the entire game,” said UCSB’s Michael Bryson, who led the Gauchos with 19 points.

Cal Poly’s offense looked like it was on a different level early in the afternoon, starting the game 6-8 from three-point range. Three-pointers and open shots were coming off of crisp ball-movement and rotation and the Mustangs seemed to have an extra gear, contesting shots and getting rebounds.

Defensively, Cal Poly gave Alan Williams and co. all they could handle. Kyle Odister was scrambling, all over on a stress-fractured foot and David Nwaba was using all his athleticism to clean-up rebounds or keep them alive for teammates.

Sophomore wing, David Nwaba, played with a ridiculous amount of sustained energy vs. UCSB. Can he do it again against UC Irvine tomorrow night? By Owen Main

“I thought the difference was our defense around the perimeter,” said Callero. “Last week we played them, we allowed the reversal of the ball too freely so we stepped up and took about three or four feet of space… . Guarding Williams is physical and emotional. It’s not easy, I thought these guys did a great job implementing. We had enough significant tweaks that gave us the advantage the second, third time around. We did a really good job pressuring them, but we gave them those looks at home. We knew if we could pressure just a little bit more… that’s what made the difference.”

After beating the second-seeded Gauchos, the Mustangs will face top-seeded UC Irvine on Friday night. Unlike UCSB, Cal Poly has had no success against the Anteaters this season. The game may seem like a home game for the Anteaters — UC Irvine is just 13.5 miles away from the Honda Center.

“We were the underdogs,” said Cal Poly’s Joel Awich, who started and scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds. “Nobody thought we could do it, but as long as we have each other’s backs we can beat anybody.”

The 6:30 game will be live on ESPN3 and tape-delayed on ESPNU. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 pm on ESPN2.

Photos by Will Parris

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Saturday night is Senior Night at Mott Athletics Center, so I thought it was probably a good time to take a look back at the past five seasons and the contribution the three Cal Poly seniors have made to the program.

This season has been disappointing so far, but over the past five seasons, the Mustang men’s basketball program has clearly made strides under head coach Joe Callero. Kyle Odister is the only player on this year’s roster who was on the team during Callero’s first season, when the Mustangs improved from seven wins the previous year to 12 during Callero’s inaugural campaign.

This year’s senior class is really a study in changing expectations for the program at-large. Looking at just this year might be disappointing for fans who had big expectations, but a look back at the Cal Poly careers of Jamal Johnson, Chris Eversley, and Kyle Odister reveal a program that went from also-ran to contender.

Here’s a quick break-down of this year’s seniors and their careers.

CE usually prefers to throw down with his left hand. By Owen Main

Chris Eversley

After a season at Rice University, Eversley transferred to Cal Poly. The 6’7″ transfer had to sit-out a season before seeing time off the bench backing up David Hanson and Will Taylor. At the end of his sophomore campaign, Eversley saw some bigger minutes and was one of the team’s top scorers late in the season — sparking the team off the bench.

In his junior season, Eversley had what was possibly his finest year, averaging 15.4 points and 7 rebounds per game en route to first-team All-Big West Conference honors. With a sick Eversley, the team was thwarted in the conference semi-finals by a last second tip-in by eventual conference champion, Pacific.

At the beginning of this year, Eversley showed he could score from the outside as well. Against teams from the nation’s top conferences, CE poured in long-range jumper after long-range jumper. Open shots have been more difficult to come by in conference play, but the senior still leads the team in scoring and rebounding.

For me, the lasting image of Eversley will be his smile, exuberance and positivity both on and off the floor. His love of everything Cal Poly including Mott Athletics Center, the band, and his fellow students has ingratiated him to anyone watching throughout his career. He is a guy who is really easy to root for.

Recently, despite Cal Poly’s rough stretch in conference, Eversley has kept his bright-side attitude. His mantra of believing in his teammates until he’s played his last game in the green and gold is a testament to the kind of leader he seems to be. He is also one of the most eloquent college athletes I’ve ever heard with the media, coming off as more mature than players ten years his senior. His shoes will be hard to fill.

