Tonight marks the final home game at Mott Athletics Center for four Cal Poly seniors. Maliik Love, Michael Bolden, Anthony Silvestri, and Alberto Ganis all represent certain aspects of what Joe Callero has grown his program into.

Maliik Love is a fifth-year senior who has started every game for Cal Poly this season. By Owen Main

Maliik Love

As a freshman, Love was one of the most physically imposing young players I’ve seen. At just 6′ 2″ or so, Love was able to muscle-up on older point guards and even defend the two or three. He was the freshman player of the year in the Big West in 2010-11. Alongside Jamal Johnson, who was also a freshman that season, Love was going to be a real impact player.

Love represents the ability of a player in Callero’s system to have a real impact without putting up big numbers. Love has never averaged more than the five points per game he is averaging this year in a season.

Love’s career also represents how Cal Poly has been somewhat snake-bitten with injuries to key players over the past three or four years. Players like Amaurys Fermin, Reese Morgan, Love, and Kyle Odister all missed significant time in their Cal Poly careers due to injury. This year, Taylor Sutlive and Zack Gordon have spent the entire year on the sidelines, rehabbing from knee injuries of their own.

This season, Love has added scoring when he needed to. He scored 15 points in a loss to first-place UC Davis. The Aggies are Cal Poly’s opponent tonight.

Michael Bolden has been a key cog for Cal Poly this season. By Owen Main

Michael Bolden

Michael Bolden has a body type that we haven’t seen much of in San Luis Obispo. A long, wiry player who can stick with athletic twos and threes on defense, the Irvine Valley College transfer is one of what is now a long line of players who have successfully transferred to Cal Poly and contributed. Others have included Will Taylor, Will Donahue, Amaurys Fermin, Drake U’u, Chris O’Brien, and David Nwaba. Kyle Toth, Luke Meikle, and Josh Martin are all waiting in the wings to contribute next season.

Bolden has also found a niche and been very good in his role — a trait that is not unusual for Callero players. His shooting has been a key to a few Cal Poly wins this season. More importantly, his length and ability to spearhead their 1-3-1 defense have allowed the team to throw a significant wrinkle into a top-flight defensive game plan.

Bolden is also averaging about five points per game this year, but also has 23 steals. He and Love are two of the three Cal Poly players who have appeared in all 26 games this season.

Anthony Silvestri made his mark last season when he scored 17 points in a road victory in Isla Vista. By Owen Main

Anthony Silvestri

In walk-on Anthony Silvestri, Joe Callero and some of his players saw something they really liked. A guy who seemed unflappable, Silvestri was noticed by Cal Poly alum Drake U’u in the Rec Center. Over the past two seasons, the senior forward has played key roles in a number of games.

His best performance came in Isla Vista last year, when he poured in 17 points in a Cal Poly road win against their rivals. Especially after that game, he drew comparisons to another red-headed forward Callero coached, Brian Scalabrine.

This season, Silvestri hasn’t played as big a role. Yet. The 6′ 7″ San Francisco native could see minutes in the last few games, especially if Cal Poly needs an offensive jolt. Joe Callero knows the big redhead won’t be afraid to spot-up from downtown should his name be called.

Silvestri’s career is indicative of the program’s ability to be nimble. Callero and his staff have been willing to play guys who perform, whether they were in the program’s initial plans or not. The head coach gave a scholarship to Silvestri for this, his senior season with the Mustangs. Something tells me Cal Poly fans would agree that he earned it, even if he never played in another game after that UCSB road win last year.

Alberto Ganis

I didn’t mention Ganis in the transfers above, because this kid is on a little bit of a different level. Only able to play this season due to transfer rules, Ganis has played in just six games this year and scored only four points, so his contribution on the court is in practice and in his high level of maturity.

Sure, Ganis turned 25 last month, but his maturity is far above even that. In my time covering Cal Poly, he’s the only guy who ever asked me what I do for a living and how I like that. He makes a point to say hi to people he recognizes and to ask questions of adults he thinks he may learn something from.

In the little time I’ve talked with Alberto, he oozes intelligence. From everything I hear, he represents the “student” part of the phrase, “student athlete,” that people around a university like Cal Poly value.

