A three game road trip to Texas was never so complicated.

After playing the first two games of a three-game Texas road trip to end their pre-conference schedule, the Cal Poly men’s basketball team took a five-day break around the Christmas holiday. Players, coaches, and team personnel left from San Antonio last week and disbursed to Seattle, Minnesota, other parts of Texas, and all over California, among other places.

Their return became a nightmare of delays and cancellations caused by a strong storm in Texas that brought tornadoes to the northern part of the state. According to this article, about half of Sunday’s flights were delayed, averaging an hour or two. Many Cal Poly folks wished their flights were delayed by only a few hours.

Josh Martin (front right) and Trevor John (front left), along with coaches and teammates were on this plane for the better part of five hours without leaving San Antonio. Gross. Photo courtesy of Josh Martin

After being delayed on a flight from San Luis Obispo to Phoenix, only about half of a group of coaches and staff were able to sprint to the connecting flight on Sunday morning. Others, including play-by-play broadcaster Tom Barket and some coaches who gate-checked bags, were not that lucky and were delayed in Phoenix for most of the day after missing the connection.

“Mitch Reaves made it and they closed the door behind him,” said Associate Head Coach Paul Fortier. “We were 30 seconds behind him, but they had closed the door.”

Some who made the connection probably wished they hadn’t. A group of players and coaches on the flight from Phoenix to Houston circled Houston for some time before diverting to San Antonio. After sitting on the tarmac for three hours there, they were allowed off the plane for 20 minutes before boarding again, only to wait for a few more hours. That group arrived at Houston around 8:30 or 9:00 on Sunday night and was able to check into their hotel. Josh Martin, who spent the holiday in Phoenix, was one player who made the San Antonio stop.

“I feel weird I feel like I’m rested but as soon as I step on the court, my body’s going to be deflated and not ready to go,” the 6′ 8″ Martin said before Monday’s practice. “I tried to do some stretching last night, but I was definitely sore.”

The three who didn’t make the flight out of Phoenix — Joe Callero, Paul Fortier, and Barket — tried in vain to get on at least two flights before they finally caught one late in the evening and arrived at about 12:30, some six hours after the scheduled Sunday evening practice at Rice. Only seven players made it to the session.

“Being 6’9″, it wasn’t as bad as having to sit on an airplane for that long,” said Fortier, who caught some NFL action on the televisions in the airport with Callero and Barket throughout the day.

Joel Awich, a 6’7″ senior from Minnesota, had a two-hour delay, but his direct flight from Minneapolis was able to land safely and he made it to the scheduled practice along with seniors David Nwaba and Reese Morgan, among others. For his part, Awich seemed pretty focused on the job ahead.

“We just watched film on them,” said Awich on Monday afternoon before practice. “They looked really good. Like every other game, a team we can beat, but we just have to be serious, get our heads in the game early, shake off all this flight stuff, get back to where we are as a team, and handle our business tomorrow.”

All three Texas-based players ended up sleeping in their own beds on Sunday night. After Taylor Sutlive’s flight from San Antonio to Houston was canceled Sunday night, he hitched a ride with his family, picking up Hank Hollingsworth in Austin on the way to Houston, where he arrived around the middle of the day on Monday.

Sutlive, who mostly followed the Texas Longhorns growing up just north of San Antonio, also talked about shaking off the rust.

“It could affect the team mentally,” said Sutlive of the delays. “But A&M’s a good team regardless. We missed a practice yesterday. A lot of it’s concentration and focus. We have practice tonight and we’ll be ready to go. The atmosphere in [Reed Arena] is great and obviously we’ve got to come ready to play.”

The two players who got the worst of the travel issues were Seattle-based Luke Meikle and Zach Gordon. On the same flight, the two had a similar diversion as the group that went to San Antonio, only ZG and Luke (6’8″ and 6’9″ tall respectively) were diverted to Lake Charles, Louisiana and  sat on the Tarmac for up to 7 hours without getting off the plane and without food. By the time they let them deplane in Lake Charles, the only place they could get food was McDonalds. After finding a hotel in Louisiana late on Sunday night, Meikle and Gordon finally made it to Houston on Monday morning and joined the team in College Station around the middle of the day.

Fortier said that the Mustangs had a lot to do on Monday in preparation for Tuesday’s game.

“It was the first time the guys were able to present our scouting report to them,” said Fortier. “We did that this afternoon once ZG and Luke got in, so were were able to go over some things from our last game as well. We still want to learn from things we can learn from. Then we got to really get a good sweat. Our guys’ intensity level was good. I think from the few days off, guys came back with their batteries charged.”

MT @TomBarket: Full practice, Reed Arena in College Station. CP plays 2nd game ever vs SEC. Tomorrow 5PT v Texas A&M pic.twitter.com/szT7x0mvJw

— Big West MBB (@BigWestMBB) December 29, 2015

Fortier sees a big test ahead of the Mustangs on Tuesday night in College Station.

“They’re a big, talented team, and they have a number of seniors,” said Fortier of the Aggies. “When you see top-25 teams [in today’s college basketball], you see younger players, but they have a number of seniors in their starting five. They are an older experienced team that play well together and a couple of freshmen who play together as well.”