I told you you cannot leave him open. By Owen Main

Kyle Odister

When Kyle Odister entered the Cal Poly lineup in 2009-10, the freshman dazzled, playing point guard and making what seemed like clutch shot after clutch shot. It was Joe Callero’s first year as head coach, the Odister was named to the Big West All-Freshman team, averaging almost eight points per game.

Things looked promising for Odister until he suffered an injury that put him out of basketball for almost a year and a half. Once he returned, injuries seemed to always follow. For a player who always seemed to be playing hurt, Odister’s best game so far has probably been this season’s opener at Arizona. In his first game as a senior, Odister knocked down seven three-pointers en route to 21 points against a team that has been ranked first in the country for most of this season. At his best, Kyle Odister could shoot the ball with anyone.

Cal Poly was off to a great conference start this season until Odister went down with a foot injury in the fourth game of the conference season. While he’s dealt with his stress fracture, the team has gone 3-8 with one conference game left this season.

KO Buckets, as he is affectionately known, has never been afraid to shoot the ball and seems like he’s always most-clutch with the game on the line. Like a few others on this Cal Poly roster, Odister fans examining his career in San Luis Obispo will probably have some “what could have been” sentiment. I have it, too. Rarely does one see such a fearless, deadly shooter who also has enough athleticism and strength to play point guard effectively as a freshman.

Odister had all that and more. Unfortunately, he never really seemed to have a fully healthy season after his freshman year. On one foot or two, teams better know not to leave him open in the conference tournament next week.

In fact, in 35 years, when Odister is in his late 50’s, I’ll still advise that opponents don’t leave him open. He has a shooting stroke that is that smooth and a shooting mentality that is that vicious.

Jamal Johnson has run Cal Poly’s offense as the starting point guard the past two seasons. By Owen Main

Jamal Johnson

Jamal Johnson was thrown into the fire as one of two freshman point guards in 2010-11 when Amaurys Fermin went down with an injury. Over the past two seasons, Johnson has grown more solidly into his role as one of Cal Poly’s more vocal floor leaders.

Callero, a former point guard himself, is notoriously tough on point guards. He is also trusting of point guards he starts, and Johnson has been that since his junior year. Point guards in Callero’s offense aren’t usually big scorers, but Cal Poly has been at its best this year when Johnson has scored more. In fact, if I were going to predict how Cal Poly would do in the upcoming Big West Tournament, I might say that Johnson must have one or two double-digit scoring outbursts, which would be unusual for the lefty from San Antonio.

Johnson’s legacy at Cal Poly will be efficiently running the offense during his junior and senior seasons. Last year, his assist/turnover ratio was almost 3/1, something Callero usually points to as an indicator of success. Johnson’s passage to Cal Poly also perhaps helped pave the way for fellow Texans Ridge Shipley and Taylor Sutlive to come play in SLO.

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Tomorrow night’s game against Santa Barbara has already sold-out the general admission seating, a somewhat surprising fact considering the team has lost 8 of its past 11 games and is battling for a seed somewhere between 5 and 7 in the conference tournament. Perhaps that’s the real legacy of these players, along with Callero, over the past five seasons. When the program won seven games in 2008-09, Division I attendance hit rock bottom. This group’s ability to slowly and methodically bring fans back to Mott Athletics Center and re-establish a loyal fan-base for the program over the course of five seasons is notable.

At the end of the game Saturday night, the seniors will lead a team around the gym to high-five and shake hands with a group of adoring San Luis Obispo fans. Then they’ll salute the band. Just don’t expect it to be quick nor, for either side, easy.

It’s been a part of the Cal Poly narrative for the past few months. Sometimes, you just have to make shots. The Cal Poly men’s basketball team did just that, opening up an 18-point first-half lead en-route to a 77-65 victory over Hawai’i in Mott Athletics Center on Thursday night.

