SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Mountain West Digital

Conference Standings

Montana: 12-4, 23-8, NET Ranking: 30
Cal Poly: 12-4, 18-11, NET Ranking: 50
#14 Boise State: 11-4, 24-7, NET Ranking: 12
#25 UNLV: 10-6, 23-8, NET Ranking: 33
San Diego State: 9-7, 19-10, NET Ranking: 61
Nevada: 8-8, 20-11, NET Ranking: 66
Colorado State: 7-9, 16-13, NET Ranking: 88
Utah State: 7-9, 15-14, NET Ranking: 153
Wyoming: 6-10, 10-19, NET Ranking: 157
Fresno State: 6-10, 15-14, NET Ranking: 160
Air Force: 5-11, 11-18, NET Ranking: 204
New Mexico: 3-13, 8-21, NET Ranking: 200

[PointGuard]

San Luis Obispo Tribune

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Day 1:

#5 seed San Diego State—80, #12 seed New Mexico—46
#6 seed Nevada—87, #11 seed Air Force—50
#7 seed Colorado State—74, #10 seed Fresno State—64
#9 seed Wyoming—82, Utah State—53

Day 2 (Quarterfinals):

#1 seed Montana—82, #9 seed Wyoming—74
#2 seed Cal Poly—81, #7 seed Colorado State—54 (SG Jase Carroll-16 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl; C Lane Lynch-15 pts, 9 reb, 2 blk; SF Louis Taylor-12 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast; SF Kenyon Farrell-9 pts, 5 reb. Injury: PG Gary Van Dyke-sore leg.)
#3 seed, #14 ranked Boise State—74, #6 seed Nevada—66
#5 seed San Diego State—61, #4 seed, #25 ranked UNLV—58

Day 3 (Semifinals):

#1 seed Montana—89, #5 seed San Diego State—78
#2 seed Cal Poly—86, #3 seed, #14 ranked Boise State—68 (SF Louis Taylor-19 pts, 4 reb; PF Danny Tolliver-15 pts, 5 reb; SG Jase Carroll-12 pts, 8 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk; C Lane Lynch-11 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast.)

Day 4 (Championship):

#2 seed Cal Poly—76, #1 seed Montana—65 (C Lane Lynch-27 pts, 7 reb; SF Louis Taylor-9 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl; C Brandon Bailey-8 pts, 3 reb, 2 blk; PF Danny Tolliver-7 pts, 8 reb, 2 stl, 2 blk; PF Micah Hannah-7 pts, 3 reb; PG Gary Van Dyke-7 pts, 4 ast; PG Robbie Boston-6 pts, 2 ast.)

Coach Fred Aura said after the game, “Our team took control early and just never gave Montana, a very strong team, a chance to get close. Lane Lynch was awesome, hitting all 11 of his FGA’s. Gotta give a lot of credit to our all our guards who kept feeding some outstanding passes inside that allowed Lane to get free. We played 3 tough teams in this tournament and came up big in every one of those for 3 very impressive victories.”

[PointGuard]

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

Cal Poly Team Stats:

Season Record: 21-11; Conference Record: 12-4 (tie for 1st); NET Ranking: NET Ranking; 36

PPG: 70.3 ppg (245th best); Opponents PPG: 64.3 (9th best); Rebounding: 35.9 rpg (46th best); Assists: 16.5 apg (203rd best); Blocks: 5.7 bpg (46th best); Steals: 7.7 spg (173rd best); FG%: 44.1% (216th best); 3P%: 30.6 % (303rd best); FT%: 70.6% (173rd best).

Cal Poly Player Stats:

SG Jase Carroll: 32 G, 32 GS, 27.2 mpg, 9.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.6 apg
SF Louis Taylor: 32 G, 32 GS, 24.0 mpg, 9.7 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.5 apg
PF Danny Tolliver: 32 G, 32 GS, 22.3 mpg, 8.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.3 apg
PG Robbie ston: 24 G, 24 GS, 20.7 mpg, 7.6 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.0 apg
PG Gary Van Dyke: 32 G, 8 GS, 19.8 mpg, 5.2 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 2.7 apg
C Brandon Bailey: 32 G, 32 GS, 19.3 mpg, 7.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.1 apg
C Lane Lynch: 32 G, 0 GS, 17.2 mpg, 9.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.0 apg
SG Jon Overton: 32 G, 0 GS, 13.0 mpg, 4.4 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1.4 apg
C Micah Hannah: 32 G, 0 GS, 12.5 mpg, 4.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.6 apg
SF Kenyon Farrell: 32 G, 0 GS, 11.5 mpg, 3.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.7 apg
PF DJ Morse: 32 G, 0 GS, 8.7 mpg, 1.9 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 0.6 apg
PG Shawn Fishback (walkon): 8 G, 0 GS, 1.8 mpg, 1.8 ppg, 0.3 rpg, 0.3 apg
PF Tyris Gunn (walkon): 8 G, 0 GS, 1.8 mpg. 0.4 ppg, 0.6 rpg, 0.0 apg
SG Brandon Muckle: redshirted

