SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Vermont Catamounts (5-2) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (4-3)

Excerpts from Cal Poly radio station (KCPR) broadcast of the game

*After 7 straight years of excellent post-season tournament play, the past 3 seasons have not been kind to Vermont. But they’ve started this year strong. Their top scorer is well-known to the Mustangs. SG Ronnie Kirkland transferred away from Cal Poly after his freshman year. He’s become a starter (as was his desire ever since coming to play for the Mustangs) for Vermont this season and is averaging 13.9 ppg. I’m guessing he’d love to have a big night here in San Luis Obispo tonight. The Volunteers have 3 other starters averaging in double figures so they dare not focus too much on Kirkland.

*6 minutes into the game and Vermont has not yet hit a FG. The Mustangs are making it difficult for them to get clear shots and they’ve missed all 9 shots they’ve attempted and only scored at the foul line. Cal Poly on top 9-2.
*PF Lane Lynch connects on a 12 foot jumper. He was fouled on the shot. He converts the 3 point play to give the Mustangs a 15-6 lead. Lynch has scored 6 points in the 2 minutes he’s been on the floor.
*Nice tip-in by Micah Hannah after Vermont’s 8-1 run.
*Great drive along the baseline by Hannah for a reverse layup making it 22-16 in favor of Cal Poly.
*Vermont’s SF Jason Dean drops in both free throws to cut the Mustangs’ lead to 31-24. Fortunate for Dean there’s a foul line since he’s missed all his FG’s but scored 9 points at the charity line.
*The buzzer sounds ending the first half. Cal Poly-36, Vermont-32. The Mustangs got most of their points inside. Lynch had 9, Bailey scored 8, Hannah dropped in 6, and Hastings added 4.
*On the Mustangs’ first possession of the 2nd half, Bailey’s shot was blocked but Hastings grabbed the ball and rattled a shot in.
*Nice pass by Overton to Bailey who knocks down an 8 footer from the right of the key to give Cal Poly their biggest lead of the game at 42-32.
*After sitting out almost the entire first half with 2 fouls, SF Louis Taylor drills back-to-back shots making it 46-35.
*After missing all 5 of his earlier shots, Ronnie Kirkland who played for Cal Poly one year, hits 2 straight 3’s to cut the lead to 46-41.
*The Mustangs have regained a double digit lead at 62-52 with 4 minutes left in the game after seeing their advantage narrowed to 3 points.
*Cal Poly wins it 72-59 to improve their record to 5 and 3.
*The Mustangs outshot the Catamounts 46% to 32% and out-rebounded them 49-30. But Vermont made just 6 turnovers compared to 14 by Cal Poly.
*Cal Poly was led by: C Brandon Bailey’s 15 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks; PF Lane Lynch’s 11 points and 6 boards; C/PF Micah Hannah’s 10 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists; SG Jase Carroll’s 9 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists; and PF Steve Hastings 8 points and 7 boards.

*I’ve got Coach Aura here:

--Your guys did pretty well tonight, Coach.
--Yeah, we got the lead and held onto it even though Vermont made a couple runs that put a scare into us. There were periods where we played very well, but we weren’t all that consistent.
--Was your plan to beat the Catamounts inside?
--We definitely wanted to assert ourselves inside. That was probably the best thing we did. We outscored Vermont 34-16 in the paint and 14-2 on 2nd chance points and we dominated the boards.
--What did you think of some of your freshman players’ efforts tonight, Coach?
--I was very impressed with how Lane Lynch, Micah Hannah and Gary Van Dyke performed. That kind of bench depth is critical to how we will do this season.
--What about your ex-player, Ronnie Kirkland?
--Ronnie had a tough first half, but definitely burned us during the 2nd half. But I wasn’t surprised by that. Ronnie had a lot of upside potential when he was a freshman with us. And now as a junior he’s really coming into his own. I’m happy to see how he’s developed…and glad we don’t have to face him again this season. He and the other 2 Catamounts perimeter starters accounted for 37 of their team’s 59 points.
--You’ve got a tough opponent in Houston coming to Mott Athletics Center next week. Any predictions, Coach?
--They are a solid team and have won 5 of their 7 games thus far and are averaging nearly 80 ppg. 4 of their starters are scoring in double figures. The Cougars are just a couple seasons from being a Sweet 16 team in the Big Dance. So, I definitely have no prediction about that game, but know we’re going to have to be at the top of our game to have a chance of winning.