Chris Eversley had 17 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and zero turnovers. By Owen Main

“It felt like and intense environment.” said Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero. “It felt like fans were coming to see a big-time men’s college basketball Division 1 game. And we delivered with athleticism, toughness, competitiveness, skill level. I was so proud of our guys because we’ve gone through a lot by the daunting preseason schedule we had but we’ve learned a lot and that’s why I’m proud of what we’re doing.”

Cal Poly shot 51.6 percent in the first half and 50 percent for the game from the field.

“The number one indicator that the NCAA has found for the last ten years to indicate most success is field goal percentage,” said Callero. “We shot 50 percent tonight. Losses that we’ve had on the road, we’ve been lower.”

Senior guard Kyle Odister got the hot shooting started, knocking down a pair of triples within the first three minutes of the game. A Chris Eversley dunk and layup extended the Cal Poly lead to 12-2 just 3:42 into the game. Fellow senior Jamal Johnson also got into the scoring act early and often, scoring a career high 15 points on 4-7 shooting from the field and 5-5 from the free-throw line. Johnson was 2-4 from 3-point range. Prior to the game, Johnson had scored only 5.1 points per game this season. His scoring on Thursday was much more dynamic and included drives to the basket and shots that the Hawai’i defense seemed to be forcing the Mustangs to settle for.

“There were just times in the preseason where we just took bad shots as a team. Personally I did as well… . If we want to win, we have to improve our percentages and improve our shot selection because if we get in the paint and kick out and share with people, we can play with anybody in the country” said Eversley

Eversely tied for the team and game-high in points with 17. Sophomore David Nwaba also notched 17, including an electrifying tip-jam midway through the second half. The dunk and ensuing turnover by the Rainbow Warriors seemed to squash any chance Hawai’i had to come back in Mott Athletics Center.

“There’s nothing like playing at home,” said Eversley. “We’ve been longing for this. We’re on the road, staying at different hotels, sleeping in different beds. We knew once everybody got back in their bed, in their routines with school starting, just mentally it’s a big stability thing. The fans were great tonight, the band was great tonight and we fed off that.”

Nwaba agreed.

“It’s a great atmosphere. I love the crowd here in SLO,” said Nwaba.

Along with a pair of gravity-defying dunks, Nwaba also knocked down a few 17-foot jumpers, something he hasn’t done for much of the year.

“Confidence is key,” said Nwaba. “I’ve been building-up confidence and getting more shots up in the gym. Teams are doing a great job of scouting so I know I need to extend my game just a little bit so [I’m] getting in the gym and getting my shots up.”

With an 8-12 shooting performance, Nwaba ranks 12th in the nation and first in the Big West Conference, shooting 61.3 percent from the field. Nwaba, a sophomore transfer from Santa Monica College, also is second on the team averaging 11.9 points per game.

For Cal Poly, it was their fifth straight win over Hawai’i, 15th consecutive victory at home in the Big West Conference. The team hadn’t played a home game since they hosted Cal State Dominguez Hills on December 14th.

One day contract

Callero often refers to “one-day contracts” each of his players are metaphorically on. For the Big West opener, that meant that Joel Awich and Chris Eversley were the starting forwards. With neither standing over 6’7″, the lineup seemed to present a mismatch down low, where Hawai’i started Christian Standhardinger (6’8″) and Isaac Fotu (6’8″). But the Mustangs came out and outrebounded Hawai’i 12-6 to start the game and never looked back. Brian Bennett played just 17 minutes for the second game in a row and has now come off the bench for two straight games for the first time in his career. In his freshman campaign last season, Bennett started all 32 games. So far this year, he’s started 11 of the team’s first 14 games.

Paying full price

Cal Poly opens their Big West schedule this week by playing the team with the best preseason record (Hawai’i) and the team that is probably the best team in the conference right now, Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara. The Gauchos got the opening night bye (there are nine teams in the conference) this week and will open conference play at the Thunderdome. Tip-off on Saturday is at 4:00 pm.