[PointGuard]

Mountain West Network

Mountain West Post Season Tournament Teams:

NCAA Tournament

Boise State (25-8) is the #4 seed in the Midwest Region whose 1st round opponent is San Jose State (22-10)
Cal Poly (21-11) is the #10 seed in the Midwest Region whose 1st round opponent is Michigan State (21-12)
Montana (25-9) is the #9 seed in the South Region whose 1st round opponent is St. John’s (20-12)
UNLV (23-9) is the #9 seed in the West Region whose 1st round opponent is Memphis (19-11)

NIT

San Diego State (7th seed in the East Region)
Nevada (5th seed in the South Region)

CIT

Colorado State (6th seed in the Midwest Region)

[PointGuard]

Mountain West Network

Tournament Results for Mountain West Teams:

CIT

Rnd 1

Colorado State—84, Indiana State—81 (OT)

Rnd 2

Holy Cross—83, Colorado State--70

NIT

Rnd 1

Nevada—66, Baylor--58

San Diego State—68, New Mexico State—63

Rnd 2

Nevada—99, West Virginia--87

St. Bonaventure—73, San Diego State—58

Rnd 3

Nevada—77, Harvard—70

Rnd 4

Georgetown—80, Nevada--65

NCAA

Rnd 1

Boise State—68, San Jose State—67

Michigan State—79, Cal Poly—68 (C Brandon Bailey—21 pts, 8 reb; C Lane Lynch-13 pts, 5 reb; Louis Taylor-9 pts, 4 reb; SG Jase Carroll-7 pts, 7 ast, 2 stl; PF Danny Tolliver-7 pts

Montana—80, St. John’s—78

Memphis—83, UNLV—73

Rnd 2

Murray State—90, Boise State—84

Montana—97, Florida—86

Rnd 3 (Sweet 16)

Montana—78, Alabama—71

Rnd 4 (Elite 8)

Boston College—73, Montana--66

Tournament Championships

NCAA: South Carolina—69, Memphis—56
NIT: Duke—73, Georgetown—60
CBI: Louisville-94, Montana State—76
CIT: Texas-San Antonio—79, Long Island—78

[PointGuard]

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

Coach Frederick Aura’s Division 1 Coaching Summary:

2019-20: Towson, 18-15, .545, unranked, 6th (tie) in CAA, No post-season tourney
2020-21: Towson, 13-17, .433, unranked, 5th in CAA, No post-season tourney
2021-22: Towson, 24-9, .727, unranked, 2nd in CAA, NCAA (Round 1)
2022-23: Towson, 27-7, .794, ranked 24th, 1st in CAA, NCAA (Round 2)
2023-24: Towson, 30-4, .882, ranked 15th, 1st in CAA, NCAA (Sweet 16)
2024-25: Towson, 25-8, .758, unranked, 1st in CAA, NCAA (Round 1)
2025-26: Boston College, 21-17, .553, unranked, 10th in ACC, CIT (Finals)
2026-27: Boston College, 25-10, .714, ranked 25th, 3rd in ACC, NCAA (Sweet 16)
2027-28: Boston College, 34-5, .872, ranked 2nd, 1st in ACC, NCAA (Final 4)
2028-29: Boston College, 30-6, .833, ranked 2nd, 1st in ACC, NCAA (Round 2)
2029-30: Boston College, 26-9, .743, ranked 8th, 2nd in ACC, NCAA (Round 2)
2030-31: Boston College, 30-8, .789, ranked 8th, 1st in ACC, NCAA (Champions)
2031-32: Cal Poly, 15-15, .500, unranked, 2nd (tie) in Big West, No post-season tourney
2032-33: Cal Poly, 16-15, .516, unranked, 4th (tie) in Big West, No post-season tourney
2033-34: Cal Poly, 26-8, .765, unranked, 2nd in Big West, NCAA (Round 2)
2034-35: Cal Poly, 21-12, .636, unranked, 1st in Big West, NIT (Round 1)
2035-36: Cal Poly, 25-10, .714, unranked, 4th in Big West, NCAA (Round 1)
2036-37: Cal Poly, 24-9, .727, unranked, 1st in Big West, NCAA (Round 1)
2037-38: Cal Poly, 26-8, .765, ranked #22, 1st in Big West, NCAA (Round 2)
2038-39: Cal Poly, 26-10, .722, unranked, 1st in Big West, NIT (Round 3)
2039-40: Cal Poly, 20-12, .625, unranked, 1st in Mountain West, NIT (Round 3)
2040-41: Cal Poly, 21-12, .636, unranked, 1st (tie) in Mountain West, NCAA (Round 1)

CAREER RECORD: 523-226, .698

[PointGuard]

Frederick Aura

After the season concluded, I began questioning my earlier decision to take on the AD duties while continuing as head coach. I felt torn between the two jobs and was concerned I wasn’t properly handling either one. Saddling my assistant coaches with many of the head coaching functions seemed unfair to and an overburden on them. And not doing them myself had me feeling out of touch with the team. On the AD side of things, I just felt I was failing to handle things as completely or well as I ought to have done. The demands of the job were greater than I had imagined.

