SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Coach Fedora—Problems in Paradise

I’m dealing with a problem within my assistant coaching staff. After playing college basketball, Eugene Wallace, my 1st assistant coach, graduated but didn’t find a job and had no goals. He lived hand to mouth doing odd jobs for a while, then when those jobs became hard to find, he became homeless. Living on the streets, he became a user of both alcohol and drugs. This dark period in his life finally ended when he was “saved” by a police officer who, instead of arresting him, got him into a rehab program and followed up to ensure he stayed with it. He did and he got clean. The cop also helped him get back to basketball…doing volunteer coaching at the local boys and girls club and then later as a high school assistant coach. He was obviously over qualified for that, but did it for a couple years and then got hired as an assistant coach at the local community college. His success there led to him becoming an assistant coach in Division 1 basketball at San Jose State. When I arrived at Cal Poly, I was able to hire him as my 2nd assistant coach and have since promoted him to 1st assistant.

Recently I became aware of some personality changes…nothing major but just different from how he had been. Then he was late a few mornings. I finally smelled booze on his breath a couple times. Knowing of his past, I broached the subject with him without accusing him of anything. He deflected the conversation. But this week he finally came to me and sheepishly said, “I have a problem.” We discussed the situation and some possible options. I told him if he wanted to go to rehab that I’d give him a leave of absence. But he wants to continue working. So after a protracted discussion, he said he’d give Alcoholics Anonymous a go. I accompanied him to his first AA meeting yesterday. It was an eye opener for me and I hope that Eugene is able to get a handle on his problem by continuing with AA. But time will tell. Janeka and I are going to have Eugene over for dinner once or twice a week.

I have yet to tell anyone, including our AD, about Eugene’s drinking problem. I’m hoping that Eugene rights his life so it won’t be necessary to raise this problem up the chain here at Cal Poly. I’m feeling somewhat responsible since I moved him from player development to recruiting, which has meant he’s been out on the road on his own quite a bit. I’m concerned that has contributed to the reinitiation of drinking. He says that’s not the case and he wants to continue handling recruiting, but I still wish I hadn’t altered his responsibilities.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (15-4, 8-2) @ Long Beach State 49ers (4-15, 2-8)

Cal Poly Mustangs Sports Message Board

The Mustangs got back to winning by downing the 49ers 77-63. Long Beach State actually dominated play in the first half, leading by as much as 7 points before Cal Poly made a furious comeback late in the half to pull ahead 40-33 at the break. The Mustangs continued to widen their lead in the 2nd half to come away with a victory that kept them in 2nd place within 1-1/2 games of 1st place UC Santa Barbara (winners in OT by an 87-85 score over UC Irvine) and a game ahead of UC Riverside.

PF/C Don Seals led the Mustangs’ attack by scoring 20 points. PG Aki Mosley hit for 13 points. C Curtis Pearson tossed in 12 points, and more importantly, pulled down 14 rebounds.

The win had a downside, though. There were injuries to SG Terrell Alexander (sore calf), SG Ryan Jackson (sprained finger), and SF Lamont Silva (sore hip)…all 3 of who may be hampered in the Mustangs’ game against Cal State Northridge this Friday.

[PointGuard]

Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners (9-12, 4-8) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (16-4, 9-2)

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

The crowd is a little light tonight…probably because the Roadrunners are in the lower reaches in the Big West Conference standings and also because it’s raining.

But those who were here were entertained by the Mustangs who put a stellar offense of display throughout the entire game. By the half, Cal Poly led 50-33 and then they continued to pour in points in the 2nd half to drub Cal State Bakersfield 95-62. The Mustangs hit 52% of their FG’s and sizzled from beyond the arc by connecting on 15 of their 29 3-point attempts. They also were in total control of the boards, 37-25.

PF/C Don Seals had his 2nd straight 20 point game, this time finishing with 23 points. PG Aki Mosley also scored 20 points plus had 9 assists. C Curtis Pearson had his 2nd consecutive double-double, scoring 14 and grabbing 10 rebounds. PF Derrick LaLane scored 13. CSU Bakersfield’s SG Larry Fields scored 23 and C Doylan Madsen dropped in 20 points, but they had little backup.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (17-4, 10-2) @ Cal State Fullerton Titans (11-10, 7-5)

KCPR—Cal Poly radio station (excerpts of game broadcast)