Next week, the Mustangs come back home to face Reggie Theus’ Cal State Northridge Matadors on Thursday and defending regular season conference champion Long Beach State on Saturday. both games are scheduled for 7:00pm.

Women’s team wins a thriller

Taryn Garza’s putback as time expired helped the women take the Rainbow Wahine of Hawai’i into overtime in Honolulu on Wednesday night. Jonae Ervin scored a career-high 37 points as the defending Big West champions won their conference opener. The Mustang women made it back from Honolulu on Thursday in time to see the end of the men’s game at MAC. The Mustangs also face UCSB on Saturday. Their game is at MAC at 4:00 pm.

Photos by Owen Main

  [See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

I didn’t really know what to expect Friday night. As a player, coach, or family member, I’ve been to probably 20 high school end-of-year awards ceremonies, but I didn’t know what to expect for an end of year banquet for a Division 1 basketball program. Cal Poly’s event at the Performing Arts Center was a fun one. Here are some of the things I learned and some things I was reminded of.

Dylan Royer, Drake U’u, and Chris O’Brien shared the Cal Poly captain’s award. by Owen Main

Seniors mean a lot

Sometimes in the middle of the season, fans might look at a player and wonder why someone is in the game over someone else. Often, it comes down to intangibles, and it was clear that this year’s seniors have earned a ton of respect from head coach Joe Callero.

“The maturity of three seniors was the absolute key to the season,” said Callero.

The personality of a team at this level can be shaped by the leaders on the team and it’s clear that, along with Chris Eversley, the personality of the past year’s team was driven by the three seniors — Dylan Royer, Chris O’Brien, and Drake U’u. Look for Eversley, Jamal Johnson, and Kyle Odister to quickly establish themselves as dominant personalities on next year’s roster.

And the winners are…

Chris Eversley took home the team’s Most Valuable Player Award. In other news, the sky is blue, Avila Beach is warm, and SLO is a great place to live.

Dylan Royer won the Mr. Hustle award, Drake U’u took home the Academic Excellence and Media Darling Awards. Chris O’Brien won the Inspiration Award, lamenting “I really am an old man, and I feel like it.”

All three seniors split the Captain’s Award and junior point guard Jamal Johnson netted the Coach’s Award.

Men’s college basketball news can be broken on a Friday night in June

About two hours before the awards ceremony, head coach Joe Callero tweeted that Reese Morgan would undergo surgery on the 24th of this month and miss the entire 2013-14 season. Morgan redshirted in 2011-12 with an injury of the same knee, but came on to have a strong freshman campaign last year, starting in at least 10 games down the stretch. Morgan’s best game of the year came in his first start, when he scored 26 points at the Thunderdome in Santa Barbara. With the loss of Morgan and Dylan Royer, look for senior Kyle Odister to be Cal Poly’s main three-point threat next season.

Ryan Darling, Shawn Lewis, and other former Mustangs were on-hand at the 2013 Awards Banquet. By Owen Main

The Cal Poly basketball family continues to grow

Joe Callero and basketball alum Alex Lambertson have worked over the past year to develop a Cal Poly basketball alumni network, and that network was represented with several recent graduates from the Cal Poly basketball family. Among others who attended Friday night’s awards ceremony were Shawn Lewis, Will Taylor, Ryan Darling, and Jordan Lewis. For someone who is a Cal Poly basketball fan, it’s fun to see players past and present interacting and to get a chance to talk and catch-up with all of them. Taylor, for example, recently returned from a stint playing basketball professionally in Germany.

Cal Poly has a Media Darling Award

And it went to Drake U’u. Take a few minutes and watch. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. (props to Chris Giovannetti)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAo32kaDmZY

The UCLA win was nice…

But the team has other milestones it’s hit during the past few years. They’ve won at USC and UCLA, finished with back-to-back 18-win seasons, become a team Big West opponents implicitly respect, and raised the bar for future Mustangs teams. The change is one of culture and, while not all Cal Poly fans agree with everything that happens all the time, it’s hard to argue that the culture around the basketball team at Cal Poly has changed from five years ago, when the team finished 7-21 and expectations seemed almost impossible to have.

