David Nwaba won the dunk contest. By Owen Main

For the past few years, the majority of Cal Poly’s above the rim athleticism has belonged to Chris Eversley. Not anymore. Transfers Michael Boldin and David Nwaba, along with sophomore Joel Awich, make Eversley probably the third or fourth highest jumper on the squad, and the team’s scrimmage and dunk contest showcased some above the rim play.

The dunk of the afternoon actually came during the scrimmage when Nwaba (pronounced /Wah-bah/) got up and slammed it home. the dunk contest was really nice too, with Nwaba beating out Joel Awich for winning honors.

Cal Poly men’s basketball opens their season at Arizona on November 8.

Photos by Owen Main

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Cooler photos by Ian Billings

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Dylan Royer’s sharp shooting helped Cal Poly muster a huge upset in Westwood. By Will Parris

On Friday night, the Cal Poly men’s basketball team will hold their annual banquet at 7pm in the Performing Arts Center. With school ending for the three seniors on the team, I thought it was a good time to try to catch-up with them.

Chris O’Brien was otherwise disposed, but I did track down Dylan Royer and Drake U’u, both of whom told some pretty fun stories about playing at Cal Poly, their best and worst moments while in San Luis Obispo, and a great Joe Callero story.

On Thursday night, Faith Mimnaugh’s Cal Poly women’s basketball team dismantled the Cal State Fullerton Titans, winning 78-40. Cal Poly junior center Molly Schlemer shot 8-10 from the field for 19 points and a team-high 7 rebounds. Guard Jonae Ervin filled up the stat sheet with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 8 assists.

With the win, Cal Poly continues a strong trend toward an advantage at Mott that extends to the men’s team as well. The Mustang women are 4-0 at home so far in conference play, while the men are also 4-0 at home

Photos by David Livingston

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In 1996-97, Cal Poly opened their inaugural season in the Big West with three straight home wins, beating New Mexico State, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine at Mott Gym. Under coach Jeff Schneider, Cal Poly finished that season 3-10 for a 6-10 record in the Big West and a 14-16 overall record.

While there have been other good Cal Poly teams and players, none of them have equaled the 3-0 conference start. Until now. On Saturday night, the Mustangs built an 11-point halftime lead, fell behind by six in the second half, and rallied for the 72-67 victory. Having wrestled the momentum away from the Mustangs and leading by six points with 7:59 to play, the Anteaters seemed to be in control. The crowd was becoming either quiet or agitated at the officials. Then Chris Eversley woke everyone up. Off a miss, the junior forward flushed a one-handed dunk and just as quickly as the ball bounced off the ground, the crowd was again awake and alive and the Mustangs were back in the game.

You can see the dunk at about 1:45 of the video below. The video doesn’t do justice to the surge of energy in the gym, but it was the bolt of lightning Cal Poly needed.

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

Chris O’Brien poured in 16 points on Saturday night to help Cal Poly move to 3-0 in Big West Conference play. By Owen Main

Cal Poly is now tied with Hawaii for the top spot in the conference at 3-0 and travels up North to play UC Davis and Pacific next weekend.

What We Learned This Weekend:

This team is a threat: Cal Poly fans may have expected this year to be a rebuilding year after losing six seniors last season, but Joe Callero’s team seems to have finally found a formula that works just in time for conference play to begin.

Lots of guys can have big games: Add Reese Morgan and Chris O’Brien to the list of players who can have big games and take pressure off guys who aren’t playing particularly well on a given night. On Thursday, Morgan played a feisty game, racking up 16 points and 4 rebounds off the bench, while the team’s leading scorer, Chris Eversley, struggled struggled to find a rhythm and scored just 9 points.

On Saturday, Eversley came alive with 24 points. Kyle Odister, who had scored in double-digits in each of Cal Poly’s first two conference games, had earned himself a starting spot. Odister came up empty on Saturday, going 0-3 from the field, and the Mustangs still found a way to eek out a win against a top conference team. 16 Points from O’Brien certainly helped too. Callero has preached guys “playing for one another” and stats like this really indicate that it’s working. Having different guys step up and play well offensively on any given night makes Cal Poly a more difficult team to scout and when you’re playing every team twice the unpredictable nature of who might step up on a given night can be a big advantage.