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This year’s senior class was part of the most successful postseason in the school’s history. Each one of them got to playing at Cal Poly in a somewhat unconventional way (transfers and a redshirt season). Joe Callero talked during last year’s NCAA tournament about how much he likes to be weird and different sometimes.

I talk a lot about how players in college basketball, especially at Cal Poly, are something of a reflection of their coach. On a global level, this class is no different.

Ridge Shipley provided the offensive spark for Cal Poly on Friday night at Mott. By Owen Main

A year ago, Cal Poly had a team good enough to make it to the NCAA Tournament, but not good enough to beat Delaware on the East coast. This year, Delaware returned the trip and Ridge Shipley and the Mustangs returned the beat-down, overtaking the Blue Hens 78-60.

The game wasn’t really close for the final 30 minutes. The opening quarter of the game saw Delaware miss several open shots while Cal Poly found their offensive rhythm.

Shipley, a sophomore point guard who was unavailable in the first game started alongside senior point guard Maliik Love. While Shipley led the team with 21 points, love managed 9 assists and 7 rebounds without scoring a point or turning the ball over.

“Me and Maliik have been playing really well together. We’ve been looking forward to this for a while, coming off the bench together last year we had a lot of fun together,” said Shipley. “He’s one of hte best attackers on the team and he gets my man to dig in on him and gets me wide open shots.”

Love feels the same way about his point guard understudy.

“Ridge is a great attacker and he compliments my game,” said Love. “If he’s attacking then I’m pulling up and spacing and if I’m attacking, he’s doing the same thing. It’s the dynamic duo with us two. It’s great.”

Cal Poly went on a 21-3 run to end the first half, highlighted by a David Nwaba dunk and by six three-pointers in the half. Four technical foul free throws by Ridge Shipley didn’t hurt either as the Mustangs built-up a 48-22 advantage at halftime. Their 48 points in a half is the most since they dropped 57 on Cal State Northridge two and a half years ago at Mott.

“Obviously you get excited when you make the threes, get a dunk,” said Cal Poly head coach, Joe Callero. “But I’ve seen a lot of threes and a lot of dunks, but what I like are passing and catching and taking care of the ball.”

Cal Poly had zero turnovers in the first half compared to 10 assists. Overall, they only committed four turnovers for the game compared to 16 assists. It was really the ideal recipe for a Joe Callero post-game smile.

“I remember getting under a guy’s skin a little bit. He retaliated, and I know that got my fire going,” said Shipley. “Certain people are going to be hot, and I think that the unselfishness we have on our team that’s instilled by our coaching staff has lead to a lot of good, smart shots.”

For their part, Delaware turned it over just 11 times, but seven of those were in the first half when the Mustangs built up their big lead.

“There’s a tremendous impact that traveling across the country, going across three time zone,” said Callero, noting that Delaware was without a top scorer in the game.

The win for the Mustangs moves their record above .500 at 2-1 overall. They’ll play 10 of their next 11 games on the road between now and the first few weeks of January. Their next game will be at Cal on Wednesday night in Berkeley.

Photos by Owen Main

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Joe Callero’s swing looks pretty good, but yours truly squeaked out the best score on the day. By Owen Main

I hatched the idea in the upstairs interview/conference room at Mott Athletics Center last season. It was probably still called Mott Gym back then, but I digress.

Cal Poly had just lost a game at home… perhaps to Fresno State. Head coach Joe Callero used a golf analogy to describe leaving a bad game or “hole” behind you and going on to the next one.

A Mustang Daily writer asked him how much he played golf. And the idea for the following podcast was born.

I had to wait until Callero’s “personal maintenance” time of the year — when he schedules all his doctor appointments, dentist appointments, etc… . He started the day talking about the possibility of another knee surgery. As school starts this month, though, so does the grind of a basketball coach’s schedule.

Callero said he only plays a dozen rounds a year — all in the offseason — and he was kind enough to grace the podcast with one of those rounds.

So here’s the premise. Eighteen holes. Eighteen questions.

Two retired gentlemen joined us in our foursome. One talked about being a UCLA alumni before the fist tee shot. Instead of teeing up his ball, he’d teed one up for the Cal Poly head coach, who didn’t waste any time pulling a golf ball out of his bag with the score from Cal Poly’s win at UCLA last season imprinted on it.

He told the guy the story, gave him the ball as a souvenir, and we were off.

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.