The event overall was really fun

I wasn’t sure how much fun I would have, but if you followed the basketball team at all this year, there were lots of inside jokes, fond memories, and other fun things. The location was pretty great too — inside a side hall of the Performing Arts Center I had never seen before. For the $5 admission, I think it was totally worth it.

The Future

The awards ceremony got me thinking about the future of the program. Questions about who will improve the most from last year to next stand-out. The unknown can be the most exciting or terrifying thing in the life of a college basketball coach or fan. How will David Nwaba fit-in and is he really the physical specimen they’ll need him to be with Morgan out and O’Brien graduated? Can any of the three freshmen next season (Markel Leonard, Ridge Shipley, and Taylor Sutlive) break through and make significant contributions? How will Kyle Odister move into a role where his shooting and energy are needed night-in and night-out? Will Jamal Johnson’s efficiency continue to improve? Can Chris Eversley take a next-step to being a candidate for Big West Player of the Year?

I could go on and on. the point is, the future is a fun thing to play with, as anticipation builds toward next year.

Next year’s schedule is ambitious

The non-conference schedule for Cal Poly includes games at Arizona, Pitt, Stanford, Delaware, and Fresno State and a home game against Nevada, among others. To build a reputation and get teams to schedule home-and-home series, you have to play good teams on the road, and Callero has once again put several BCS schools on the schedule.

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Maybe I’m letting you a little too far behind the curtain, but here’s how a “typical” night might go in my house. My wife and I are watching a show. Maybe it’s 30 Rock, Modern Family, whatever. About five minutes into the show, I’ll “call it,” predicting who the killer is in Bones or what the New Girl plot twist will be (that’s also usually when I stop paying attention during New Girl, but I’m usually writing and not really paying attention… I digress.

“KO Buckets” helped Cal Poly reel in Pacific and pull away for their 10th straight home conference win on Thursday night. By Owen Main

I also like to make predictions during sporting events. I’ve never been a gambler, but it’s fun to verbalize your predictions and see if they come true. I do the same thing with “what exact time will I pull into the driveway?” on long trips and “guess the attendance” in a stadium before it’s been announced. Whatever it is, I like to make it into a competition and, as such, I have to give J.D. Scroggin of the Tribune props. He called last night’s Cal Poly vs. Pacific second half spot-on.

After an offensively-ugly first half that ended with the Tigers leading 21-20, Scroggin turned and asked for my second-half prediction. I said “one team jumps out by 7 or so, the other team pulls them back, and it’s close at the end.”

Scroggin replied, “close for the first part of the half, but Cal Poly pulls away and wins by 10.”

I guess, in a way, we were both right. Pacific pulled ahead by 8 early in the second half and the Mustangs reeled them back in. That part I was right about. Scroggin had the last laugh though, with Cal Poly going up by 10 in the final minutes before a botched alley-oop that there was no reason for flew away from Joel Awich and Pacific hit a 3-pointer with just a few seconds left. If Cal Poly converts that open alley-oop, they likely don’t give up the fast-break 3-pointer that cut the margin to 5 at the end — and Scroggin’s prediction would have been spot on.

As it stood, he did a pretty good job. My wife never gives me credit when I “call it,” but I’ll give J.D. props here. He called it.

“Honestly, the scenario just popped into my head in the same way as I imagine it would for a true psychic,” said Scroggs. “Like a premonition. And the more I thought about it, it made sense. Cal Poly is great at home. Their shooters couldn’t shoot that poorly forever. And there have been several games in Mott just this season alone where the Mustangs played their best in the final 10 minutes. I very rarely make predictions, but this one flowed so naturally. Almost supernaturally. Super Driver.”

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKurXdnJBjU

Somehow a quote from this part of The Waterboy came up. I’m still trying to figure out how it applies, but I can tell you that Cal Poly basketball is way less predictable than any Adam Sandler movie. Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding singer. They’re all really fun movies from my adolescence but damn, are they quotable!

