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

[scrollGallery id=85]