*CSU Fullerton is riding a 3-game win streak. Included in that were 2 road victories. The Titans are led by SG Travis Jackson who is averaging 15.3 ppg and PF John McGadney who is scoring 16.2 ppg.
*The Mustangs beat the Titans 90-70 when they played a month ago at Cal Poly. Jackson scored 25 points against the Mustangs in that game.
*PF McGadney picks up 2 quick fouls and that will send him to the Titans’ bench. That’s good news for the Mustangs.
*Cal Poly spreads Fullerton’s defense and Aki Mosley takes advantage by driving right down the middle of the key and sneaks the ball under his defenders’s arms for a nice layup making it 6-5 in favor of the Mustangs.
*Curtis Pearson hits a nice baseline jumper to give the Mustangs a 5 point cushion at 16-11. That’s 10 points for Pearson already.
*That’s 10 points for Travis Jackson to cut Cal Poly’s lead to 23-20 with 8-1/2 minutes remaining in the half. The Mustangs need to tighten the defense on Jackson.
*LaLane gets the tip-in to put the Mustangs back on top 35-33.
*Cal Poly escapes with a 37-36 edge as the teams walk off the court at the end of the half. Pearson and Mobley have 12 and 11 points respectively but that’s exactly cancelled out by the Titans’ Jackson and Kelley with their 12 and 11 points.
*Coach Aura has adjusted his lineup to start the 2nd half. Derrick LaLane is starting at SF in place of Donald Brown and Bryan Taylor will be at SG in place of Terrell Alexander. CSU Fullerton has the same 5 starters on the floor as they did at the beginning of the game.
*Taylor wasn’t able to control Fullerton’s Travis Jackson who hit 3 straight shots early in the 2nd half and now has 20 points. Alexander returns to the game in place of Taylor.
*Aura goes to a 3-guard offense to try to revive his offense.
*Terrell Alexander read that pass well, intercepted and drove the length of the court for a layup to give Cal Poly their biggest lead of the game at 57-48 with 8 minutes to go.
*Mosley makes both free throws and the Mustangs are now on top 71-58.
*Cal Poly comes away from Fullerton with a 73-58 victory with some great defense in the final 15 minutes of this game. The Titans were limited to just 22 points in the 2nd half.
*Looking at the scoring leaders, SG Travis Jackson tossed in 22 points for CSU Fullerton. For Cal Poly PG Aki Mosley and PF Derrick LaLane both scored 18 points with LaLane also contributing 6 rebounds, PF/C Don Seals had 15 points and 5 boards, and C Curtis Pearson scored 12 and had 5 rebounds. SF Donald Brown was quiet offensively with just 2 points, but he pulled down 10 rebounds.
*The win keeps Cal Poly within a game-and-a-half for 1st place UC Santa Barbara and puts them 3 games ahead of UC San Diego and UC Riverside who are tied for 3rd place. The Titans travel to take on UC San Diego this coming Monday. Check in to KCPR to listen to that game.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (18-4, 11-2) @ UC San Diego Tritons (16-7, 9-5)

Connie Muldoon, fan

My husband Terry began a campaign for a lot of Cal Poly fans to take the train down to San Diego for this game and to celebrate Valentine’s Day in San Diego. There was a good response. We’ve already had some great meals at local restaurants and now are sitting as a big group to be loud in our support of the Mustangs. Terry says the Tritons match up well against the Mustangs. Cal Poly beat the Tritons by just 8 points when UC San Diego came up to San Luis Obispo a month-and-a-half ago. So this game on UC San Diego’s court could be a tough one. The Tritons top player is C DeMarlo Graham who is averaging 14.7 ppg and 7.1 rpg.

The Mustangs didn’t do anything right early and trailed 11-2 at the first media break. With 7-1/2 minutes to go in the half they trailed 27-2, having hit just 1 of 15 of their FG attempts. The first half mercifully ended, but we trailed 41-18. So while we tried, there really was very little to cheer about for our group in the first half.

The Mustangs played better in the 2nd half and continually chipped away at the lead. With 3-1/2 minutes to go, they trailed by just 10 points. Then with 1:47 to go Cal Poly was within 6 at 66-60. But they couldn’t get any closer and lost 70-62.

PF/C Don Seals scored 13 and PF Derrick LaLane had 10 points and 6 rebounds.

[PointGuard]

UC Davis Aggies (10-14, 4-11) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (18-5, 11-3)

Rashon Richardson, 3rd Assistant Coach (scouting)

We want to increase a few of our guys more playing time. Since we thought we had a good chance to beat the Aggies, we started 3 new guys: Bryan Taylor at PG, Ryan Jackson at SG and Richard Lawson at SF. That didn’t turn out well since we fell behind 9-0 before the first media time out. We brought back in our regular starters at that point and they caught us up at 13-13 with about 12 minutes left in the half. We ended the half with a 34-29 advantage.

Four minutes into the 2nd half we were up by 11 and cruising. We were up by 20 at the midpoint of the half even though Coach Aura was playing our bench liberally. The final score was Cal Poly-81, UC David-62.

Our top scorers were PF/C Don Seals-18 points and PG Bryan Taylor-11 points.

[PointGuard]

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (20-5, 15-1) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (19-5, 12-3)

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

I’ve been feeding Coach Aura ton-loads of stats. He eats them like a starving man.

Because the 1st place Gauchos are here, we have a packed house tonight. That’s good news. I think the coaches and team really want to revenge their loss to the Guachos. Coach Traore has been working the guys hard in practices. All 5 of the UC Santa Barbara starters average in double figures.

This was a very exciting game. There were 22 lead changes. The game was extremely tight throughout the first half, but the Mustangs came out of it with a 38-33 lead. Midway through the 2nd half Cal Poly took a 12 point lead and appeared to be on track to win with ease. But the Gauchos fought back and with 6 minutes to go they took a small lead. But in the final 2 minutes the Mustangs prevailed to win 71-62.