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XgI9-4NrZk

On Thursday, Cal Poly held off a second-half run by Pacific and emerged with a 67-62 win over the second place team in the Big West. Cal Poly has now beaten each of the top four teams in the conference — Long Beach State, Pacific, Irvine, and Hawai’i and are the only Big West team to do so. The Mustangs sit tied for fourth in the conference with a 6-5 record (10-11 overall).

Chris Eversley netted a home double-double in Cal Poly’s 10th straight conference win at Mott. By Owen Main

It’s something I’ve seen this year, but really hit home last night — the Cal Poly players really love this game, especially when they play at home. While road teams come into Mott Gym with a very serious attitude — grimacing and rarely cracking a smile — the Mustangs play with a little more joy. This is especially evident in Chris Eversley, whose head wiggle and smile are becoming staples of seemingly every Mustang run. It’s even carrying over to sharpshooters Kyle Odister, Reese Morgan, and Dylan Royer, all of whom flashed their respective pearly whites at some point in last night’s game.

What’s with this home/road split? Cal Poly is now 5-0 at home in Big West play (they’ve won their last 10 conference games dating back to last year), but 1-5 on the road this year. Long Beach State is the only team with a better current home win streak (well into the 20’s) in the conference. The big test and dominant storyline, at least in my opinion, will be whether the Mustangs can take that energy and exuberance they play with in Mott and translate it to the Honda Center in March.

As teams key on Cal Poly’s 3-point shooting game, the Mustangs showed they can still score in spurts. After scoring 45 and 48 points in two games last weekend, Cal Poly scored only 20 points in the first half on Thursday. In the second half, though, shots started falling. The Mustangs put up 47 points in the second half, making 5-7 three-pointers to grab the lead and hold on. They’ll need more than one spurt at the end of the year and it will be interesting to see if consistently good offense for a number of games in a row is something that this team can accomplish against Big West Conference opponents. Joe Callero called his team “An ‘A’ defensively,” but he also said (and I’m paraphrasing) that defense can get you in position to be in close games, but offense is what wins championships.

Pacific head coach Bob Thomason coached his last game in Mott Gym last night. Thomason is the all-time winningest coach in Big West history. He started at UOP in 1988, probably before any of his players were born. Most notably, he coached Michael Olowokandi, the number-1 pick in the 1998 NBA draft to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Photos by Owen Main

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Some highlights via www.gopoly.com

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOwp8EGB8Dk

The Cal Poly men’s basketball team got back on track in a big way Thursday night at Mott Gym.  Their opponent, the Hawai’i Warriors ended up being more of a punching bag than an adversary in the 88-59 routing.  Riding a three-game losing streak, the Mustangs seemed to take out their frustration on the overmatched Warriors.

Chris Eversley lead the way by filling up the score sheet with 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals.  Reese Morgan was unconscious from distance, Brian Bennett scored and boarded with consistency inside (17 points, 9 rebounds), and Drake U’u’s career high 14 points and an 8 to 1 assist to turnover ratio also significantly contributed to the victory.

Chris Eversley executes a jump-hook in the lane, one of many moves in his entire arsenal. Photo by Owen Main

Poly’s big win came down to three main measurements:  a more-than 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, dead-eye 3 point shooting, and authoritative offensive rebounding.  The Mustangs also almost doubled-up the Warriors in total rebounding by a margin of 38-21.   Cal Poly improves to 4-0 in the Big West when they out rebound their opponent.

The Warriors opened play on a 4-0 run that was halted by Poly’s first points, a 3-pointer from Dylan Royer, and after a Brian Bennett left-handed hook, the Mustangs led 5-4 at the under 16:00 timeout.

Drake U’u’s 3-pointer out of the timeout, inside scoring from Bennett and two free throws from U’u helped Poly go on a 14-0 run, opening the game up to a 14-4 Mustang lead at the 14:00 mark.  The hustle of Chris Eversley allowed the Mustangs to win the early turnover battle, a tendancy that would continue throughout the entire game.

