Joel Awich shoots a jump shot in the first half of Saturday’s game. By Owen Main

At some point, this season’s trajectory is going to have to deviate from last season’s, right?

Here’s what’s the same this year as last year:

* Cal Poly earned a 6-10 record in the Big West Conference.

* Cal Poly will be the seventh-seed in the Big West Tournament, starting Thursday

* As the seventh seed, Cal Poly will once again face UCSB less than one week after the regular season finale. The Gauchos earned the second seed with their win and a UC Irvine loss in Davis on Saturday night.

* Last season, Cal Poly finished the regular season losing five of their final six games. This year, they’re not exactly a fireball going into the tournament either, losing their last four games.

Last year, Cal Poly finished with a 10-19 record going into the postseason. This season, it’s a little better than that (13-15 overall).

In their final regular season game last year, Cal Poly lost to UCSB in San Luis Obispo. This season, the Gauchos won the regular season finale on their home floor in the Thunderdome.

What might be different this season is the will that Chris Eversley brought to the floor. I believe that sometimes “leadership” from seniors can be overblown, but Eversley might have been an exception. After the UCSB blowout loss at Mott, Eversley was calm, confident, and relaxed as I’ve ever seen a college player in a situation like that.

His response about how nobody on the Cal Poly team was giving up or hanging their head until they rip the jersey off their backs resonated a week later, when he and the Mustangs were holding the Big West Tournament trophy over their heads in Anaheim.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like that kind of leadership was a big reason Cal Poly’s run last year made some sense in hindsight. With that context, I wonder who is going to be that guy this year, if the Mustangs are to make a run.

Could Reese Morgan’s knees hold up long enough for him to play consistently for three days and be that catalyst? Could a sophomore like Ridge Shipley make the next step when Cal Poly needs it most? Players like Brian Bennett, David Nwaba, and Joel Awich have all been pretty consistent with on-court production.

This time of the year can be about a lot more than making a few buckets, though.

Big Al’s last home game?

Alan Williams played his final regular-season home game with UCSB on Saturday night. He dominated both ends of the floor, scoring 26 points and pulling down 19 rebounds — all defensive. To put that in context, as a team, Cal Poly only managed 22 defensive rebounds.

Williams has been a force in the conference since his sophomore season and should get some serious looks in the professional ranks. Maybe a slightly more active Glen Davis comparison might be apt? At any rate, he’s one of the best big men in the history of the Big West conference.

I suppose UCSB could play again at the Thunderdome. A win or two in the conference tournament could put UCSB (18-12 overall) into a lesser tournament. For now, I’ll just say that the best player in the conference over the last three years is done with his home games.

Believe me, no other team in the Big West is disappointed.

UCSB toward the top again

Some team is going to have to play a great tournament game to upend UCSB. After a sluggish start to the season, Bob Williams has his team playing pretty well. They beat UC Irvine and UC Davis last week and have given themselves a chance at a two-seed in the tournament. I talk a lot about how Long Beach State is always in the mix in the Big West, but perhaps I don’t give Bob Williams and the Gauchos enough love. Since 2010, UCSB has won the conference tournament twice and finished outside of the top-three in the regular season conference standings just once.

That said, the last time they won in Anaheim was 2011. This year’s tournament field is as deep as any in recent memory, and UCSB is once again right in the thick of things as the two-seed.

Ben Howland, an assistant coach for the 1990 UCSB team, later took UCLA to three consecutive Final Four appearances. During his final season in Westwood, he suffered a defeat at the hands of Joe Callero’s Cal Poly team, who lost to UCSB on Saturday afternoon. By Owen Main

When the Thunderdome’s a rockin’

Props to UCSB students for nearly filling up the Thunderdome on Saturday afternoon. Their student section was loud, mostly into the game, and provided a pretty solid college basketball atmosphere. At halftime of the game, the 1990 UCSB squad, which one a game in the NCAA Tournament, was honored. That team included Lucius Davis and had Ben Howland as an assistant coach. Both were in attendance Saturday.

Big West Tournament Schedule

Cal Poly, the 7th seed in the upcoming Big West Tournament will play Thursday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim. If UC Irvine is their opponent, the game will be at 6:00pm. If UCSB is their opponent, the game will be the late (8:30pm) game. All games should be available on TV or streaming somewhere. I’ll post that later this week.