I talked things over with Janeka, my wife, as well as Rob Benchley, the retired AD, and others I respected. While none of them tried to make the decision for me, their comments and input were extremely valuable to me as I mulled things over.

The decision was difficult and protracted, but I finally decided that it was time to end my coaching career and focus on my new job as the AD at Cal Poly. That necessitated a coach hiring process. While I considered promoting my 1st Assistant Coach Cory McCreight, his age (62) made it obvious that that would just create a short-term fix. I then created a short list of potential replacements and conducted background checks and interviews. The result was the hiring of Jerome Merritt. He’s been a successful Division 2 head coach. I have confidence that he will step in and do a great job for us. Since the hiring was late, Jerome has decided to keep all 3 existing assistant coaches on board this season which I’m happy about. I also promoted Zahara Carter to be the Assistant Athletic Director. She’s done a terrific job as a special assistant within first the basketball program and more recently within the entire athletic department and is truly deserving of the promotion. It’s going to prepare her to move into the AD position somewhere, should she want to do that in the near future.

I’ve truly enjoyed my coaching career, but 22 years is enough, I’m 64 years old, and I feel I’ve placed the program in good hands. I also think Janeka is happy that I’m now able to focus on one rather than two jobs. This will also allows me to focus more on my two sons’ careers with Omari remaining as the 1st Assistant at Ole Miss and Malik continuing as the starting SG for the Miami Heat and go to more of Devany’s high school games and other activities.

Jerome Merritt is taking over a basketball program that’s in great shape. There are strong starters and excellent depth at all 5 positions. Robbie Boston and Gary Van Dyke are both seasoned and experienced starters at PG; Jase Carroll returns for his 4th season as a starter at SG with Will Cage and Brandon Muckle very much improved as backups; Kenyon Farrell has developed very well and is ready now to be a very solid and productive starter at SF with freshman Marquis Echols looking to be a solid backup; Danny Tolliver returns as the starter at PF with DJ Morse now a very solid backup with freshman Brian White looking like he could also be a solid interior backup; and Lane Lynch and Micah Hannah both strong and ready to fight it out to be the starter at C.

My only concern is that some of the players have taken my departure rather hard so there could be a few that jump ship and transfer. The two most likely to test the transfer waters are SG’s Jase Carroll and Will Cage, but hopefully they decide to hang in here.

[PointGuard]

2041-42 SEASON

[NOTE: This association was imported to beta version of DDSCB2024 at this point]

Cory McCreight, 1st Assistant Coach (Recruiting)

Transfers

We were worried about players transferring and one did. Unfortunately it was Jase Carroll who has started every game for the 3 years he’s been here and has a career average of 10.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg, and 3.0 apg. Jase had a running battle with Will Cage last season and that led to a deterioration in his relationship with his teammates. So I think that was a factor in his decision to leave.

We also had one unfilled scholarship from last season. So we’ll try to pick up 2 transfer players…preferably a SG and SF.

[u]Later Followup—Here’s how we did in the Transfer Portal[/u]

We ended up spending more money than we’d like to have…but got 2 good transfer players:

SF Murray Anthony, a 6-6 sophomore from Franklin, LA who as a freshman averaged 11.5 ppg and 4.0 rpg at Northwestern State.

SG Jamal Charles, a 6-6 sophomore from Vicksburg, MS who averaged 12.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg and 2.0 apg as a freshman at Jackson State.

I think both players will challenge for starting roles, but we’ll just have to see how things go during the fall practices.

Jase Carroll transferred to Harvard.