After a Reese Morgan bomb from long distance, Coach Joe Callero snapped off a quit timeout, and with 10:18 left in the first half, Poly held a 19-10 advantage.  Morgan dialed long distance again out of the timeout to bring the score to 22-12 Mustangs with 7:41 to go in the half.

Eversley showed great leadership and outstanding hustle as the conversion of two garbage buckets ballooned the Poly lead to 16 points with 4:23 left. Four of Eversley’s five rebounds in the first half were on the offensive glass.

The 1st half closed with the Mustangs winding the clock down after yet another offensive rebound, and Morgan hit a clutch 20-footer with 4.3 seconds left.

Then, you guessed it — more clock issues.  The longest 4.3 seconds in the history of mankind allowed Hawai’i to hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer, closing the Cal Poly lead to 38-26 at the break.

The Mustangs completely owned the offensive glass in the first half, as half of their 16 rebounds were of the offensive variety.

The second half opened with Morgan back doing what he does, as he buried two more 3-pointers.  Eversley then joined the party as he hit one of his own, and the Mustangs extended the lead to 47-28.  At this point Hawai’i was forced to take a timeout before the under 16:00 stoppage in an attempt to cool off Poly’s raging inferno from beyond the arc.

The route was on.

Joel Awich and Kyle Odister then finally got the Poly bench in the mix and pushed the Mustang lead to 55-33 with 13:30 left in regulation.

An acrobatic attempt by U’u as he was fouled gave the crowd one of their last audible gasps of the game.  U’u converted both attempts from the charity stripe, bringing him to a perfect 6-6 from the line at that point, as the scoreboard read 59-36 at the under 12:00 timeout.

An Odister 3-pointer and a Bennet inside bucket gave the Mustangs a 28-point lead with 9:30 remaining.  Poly then extended their lead to 31 after another make from long distance, this time from Eversley, as they opened up a 69-38 margin.

With the score reading 77-46 and 4:20 left, Coach Callero took Eversley and Bennett out of the game to a well-deserved standing ovation from those who remained at a thinning Mott Gym.

As the final seconds ticked down,  Joel Awich joined the 3-point party in what could be considered beyond garbage time.  It was landfill time at this point.

“This was by far in my opinion the best 40 minutes we have played all year, both sides of the ball,” remarked Mustang Coach Joe Callero after the game.

“They (Hawai’i) may have been fatigued from a long road trip, but we squeezed the life out of them.  We need to strive for perfection and that killer instinct,” continued Callero.

Cal Poly (8-9 overall, 4-3 Big West) will host Northridge Saturday at 7:00pm.  Hawai’i (10-9 overall, 4-4 Big West) will now hop on a charter bus and head to Santa Barbara for a Saturday night meeting at 7:00pm.

After opening Big West play with three consecutive wins, and then dropping three consecutive games, will this Mustang drubbing of Hawai’i propel them to another impressive performance on Saturday night?  Or will the up and down, roller coaster trend of late continue?

There are lots of potential reasons to speculate in either direction make a lot of sense, but I do know one thing for certain:  if the Mustangs play with the level of overall intensity and execution that they displayed on this night, the sky is the limit.

As I sometimes like to do, here’s a “what we learned” about the Cal Poly men’s basketball team after their 70-68 win over UCLA.

Freshman Brian Bennett has impressed in his first four college games. By Will Parris

The Mustangs are resilient.

We already knew about this team’s maturity, but it’s becoming more and more clear how mentally resilient this team is. In his fourth season, Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero has a team filled with almost all of his own recruits, and it manifests itself in lots of ways.

One small example came at the beginning of Cal Poly’s methodical destruction of the 18-point deficit. UCLA coach Ben Howland called a time out with 7:14 left in the game and UCLA up by 11 at 59-48.

Chris Eversley can play with anyone. 

In contrast to UCLA’s star players, Chris Eversley played inspired, scrappy basketball. Cal Poly’s leading scorer on the season shook off a 2-11 first half to score 15 points and grab 10 rebounds. His stat line mirrored UCLA’s top player, Shabazz Muhammad, who also notched 15 and 10 in the game.