Finally reunited, Cal Poly will tip-off against #19/20 Texas A&M at 5:00pm. You can find the game on the SEC Network or listen to Tom Barket here.

Thankfully a full practice in College Station tonight w/ the entire team. Game Tue. vs. #14 Texas A&M will require our best effort in years!

— Joe Callero (@CoachCallero) December 29, 2015

Luke Meikle and Taylor Sutlive were each 5-5 from the field and combined for 31 points as Cal Poly held Fresno State to 24 first-half points en route to a 77-65 victory. Meikle averaged 15.5 points off the bench in two home games this week, showing his offensive versatility making outside shots and taking the ball to the basket against bigger opponents.

Sutlive has shown patience throughout the beginning of the season, not forcing shots and taking open looks.

Sutlive was 3-3 from three point range, but head coach Joe Callero was more impressed with Sutlive and the rest of the team’s ability to defend Fresno State and not give up wide open shots like they did on Thursday night against IPFW. Callero said they gave up 20 wide-open looks against IPFW. Fresno State hardly got any.

Cal Poly built their lead over 10 points less than two minutes into the second half. Fresno State cut the lead to eight points at the 14:23 mark of the second half, but an ensuing Sutlive three-pointer pushed it back to 11 and Cal Poly lead by double-digits the rest of the night.

Statland

Cal Poly won despite taking 25 fewer shots than Fresno State — the Bulldogs took 69 shots to Cal Poly’s 44. Cal Poly’s starters were just 4-14 from three-point range, but the bench was a combined 4-8 to help the Mustangs stay over 36 percent for the game. David Nwaba filled-up the box score with 9 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists.

Up next

Cal Poly now has finals week off before traveling to Moraga to play at St. Mary’s next Monday. They’ll follow that up with a trip to USC before playing three road games in Texas before the first of the year and the start of Big West Conference play.

Photos by Owen Main

Cal Poly released a statement on Wednesday announcing letters of intent for three guards — two of whom are from Texas.With three seniors on this year’s roster (Drake U’u, Chris O’Brien, and Dylan Royer), coach Joe Callero has three players coming in with perimeter skills.

My favorite part of writing this was watching the YouTube highlight videos of each of these guys, especially when it came to the music. Two of them have upbeat hip-hop tracks and one is, well, a little more mellow.

Markel Leonard, a point guard from Salesian High School in Hercules, CA seems quick, instinctive, and shifty.

The Leonard video with the sweet music track:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OtwncUeHcQ

The “silent” video (might be the exact same thing without the sweet beats):

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5xmNywwb1U

Ridge Shipley, another small guard from Hebron High School in Carrollton, TX, seems to have and also quickness to get around defenders and get his own shot. Highlights also show court vision and a LOT of confidence with the ball in his hand. Another sweet track in the video…

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKtHD5CvyxU

OK, I have to admit it. This last video is my favorite of the three. Taylor Sutlive from Churchill High School in San Antonio, TX is a lanky wing player with no conscience. He shoots from everywhere. His highlight video shows him cruising at-times, just waiting for an open shot somewhere inside half-court. He has longish hair probably adds to my perception of a mellow, laid-back bomber.

Sutlive’s video exhibits the ultimate “you better get out on that guy!” guy. Despite that, he also shows that he can get up and throw down on occasion and also showcases a developed pull-up game. He shows he’s a guard who can rebound and makes some really nice “look-ahead” passes to teammates. The slowed-down music still has all the rhythm that it’s clear Sutlive has in his shot.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6fOcMTRrxo

Here’s an older version of Sutlive set to an Eminem track. Looks like he grew a lot going into his junior season.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8sfhFFifgk

It looks like Sutlive went to a pretty fun high school too. In this video, basically the whole high school participates in a one-shot lip-dub. Sutlive makes a 10-second appearance at the 7:50 mark.

Without seeing these guys in-person, it’s really hard to know what kind of players they’ll be at Cal Poly. Joe Callero has a few recruiting outposts now (Illinois and Texas) and seems to have a plan for the program in his fourth year — losing three perimeter players after this year and recruiting three more.

Cal Poly’s first home game of the season is tonight at 7PM vs. Northern Colorado at Mott Gym.

UPDATE

The women’s team announced four letters of intent on Thursday — all from front-court players.

Hannah Gilbert (Morro Bay High School) and Mary Kate Evans (Atascadero High School) highlight the incoming group for coach Faith Mimnaugh. Neither have videos on YouTube, but both are at least six feet tall, which is a nice thing to have in the Big West.

Sarah Lipton from Woodbridge High School in Irvine is also over six feet tall, standing at 6’1”. As a high school player, she shoots almost 40 percent from 3-point range and should also fit into Mimnaugh’s run-and-gun offensive system.

Lipton has a pair of youtube videos. They showcase a pretty well-developed offensive game:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vXmUAzPzMs

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU5hhtObt_E

Rachel Koehler is a recruit from Billings, Montana (Billings Senior High School). Koehler is a forward who Mimnaugh described as “explosive and physical.” No YouTube video for Koehler either.