UC Santa Barbara’s C Ervin Blackwell scored 25 points and had 11 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. The Mustangs were led by PG Aki Mosley who scored 17 points and C Curtis Pearson who had 12 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists. Our team held 2 of the Gauchos’ starters scoreless and another to just a single point. Those 3 were a combined 0 for 22 from the field.

We’re back to 1-1/2 game behind UC Santa Barbara in the Big West standings. Now we just need some help from other teams in the conference to pin another loss or two on the Gauchos.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (20-5, 13-3) @ Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (7-18, 3-13)

Rashon Richardson, 3rd Assistant Coach (scouting)

Hawaii pounded away at us throughout the entire first half and we pounded them right back. After 9 lead changes, we were ahead 44-43 at the break. Our defense took hold during the early stages of the 2nd half and we steadily widened our lead. When time expired we had a 94-77 win in our pocket.

Our two big men, Curtis Pearson and Don Seals combined to score 44 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. PG Bryan Taylor came off the bench to add 12 more points. We totally destroyed Hawaii on the boards, 35-17. Hawaii’s SF Clay Childs scored 26 points.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (21-5, 14-3) @ UC Riverside Highlanders (16-10, 10-7)

San Luis Obispo Tribune

CAL POLY COMEBACK

The Cal Poly Mustangs must feel like road warriors. Following last night’s 70-62 victory over the UC Riverside Highlanders, they now have won 12 of their 16 road games this season. That is far and away the best road record of any Big West Conference team. That game finished the team’s long road journey this season. Their final two regular season games will be in the friendly home confines of the the Robert A. Mott Athletics Center on the Cal Poly campus, where the team has been even better, winning 10 of 11 of their home games.

For much of last night’s game it appeared the Mustangs would go down in defeat. The Highlanders led the entire first half, and Cal Poly trailed 35-30 at halftime. UC Riverside held onto that lead the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half. But then the Mustangs took their first lead of the game. The game was in balance with 4 lead changes over the next 7 minutes. But with 3 minutes remaining Cal Poly began pulling away to eventually win by 8 points.

Coach Aura praised his team’s tenacity and never-die attitude. “It would have been easy for the team to become frustrated when they just never could gain an edge over the first 30 minutes of play, particularly with the crowd urging on the Highlanders,” commented Aura. “As has been the case in many of our games, our turnovers cancelled out some good shooting and strong rebounding. But the team was able to control the ball well during the final critical 10 minutes allowing us to quickly put points on the board.”

Don Seals had 12 points and 6 rebounds to lead the Mustangs. Derrick LaLane scored 11 with 5 boards. Donald Brown and Curtis Pearson both scored 9 points with Brown pulling down 7 rebounds and Pearson getting 4 steals.

The win left the Mustangs with a small window of hope to tie for first in the conference standings. But not only will it take Cal Poly winning both their games, but #21 ranked UC Santa Barbara losing their only remaining game which will be at UC San Diego.

[PointGuard]

UC Irvine Anteaters (15-12, 8-10) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (22-5, 15-3)

Eugene Wallace, 1st Assistant Coach (recruiting)

Well you all know by now I’ve got a problem and it’s spelled a-l-c-o-h-o-l. I’m not going to bore you with why I think I went back to drinking or what I’m going through. But I’m 65 now and obviously I’m never going to be a head coach, nor probably should I be. I’d planned on continuing on as an assistant for a few more years, but now with the recurrence of my drinking, I’m starting to think that there’s just a couple more months for this present season…and maybe it should be my last. But we have 2 more games and then the conference tournament and hopefully a really good tournament after that. So I need to buckle down and focus on helping us get through each and every one of our forthcoming games.

We beat the Anteaters by 6 on their court in our conference opener this season. They’ve been inconsistent, but we need to not overlook them because they can and have had some very impressive wins. I like how are team is coalescing, particularly as our bench has become stronger. In particular, Richard Lawson at PF and SF, Bryan Taylor at PG, and Ryan Jackson and Roderick Chatman at SG. All are freshmen except Lawson who came to us this year after spending 2 years at a JC. We’ve been trying to give them more on-court opportunities and hopefully tonight will be a good chance for them to play a lot.

T-Man (SG Terrell Alexander) has been fairly quiet offensively lately, but he popped in 11 points in the first 5 minutes tonight to help us to a 17-9 lead. While we led the entire half, the Anteaters hit a 3 at the buzzer to cut our halftime lead to 32-30. T-Man scored 17 points.

UC Irvine scored the first 7 points of the 2nd half. When we picked up 4 quick team fouls, Coach Aura got T’d, but I think it was more to rally our players. And it worked, because a couple minutes later we regained the lead. Then the lead shifted continually until the final 3 minutes when the Anteaters caught fire and our offense went into the deep-freeze. We lost 76-66 and will have to settle for 2nd place in the Big West.

SG Terrell Alexander finished with 22 points and 6 rebounds and SF/PF Richard Lawson scored 11 points.