2033-2034 SEASON
Rob Benchley, Athletic Director
RECRUITING CLASS RANKINGS:
Not only did we fill all 8 available scholarships with new recruits last season, but our recruiting class has been ranked as the 54th best in Division 1 (right below Indiana and above UCONN)! The next best ranked recruiting class within the Big West Conference was Cal State Fullerton at 138th and the no other Big West teams were above #200.
“IT AIN’T FAIR”:
Big West Conference basketball coaches and athletic directors are sayin’ “it ain’t fair”. So what are they talkin’ about? They say it’s about being tops…tops in the standings…tops in the conference tournament…tops at getting to the Big Dance.
The Big West used to be like a lottery. Being first in the standings changed most every year. Winning the conference tourney and gaining a trip to March Madness changed nearly every season.
But now? There’s a fear among the coaches and AD's at the other Big West schools. They’re envisioning a dynasty. A dynasty that will eliminate the unofficial “parity” that existed and which provided all with a chance for the top spot, a conference tourney championship, a chance to make some surprising noise in March.
And what's causing that fear? It’s because there’s a new dynamic in the conference. And that new dynamic is endangering long-standing conference parity.
What’s producing this new dynamic? It’s due to one change. One single change.
That change occurred in May of 2031. In that month one thing happened that changed everything for the Big West. And that was Coach Frederick Aura surprising everyone in collegiate basketball by moving from cream of the crop and National Champion, Boston College to long-suffering and bottom of the barrel within the Big West, Cal Poly.
Aura had taken lowly Towson of the Colonial Athletic Association from being a perennial sub .500 team to a team that got to the NCAA Tournament regularly and became an upset danger to favorite teams in the big Dance. He then moved on to Boston College, a program that dwelled in the depths of the Atlantic Coast Conference and built them into a powerhouse in the ACC. And also to an eventual National Championship. But inexplicably he’d jumped ship after winning that national championship and moved all the way across the country and into the opposite spectrum of college basketball. To Cal Poly. To a program that was in probation and unable to recruit. And coaching a program composed of more walk-ons that scholarship players, he’d surprisingly immediately moved them way up in the conference standings.
Then when the reins were removed and he was able to go after scholarship players here at Cal Poly, his reputation had brought players to the Mustangs that heretofore would never have considered playing for the Mustangs. And with that, the fortunes of all the other coaches in the Big West descended. Transfer players and recruits looked at coming to Cal Poly as an opportunity to play for a man who had produced wonders at both low power and high power programs, making them highly successful and regular participants in the NCAA tournament, who had helped a number of his players prepare for the NBA, and whose own sons had starred in college with one now playing in the NBA and the second likely to do the same once he graduates from Georgetown. How could the other Big West coaches compete with that? How could their programs be anything but second-class? What more could be said than “It ain’t fair”?
So we may not be up at the very top this season, but if not, we’ll be nipping at the heels of whoever is. And as our group of players matures and improves and new talented players arrive, it won’t be long until we’re the Top Dog.