Photos by Owen Main 

Earlier this season, a fan at the Thunderdome was allowed to do this during a game. His left arm is around the basketball standard. His butt is sticking out past the padding under the basket while an opposing player is shooting a free throw — nothing between him and the players at this point. By Owen Main

Maybe I like to watch fighting. Maybe I like to see people get what they deserve. Maybe I’m just a big fan of idiots getting what’s coming to them.

On Thursday night, Big West basketball got national media attention for all the wrong reasons. In the middle of a key game in one of its biggest and best arenas, a UC Santa Barbara fan ran onto the court toward Hawai’i coach Gib Arnold. Before he could get too close to him, 6′ 8″ Hawai’i star Christian Standhardinger pushed him away.

The fan somehow was allowed to retreat unmolested back into the student section. Eventually the fan, presumed to be a UCSB student, was arrested.

The arrest is good — I’m glad they did SOMETHING about it — but something inside of me wants to see more. A fan who runs onto the field of play and approaches a player or coach in a threatening way needs to be dealt with. In this day and age of “Stand your Ground” laws, part of me wishes a player or coach would have tackled and manhandled the kid. Or that the whole team would have just turned on him to protect their coach. I know it’s not the right thing to do and it would have only caused more issues and badness for everyone involved. Part of me wishes that one of these stupid fans who makes the choice to cross the line and come at a player or coach would just get pummeled.

Things like this, in situations like these, make me happy:

The fan above wasn’t really threatening, but he was being an idiot and probably got what he deserved. The fan at last night’s Santa Barbara game was going out and, at least in body language, looking for a fight. Him getting shot with a taser gun and going down and peeing his pants in front of his fellow students would have been about right for me.

Here’s the video of what happened last night.

  In my fantasy world, the fan would probably sue the University and the judge would laugh in his face and make him pay the University’s legal bills.

An aside to my comments here is that they apply really to the situation in Santa Barbara and ones like it. People will try to make connections, because of time proximity, to what happened at Utah Valley State. The two situations are similar only in that more and better security along with stricter enforcement would have probably helped to prevent something like this. Here’s what happened in Utah, in case you haven’t seen it:  

Let’s come back to the incident in Santa Barbara last night. The Thunderdome is one of the best places to watch a game. The student section is right on-top of the court and can be one of the loudest you’ll find anywhere. On that same court earlier this season, UCSB used a great crowd to help them upset Cal. It’s a real shame this idiot is what people today are getting to know it for.

Here’s hoping the next guy, in whatever arena, gets what’s coming to him.

Cal Poly’s 72-64 win over UC Santa Barbara on Saturday night was only the third win they’ve had at the Thunderdome in Division One. It was their first victory since 2007 and it gave Cal Poly a 2-0 start in Big West play with the two wins coming against the teams with the best records in the conference prior to the start of the season. Like most Blue-Green rivalry games, it was a night filled with memorable moments.

Anthony Silvestri made five 3-pointers and scored 17 points to help Cal Poly to their first win at the Thunderdome in seven years. By Owen Main

In the first half, Cal Poly’s bench started to create separation. With Anthony Silvestri, Taylor Sutlive, and Maliik Love on the floor, the Mustangs went on an 18-8 run, scoring on six straight three-pointers by bench players — four by Silvestri and two by Sutlive.

“We were struggling offensively out there, ” said Silvestri. “When we came in, me and Taylor hit a couple shots. Maliik was driving, getting to the basket, drawing fouls, so I think it really had a big spark for us because then the starters came back in and kept it going.”

The 18 points accounted for all of the Mustangs’ points over a 7:36 span and helped Cal Poly build an eight-point first-half lead.

“Let’s cut down to the chase,” said Cal poly head coach Joe Callero. “In basketball, everything looks good when you make shots. When you get subs who come in and who score 24 of our 28 first half points, Anthony Silvestri is just on fire, but also a little firepower from Taylor Sutlive… . All of a sudden you have a team that stretches the floor a little more. I thought Maliik Love was critical in our zone offense. He had the top-down drive which created the suction in and they had to honor that and that got Anthony some of his shots.”