Brian Bennett can be a huge factor right away.

One of the most fun things about college basketball is the necessary turnover of players. Each year, teams have a number of players who are either brand new to the program or who have to work their way into new roles. This year’s Cal Poly team has several players who fall into some version of this. Bennett is just the most exciting. At 6’9″, Bennett pushed around UCLA’s big men all night en route to an efficient 7-10 shooting night.

Kyle Odister has his swagger back.

If you read anything I write about football, you might know that I think swagger is important. During his freshman year, by necessity, Kyle Odister played point guard and shot the ball from all over the court. Odister’s lack of a conscience and fearless play helped him earn Big West All Freshman Team honors that season.

Odister at the point might give Cal Poly its most dynamic offensive lineup.

Odister has experience playing point guard and brings a scoring element to the position that the Mustangs just don’t get with Jamal Johnson. Johnson does all the things Joe Callero asks of a point guard in a game that is grinding, but when you need to spread out longer, more athletic teams, playing Odister at the point over Johnson or Drake U’u seems to be the right fit. It will be interesting to see whether conference games against more athletic teams like Long Beach State force Callero to use the offensively capable lineup of Odister, Royer, O’Brien, Eversley, and Bennett.

Dylan Royer has proven that he can get open and get his shot off against even the longest and most athletic teams. By WIll Parris

You can’t leave Dylan Royer open.

A knock on Dylan Royer in the past has been his inability to get his own shot against longer, more athletic defenders. This seems to be something he has improved over the past year.

Against UCLA, Royer ran off screens, freeing himself for open jumpers throughout the second half. He even pulled a quick-release version for his final 3-pointer that tied the game on Sunday night. If Royer can be a player other teams have to not just be aware of, but game-plan for, Cal Poly’s offense could continue to open up for front-court players like Chris Eversley and Bennett.

Morgan continues to struggle.

Redshirt freshman Reese Morgan continues to struggle to find his shooting touch. In his first four games the fourth-team Parade high school All-American is 2-11 from the field including 1-10 from 3-point range. Anytime a shooter has a leg injury (Morgan has had two recent knee surgeries), it’s going to effect his shot, and Morgan is no exception. We saw it with Odister last season and my gut feeling is that, like Odister did last year, Morgan will take some time this season to get his sea legs under him.

That being said, Morgan remains fearless, continuing to take open shots when he has them. He just doesn’t look comfortable with his legs under him right now when he shoots. For a player who will eventually make his mark from the outside, Cal Poly fans should hope that, like Odister, Morgan’s confidence stays high until his body catches back up.

Callero’s plan continues to be validated.

Since Joe Callero took over (the past four years), Cal Poly has played at Wisconsin, Cal, USC (twice), UCLA (twice), DePaul, TCU, and San Diego State (when they were ranked 10th). The Mustangs still have games this season at St. Mary’s on Saturday and at Washington. Wins the past two seasons at the Galen Center and now at Pauley Pavilion validate Callero’s plan for the program. It also justifies the relentlessly positive attitude the coach has fostered in his players throughout the past few seasons.

Callero himself will tell you that real validation will come if/when Cal Poly makes the NCAA Tournament field. Continuing to play high major teams can only enhance their chances of winning three games in a row in the Big West Tournament. In the mean time, it will be interesting to see how close to the mark the Mustangs’ preseason ranking of 7th in the Big West ends up being.

Dylan Royer talked about the performance that earned him Big West Conference Player of the Week

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHNufu9LI60

The name Dylan always makes me think of this old Chapelle’s show bit. “Who are the 5 best rappers of all time? Think about it. Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan and Dylan. Because I spit hot fire.”

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9lg6HqJeY0

Brian Bennett talked about his team hanging together and scrapping their way back

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNQGDvoX_cU

Joe Callero had a smile from ear to ear.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFl5V_dHcQA

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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.

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.