[PointGuard]

Fred Aura, Cal Poly Athletic Director

Here’s how the basketball season went with head coach Jerome Merritt at the helm:

Pre-conference (top scorer in paretheses)

Cal Poly—60, Old Dominion—57 (Lynch-12)
Cal Poly—78, Indiana State—76 (Cage-21)
#13 West Virginia—76, Cal Poly—59 (Cage-19)
Cal Poly—67, SE Louisiana—57 (Cage-15)
Cal Poly—91, New Orleans—67 (Lynch-31)
Arkansas Pine Bluff—90, Cal Poly—73 (Lynch-17)
Michigan State—75, Cal Poly—61 (Van Dyke-15)
Cal Poly—77, Virginia Tech—74 [Sunshine Shootout] (Cage-27)
Cal Poly—71, Creighton—59 [Sunshine Shootout] (Cage-17)
Missouri—92, Cal Poly—89 [Sunshine Shootout] (Cage-20)
Cal Poly—77, Richmond—66 (Tolliver-20)
Cal Poly—71, Northern Colorado—46 (Lynch-20)
Morehead State—76, Cal Poly—68 (Tolliver-13)
Cal Poly—67, Winthrop—63 (Lynch-16)
Cal Poly—65, Loyola Marymount—54 (Lynch-13)

Conference

Nevada—84, Cal Poly—80 (Cage-15)
Boise State—74, Cal Poly—67 (Cage-14)
Cal Poly—73, Fresno State—72 (Lynch-18)
Cal Poly—64, Air Force—62 (Lynch-16)
Cal Poly—91, Colorado State—67 (Tolliver-25)
San Diego State—69, Cal Poly—57 (Cage-13)
Cal Poly—79, New Mexico—67 (Tolliver-20)
Cal Poly—68, UNLV—56 (Van Dyke-17)
Montana—77, Cal Poly—66 (Tolliver-14)
Cal Poly—69, Wyoming—67 (Cage-14)
Cal Poly—73, Utah State—68 (Cage-21)
#23 Nevada—88, Cal Poly—73 (Lynch-18)
Boise State—80, Cal Poly—44 (Cage-9)
Fresno State—78, Cal Poly—60 (Cage-12)
Cal Poly—74, Air Force—65 (Tolliver-16)
Colorado State—69, Cal Poly—56 (Tolliver-15)

Tournaments

Cal Poly—78, Wyoming—68 [Big West Tourney] (Tolliver-21)
#19 Nevada—78, Cal Poly—67 [Big West Tourney] (Lynch-17)

Indiana—75, Cal Poly—63 [CBI Tourney] (Tolliver-15)

Season Record: 19-15; Mountain West Record: 8-8 (6th place tie); NET Ranking: 96
Top Scorers: SG Will Cage-12.9; C Lane Lynch-12.7; PF Danny Tolliver-10.4
Top Rebounders: C Lane Lynch-7.7; PF Danny Tolliver-6.5; SF Kenyon Farrell-4.5
Top Assists: PG Gary Van Dyke-4.6; SG Will Cage-1.9; PG Robbie Boston-1.8

A so-so season but just 2 players are graduating: SF Kenyon Farrell and PF DJ Morse. So that bodes well for the future of Cal Poly basketball.

[PointGuard]

Janeka Aura

Fred had two more health scares this past year…both resulted in short stays in the hospital. He hung in as the AD, but didn’t get much excitement from the position. And I don’t really think he’s the administrator type. Although Fred minimized his health issues to everyone, after all of Cal Poly’s teams had completed their seasons I finally was able to talk him into retiring at the age of 65 this April. He plans to run some training camps to keep him busy and get the fulfillment that comes from working with high school and college basketball players to help them develop their skills.

With Omari continuing to serve as the Ole Miss 1st Assistant coach, Mississippi turned in their first winning season (20-15) in several years and made it to the NIT Tournament. In late April we were thrilled that Omari was hired to be the head coach at Grambling. It’s been 26 years since the Tigers have had a winning season and they were 6-24 this last season, so Omari has a huge mountain to climb, but I am confident he’s up to the challenge.

Malik suffered a torn Achilles tendon while playing for the Miami Heat this season. He’d been taking classes and completed all preparatory work that allowed him to apply for law school and he was accepted. So he’s hung up his basketball shoes and will begin law school this coming August.

Devany will be a senior in high school this coming year and wants to be a pre-med major at whatever college to which she is accepted. She’s not going to play basketball when she gets to college so she can concentrate on her studies.

[NOTE: Thus ends the Coach Fed dynasty report which began with DDSCB2020 and ran through CB2021, CB2022, CB2023 and the beta testing version of DDSCB2024. Coach Frederick Aura, with the characteristic fedora hats he wears, got his Division 1 coaching start on April 15, 2020 and immediately became “Coach Fed (Aura)” to all his players over 23 seasons in “Fedora”, which morphed into “Same Fedora--New Crown” when Coach Fed moved from coaching at Towson to Boston College (and thence, Cal Poly). Between those two dynasty threads there have been over 1300 posts.
Since there have been other (non-Fedora) dynasty threads by me during that 4-year period, it’s obvious I spend far too much time playing DDSCB. While I really write these dynasty reports to merely create more meaning for myself about the teams, players and coaches within the games I play, I hope that some of you have from time-to-time enjoyed the reports and Coach Fed's evolution.]