UCSB’s “Big” Al Williams single-handedly kept his team in the game, responding with bucket after bucket. With a lead hovering between seven and twelve points for most of the second half, though, Cal Poly seemed content to single-cover Williams and match the Gauchos’ scoring with points of their own.”

“We knew he was going to get his,” said Eversley of Williams. :If we keep everybody else under control and let him get his, we’ll be all right at the end of the day, so our game plan worked tonight.”

It didn’t matter who was guarding him or how many Mustangs were around him either. On one shot he made, Williams was surrounded by three Mustangs and still managed to score.

“He could be the best one-on-one post player on the West coast,” said Callero of Williams. “Number one, he’s got great hands, number two he’s got great feet, and then you put those together he’s got a big, strong, wide body that you can’t get around. We work with our guys over and over and say, ‘well why don’t they just get around there and front him or deny him?’ Sometimes you just can’t get get around him. He’s 260 pounds and wide with great feet and hands… . He’s a beast and I think he could be the most dominating single post player on the West coast.”

After making four three-pointers in the first half, Silvestri had one blocked. At the beginning of the second half, he changed it up, choosing the pump fake, taking a dribble inside the arc, and knocking down a 17-footer that sent the Cal Poly bench into a frenzy.

“I’ve gotten shots blocked before, so it wasn’t really that big of a deal,” said Silvestri. “I just thought in the second half I was ready for it. In the second half, I knew they were going to come flying out. I got a little pump fake and I’ve been working on the pump fake, so I was ready for it.”

The Thunderdome is a tough road environment. Here, a fan stands under the basket stantion while a Cal Poly player shoots free throws. By Owen Main

Cal Poly’s lead was cut to three points with 4:01 left to play on a Williams shot. That’s when Cal Poly senior forward Chris Eversley went to work. Eversley made a 17-foot jumper and a three-pointer on back to back possessions to extend the Mustang lead back to eight points.

“I remember guys in this situation, like Orlando Johnson did the same thing to me two years ago, so it’s just stepping up and being able to make those plays when my team needs them. Luckily they both went in and kind of helped seal the game for us,” said Eversley

Eversley, who had never won at the Thunderdome, posted “Last chance” on social media prior to the game. He and fellow seniors Jamal Johnson and Kyle Odister made the most of their final road game in the Blue-Green Rivalry.

#FreeAnt

Silvestri’s story is a really fun one. He tried out as a walk-on during his freshman year, but was cut. During his sophomore year, he was at the Rec Center on campus lifting weights when he was approached by Drake U’u.

“I went to just go actually lift in the Rec Center and Drake U’u was playing with a bunch of football players, I think one of them was Asa Jackson, and I was wearing running shoes,” said Silvestri. “I was like ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll play a game,’ and went out and basically almost beat their really good team. I had ten points and we play to eleven. I had all ten, and Drake told me to go to some open gyms. I just did well at open gyms.”

U’u, who is a rookie with the Australian National Basketball League’s Perth Wildcats (and recently scored a career-high 13 points), backed up Silvestri’s story.

“I just remember playing against this red head and thinking, wow he can really shoot the ball and has good size,’ said U’u. “It was like I was witnessing a real life Brian Scalabrine at the Rec’. So, I invited him to our open gym with the team. Everyone thought I was crazy for inviting this kid. Specifically, I remember Jamal telling me, ‘Drizz you gotta tell this kid chess club is in the next building over.’ I assured him he was with me and could play, and he didn’t disappoint. I remember him coming in and hitting 3’s like David Hanson 2.0. Finally I told coach he had to come check this kid out, and he loved him. He was a nice kid and became my best friend the following year. Pretty cool story.”

As a sophomore last season, the 6’7″ forward made a positive impression on Callero, who also coached Scalabrine at USC. Prior to this season, Callero announced that Silvestri would be a scholarship player for his senior year, following the path of Dylan Royer, who earned a scholarship for his senior season last year. On Saturday in Santa Barbara, he showed why.

Big West Sharpshooters

During the non-conference schedule, Cal Poly averaged only 65 points per game and scored in the 70’s in just five of 13 games. In two conference games, they’ve scored 77 and 72 points respectively. Over their two games last week, the Mustangs shot 47.7 percent from the field including 51.3 percent from 3-point range.