The Tom Barket prediction machine: The Cal Poly play-by-play man doesn’t make a ton of predictions, but his premonition about Chris Eversley seems to be spot-on so far. The junior from Illinois helped will his team to victory on Saturday with 24 points and six rebounds. Eversley averages 16 points and seven rebounds per game this year and if the rest of his conference games look more like Saturday night than Thursday night, “CE” will be a frontrunner for Big West Conference postseason honors.

The Mustangs are playing at a lot faster pace: After a grinding, ugly victory reminiscent of Cal Poly teams of the past, the Mustangs opened up their offense at home over the weekend. Playing sharpshooters Kyle Odister, Dylan Royer, and Reese Morgan together has been a revelation for Callero’s team. Cal Poly pushed the pace against more athletic teams in Long Beach State and UC Irvine and still came away with a pair of wins, scoring 79 and 72 points in the two games.

Variety on defense: Callero’s trademark matchup defense is still in effect, but with a smaller unit on the floor, a scrambling 1-3-1 defense and even a full-court press gives other teams something else to prepare for. More options defensively have helped Cal Poly stem the tide of opponents’ runs so far in conference play.

The President is a big fan: Taking pictures of the game in a corner of Mott Gym is a really fun angle to watch the game from. Cal Poly president Dr. Jeffrey Armstrong, who attends many (if not most) of the major sporting events on-campus happened to be standing next to me during Cal Poly’s second-half surge. As the Mustangs wrestled the momentum back from UC Irvine, Armstrong stayed put, not moving until the game was over. At a university known for academics, it’s definitely notable how into the action president Armstrong always seems to be at games. A president displaying his fansmanship is something Cal Poly fans should definitely be happy about.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJtk4akaEME

Photos by Owen Main

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Cal Poly has an opportunity to start off Big West Conference play in historic fashion. The Mustangs haven’t started conference play 3-0 since their inaugural season in 1996-97.

UC Irvine, picked third in the Big West preseason coaches poll, took UCLA to overtime in the preseason. Cal Poly, however, controlled the first half, going up by 11 at halftime 36-25.

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Cal Poly battled back from an early seven-point defecit, built a 10-point lead, and held-off a furious Long Beach State second-half comeback to beat the 49ers 79-73 on Thursday night in their Big West Conference Home Opener.

The Mustangs pushed the tempo, shot 3-pointers at-will, and played smart enough in the end to become one of just two 2-0 teams in the conference. But the real story was Reese Morgan.

Is Reese Morgan htiting 3’s with his eyes closed now?. By Owen Main

Morgan, a freshman who was forced to sit-out all of last season with an injury, ended up having multiple surgeries on an injured knee. Though he was back on the court early in the season, he hasn’t looked fully comfortable on the court until recently. In his Big West Conference debut, the 6′ 2” redshirt freshman scored 9 points and led the team with 8 rebounds.

Morgan continued his physical play on Thursday, getting to the free throw line 10 times en-route to 16 points to go along with 4 rebounds and a number of key tips that kept offensive rebounds alive for teammates to corral.

“I don’t mind getting under people’s skin a little bit,” said Morgan. “I like to play physical. I don’t mind getting in with the big boys and being a little feisty… . I enjoy a little bit of a fist fight.”

Morgan started the season ice cold, never looking comfortable with his shot. Over his first four games, he was just 1-10 from behind the 3-point line. Over his last 8 games, Morgan is 9-18 (50 percent) from long-range and has found other ways to get himself involved, including physical defense and rebounding. A reserve averaging 14 minutes per game this season, Morgan has fouled out of three of the past eight games, coinciding with his uptick in scoring and rebounding productivity.

“As a freshman, I saw things when we recruited him, he played like an older guy,” said Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero. “He plays with a spirit, he plays with a joy, he loves the game. It’s what he wants to do. He’s overcome so many injuries and finally, for the first time, central coast fans have really got to see what we got when we signed the kid two years ago. You see him go through that and say, ‘is Reese Morgan ever going to  [come back and play well]. Well, the Reese Morgan kid’s pretty good, and we’ve got him for four more years.”

Cal Poly, 2-0 in conference play, hosts UC Irvine on Saturday night at Mott Gym. The Anteaters lost their Thursday night game at UCSB.

