What we’ve learned about Cal Poly men’s basketball after four games

Chris Eversley and company will face four very worthy opponents over the next few weeks. By Owen Main

Joe Callero’s team has played four games. By the looks of things, it’s going to take fans at least that many more games to have any idea of who this team is and how good they can be. Their next four games include two neutral-site games, a game at Oregon, and a home game against Santa Clara. Here are some things we have learned so far and a few questions going into their next four games:

We will see a lot more dunks this year

Brian Bennett and Zach Gordon added some additional “above the rim” play for Cal Poly last season, but transfers Michael Bolden and David Nwaba should be playing above the rim on a nightly basis. Add to that Chris Eversley, and Cal Poly will have 2-3 big dunking threats on the court at any given time. Nwaba, in particular, has thrown down at least one vicious dunk in each of Cal Poly’s four games so far. He jumps somewhere in the neighborhood of Shawn Lewis and attacks the rim with a viciousness I haven’t ever seen at Mott.

Dunks don’t get you wins, as the Mustangs have proven so far, but they can energize the crowd and give casual fans a reason to come see this team play.

Chemistry matters

No offense to Chris O’Brien, Dylan Royer, and Drake U’u, but this year’s Cal Poly team is much more athletic. That being said, playing above the rim hasn’t translated into wins. Yet. This team came into their opening game with one starter and three of their top nine or ten players being newcomers. “Cohesion” is a word Callero has used in describing what his team might be missing in early games.

The tendency for fans is to expect a sophomore or junior transfer like Michael Bolden or David Nwaba to step in and be able to play in a fluid way with his teammates right away, but that hasn’t been the case so far. Instead, they should, at least for the next few games, put those guys in a category with freshman Ridge Shipley, a freshman who is also new to the team. The caveat to that is that Nwaba will probably be the team’s second-leading scorer this season.

The preseason is a time for new players to start to get into the mix, but if the offense still looks this disjointed a few games before conference starts, it might be time to panic.

David Nwaba is nasty when he attacks the rim. By Owen Main

Who will make a difference off the bench?

The play of the Cal Poly bench has not been great so far. Former Big West Conference Freshman of the Year, Maliik Love was praised by Callero for doing “things that don’t show up on the stat sheet” after the Bethesda game on Saturday, but he went only 1-5 from the field in that game and overall, production from the entire bench has been hit and miss. Joel Awich, Love, Zach Gordon, and especially Michael Bolden will eventually have to provide solid minutes and some spark off the bench that we haven’t really seen yet from the second team.

In the loss earlier in the week against Fresno State, no bench players scored. Where consistent offensive production and playmaking will come from is still, in my mind, somewhat of a question.

Are they good enough to win any of their “next four” games?

The Mustangs play Division II Cal State Dominguez Hills at Mott Athletics Center on December 14th, but in the mean time they’ll play four tough opponents and we’ll know a lot more about what kind of a team this is at that point.

North Dakota is their next opponent. They are 2-1 and has scored an average of 96.6 points per game. More impressive is that they put up 85 points in their only loss at Wisconsin. Can Joe Callero and the Mustangs hold them under 70 or so? After scoring only 79 against Bethesda, will they be able to score enough to beat a team that plays like North Dakota does?

A day after North Dakota, they play Pacific, who is now a member of the West Coast Conference. In their final season in the Big West, Pacific beat Cal Poly in the semifinals on a last second shot en route to the tournament championship and an NCAA Tournament birth. They have a new coach, but will be a very good test for the Mustangs.

On the third day in Oregon, Cal Poly will play the host Ducks. Ranked 17th in the country, the Ducks figure to be the best team Cal Poly will face for the remainder of the year. I guess fans could hope for a tired Ducks team that might lose some focus on the third straight day with a game, though it’s unlikely.

Rounding out their “next four,” the Mustangs will face-off against a Santa Clara team that handled them last season. Much like Nevada, Cal Poly will have a chance to take revenge this year.

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The thing about the next four games is that Cal Poly could conceivably go 3-1 and they could easily go 0-4. To a coach or an optimistic fan, the non-conference season may not be more than a precursor to Big West Conference play, but it will matter for Cal Poly. An untested team that is trying to find its confidence and cohesion needs to have some success to build on. The Big West Conference has four to five teams that could win the regular season title and if Cal Poly wants to compete, they need to develop an identity, something head coach Joe Callero has never failed to make happen at Cal Poly