Tough week-two ahead

Cal Poly’s week-two conference schedule is just about as daunting as its opening week, though both games this week are at home. On Thursday, the Mustangs host Cal State Northridge. The Matadors, who sport the top two active career scorers in the conference, are off to a hot start under first-year head coach Reggie Theus. On Saturday, Cal Poly hosts defending regular season champs Long Beach State. The 49ers activated UCLA transfer Tyler Lamb six games ago and Lamb leads the team with 18.8 points per game.

“We’ve played two great teams so far and it’s only going to get harder next week with Northridge and Long Beach,” said Eversley. “Practice has been good, the mental focus has been excellent so we’re just going to look to build on this.”

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Reese Morgan dropped 26 points in his first career start for Cal Poly. By Owen Main

I woke up at 3:00 AM this morning with a start. Amongst a rogue fire alarm and a heated contest between Cal Poly and UCSB, I thought I had missed something during last night’s game.

It turned out the chants of the UCSB student section at the Thunderdome had me barking up the wrong tree.

Twice last night the officials stopped the game because of the clock not moving on an in-bound play. Both times were when Cal Poly had possession. The first time it happened, it looked like the scorer’s table reset the clock and scoreboard, both of which went blank and turned back on. The mishap was noticed 3 seconds into the 35 second clock and it seemed that no harm was done.

The second time, however, elicited a much different reaction from Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero. With the Mustangs taking the ball out at their own baseline and 6 seconds remaining on the 35-second clock, the ball came in bounds. About a second before Chris Eversley caught and drained a 17-footer off a designed in-bound play, an official noticed that neither clock wasn’t running and blew his whistle. And Callero snapped.

If it had been the first time, it might have just been dubious. The second time, in a game like this though didn’t sit well with the Mustangs coach. Instead of putting the shot clock back to 6 seconds and running the play over, they only put two seconds on the shot clock and gave the Mustangs the ball back out of bounds. What resulted was a contested in-bounds pass, an air ball and a shot clock violation. Two possessions and a whistle later, Callero’s riding of the UCSB shot clock official caused Gaucho head coach Bob Williams to come running at Callero to tell him “that was enough” according to Williams.

In the middle of this fracas, I thought I had missed something very important. See, I thought the game clock had run when the shot clock was stuck. I was wrong about that part. Neither clock had moved.

As a high school assistant coach, I’ve run a shot clock before. Lots of times. And when you run the shot clock, you have one button to push. It’s labeled “reset.” The clock itself, I think, should be running when the scoreboard operator runs the game clock. So, I see two scenarios here:

1) Human error. The shot clock operator did not flip the switch or press the button. It happens, I suppose. In the middle of a heated, loud rivalry game would be a time that it’s probably most likely and least acceptable to happen. I’m pretty sure this was the case, and that’s why Joe Callero was fuming at the scorer’s table.

2) It was an electronic error. Electronic errors don’t usually just happen. I don’t know the answers, but I’ll be interested to know whether these things have happened with the shot clock in the past at the Thunderdome and whether they happen at all for the rest of the year. I can’t imagine that the clock wouldn’t run if the switch was flipped, but stranger things have happened.

OK, there is one other explanation. It’s a loose/not tied-down cable somewhere. On the opposite side of the court, below the student section, sat ESPN Radio 1280’s Tom Barket and Mike Wozniak, along with a number of other media, including myself. While things ran smoothly for the entire game, a few students jumped over and around the table after the game. An unsecured cord that powered the entire table, including the Mustangs’ radio broadcast, was inadvertently unplugged for about 5 minutes. So maybe there’s a loose cord somewhere that they just didn’t find the first time.

If someone can give me another possibility, I’d sure be happy to hear it. Perhaps I’m misinformed about what the real issue was. I guess it doesn’t matter now. As Joe Callero said after the game, there were 60 other possessions for Cal Poly to make a difference, and the Mustangs didn’t do enough to earn the victory.

No matter the reason, this game will go down in Blue-Green rivalry lore as another one that got away from Cal Poly, who is now 1-11 over the past 12 games against their Central Coast rivals.