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OK, so I\’ve never made a Highlander joke about UC Riverside. Until now. Sorry. UC Riverside has struggled this preseason, losing notably 39-30 to Fresno State and 70-26 at USC.

The Highlanders did beat Northern Colorado, another common opponent with Cal Poly, but that was the only thing that resembles a quality win for Jim Woolridge\’s team.

If Cal Poly is to really compete for a top-4 seed in the Big West Tournament, winning games like this, against a team that was picked to finish last in the conference in the preseason coaches poll, is imperative.

An upset loss is not outside the realm of possibility for Cal Poly, though. Three weeks after beating Cal State Northridge 100-54 at Mott Gym last season, the Mustangs went to the San Fernando Valley and lost to the Matadors 94-81.

The UC Riverside game is made more important by a pair of TOUGH games next weekend at Mott Gym vs. UC Irvine (6-7, picked 3rd in the preseason coaches poll) and Long Beach State (4-7, picked 1st in the preseason coaches poll)

I caught-up with Chris O\’Brien and Chris Eversley before the Mustangs boarded their bus to Riverside on Thursday afternoon. They talked about what the team has learned over the first 10 games, what they did on Christmas vacation, and O\’Brien changed course to give us a movie review of The Hobbit.

Cal Poly @ UC Riverside

Saturday, December 29

1:00 PM, The SRC Arena

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTYVfOodh50

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

Cal Poly split their two games leading up to Christmas. By Owen Main

Cal Poly women’s basketball hosted the University of San Francisco Dons on Monday night. After USF lost recently by over 40 points to Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly got behind early and could not come back, losing 71-67.

On Thursday night, the Mustangs beat Loyola Marymount at Mott Gym 84-71, completing the per-conference portion of their schedule with a 6-5 record.

With a pair of fast, small point guards leading the way, Cal Poly is much more successful at a fast pace. Games in the high 70’s and 80’s are what coach Faith Mimnaugh wants. Now that Jonae Ervin is rounding back into form, she and Ariana Elegado are playing a lot together, pushing the already-torrid pace that the Mustangs prefer.

Two things I’ll watch for as the conference season begins are whether Cal Poly can continue to play fast-paced enough to score 75-plus points per game and how center Molly Schlemer fits-in to the fast-paced offense Mimnaugh so-clearly wants to maintain. In the loss to San Francisco, Schlemer played just 17 minutes, but still managed to score 13 points on 6-6 from the field.

In the win vs. LMU, Schlemer was back in the starting lineup, netting a double-double (14 points and 11 rebounds) and the Mustangs were able to score 84 points in the win.

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This week’s guest on the Fansmanship.com Podcast is Cal Poly legend and radio commentator Mike Wozniak. As a player at Cal Poly in the ’90’s, Woz helped put Cal Poly’s Division 1 program on the map. He has remained in the area, co-hosting a drive-time talk show locally, providing color commentary in San Luis Obispo and nationally, and working with local youth basketball players.

Before Saturday night’s men’s basketball game, we tracked Woz down to tape a podcast segment. I talked to him about his time playing in Mott Gym, this year’s Cal Poly team, and whether he thinks he could have played Callero-level defense as a collegiate player.

Reminder- the Fansmanship.com podcast can be found on itunes. 

Chris Eversley throws down two of his seven first-half points. By Owen Main

Cal Poly and Fresno State are squaring-off tonight at Mott Gym and it’s a battle of contrasting styles. Fresno State has pressed full-court for the entire game. They are the longer and decidedly more athletic squad and seem to be getting their hands on almost every 50/50 rebound. Fresno State guard Kevin Foster can’t seem to miss with 15 first-half points.

Cal Poly was led by (surprise) Chris Eversley, who scored seven points, but the real story is that Fresno State is playing their up-tempo style and leading Cal Poly 37-30.

Fansmanship Notes –

* Cal Poly implemented a 1-3-1 defense for the last 5 minutes of the second half to keep the Fresno State lead within single digits.

* Lots of Fresno State fans here. Bulldog nation is representing.

* Fresno State was 6-11 from 3-point range in the first half. Cal Poly shot 3-6. Cal Poly was outrebounded 16-11.

Photos by Owen Main

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