[PointGuard]

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

We’ve now won 5 and lost 3 this season and have won out last 2 games. Our NET Ranking is 75th best in Division 1.

The records of all 12 Mountain West Conference teams is better than .500. Tops is Colorado State, which is 10-0 and ranked #7 in the polls. They won the championship at the Hawaiian Shootout Tourney. UNLV and Montana are both 7-1. Boise State is 7-2 and their NET Ranking is 27th highest. Air Force is 5-2. San Diego State, Utah State, and Wyoming each have 6-3 records. Fresno State and New Mexico have 4-3 records and Nevada is 5-4.

As we get closer to beginning conference play, we're working hard to develop publicity about our Mountain West Conference startup and what it means for the Mustangs and our fans. We're also adjusting our marketing efforts that will be directed toward recruits and transfer players in the future.

[PointGuard]

Houston Cougars (5-2) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (5-3)

Al Miller, father-in-law of Coach Fred Aura

I feel like I’ve really slowed up the last year. But old age will do that to you. I’m 85 and actually surprised to be still walking around this planet. My father died when he was 56 and my mother when she was 71, so by some quirk of fate I’ve outlived my genes. My daughter Janeka just had her 60th birthday and my son-in-law Fred turned 62 earlier this year.

This is Fred’s 21st season as a head coach and his 9th season here at Cal Poly. Had the Mustangs not moved up into a better conference, I think Fred would have accepted one of the jobs some universities have offered him.

My grandson Omari is now in his 4th season as an assistant coach. He’s learned a lot since becoming and assistant coach working for his father. While he hasn’t said it, I’m thinking he would like either a higher assistant coach job or maybe even a head coaching job, if one were to be offered. Omari has been married a year. I’m hoping to become a great-grandfather in the next year or two.

Malik, my other grandson, is playing very well for the Miami Heat. He’s starting for the Head and is averaging 18.9 ppg. He’s enjoying bachelorhood…maybe too much.

My granddaughter Devany is a joy. She’s smart, doing well in school, and also starring on her high school basketball team. Weirdly she showed little interest in playing basketball, but moved from soccer to basketball in junior high and once she got to high school, just sort of bloomed as a basketball player.

Janeka, who is now 59, continues to work as a nurse and seems to have found her niche since coming to San Luis Obispo. She’s employed at an oncology center and helps cancer patients handle the psychological issues that come along with cancer diagnoses and treatments.

OK, enough of all that. You probably want to know what happened in the Mustangs game against the Houston Cougars, so here it is:

Cal Poly was ice cold, missing their first 8 shots from the field before PG Gary Van Dyke sunk a jumper with 15:57 on the clock. With both teams having a tough time scoring, the Mustangs finally got their first lead at 14-13 with 8:40 left in the half. But the Mustangs continued to play poorly. In fact, their effort was simply atrocious and they trailed 40-25 at the break. They connected on just 35% of their FGA’s, missed all 8 of their 3PA’s, and could only make 31% of their FTA’s. They also were -6 on the boards. Fred needs to kick some butt in the locker room.

Things didn’t immediately improve in the 2nd Yhalf as Cal Poly fell behind by 18 points. But they finally had a run by combining a tenacious defense together with working the ball inside on offense. That got them to within 4 points of the Cougars midway through the half. That brought the home crowd to life. With 6 minutes remaining, C Brandon Bailey hit on a short turnaround jumper and converted the resultant free throw to get the Mustangs within a single point. On the next possessionPF DJ Morse knocked down a 12 foot jump shot and was fouled. He sank the free throw to tie the game at 62-62. SG Jase Carroll picked off a pass and a technical was called on Houston’s coach. PG Jon Overton dropped in both shots to give the Mustangs their first lead since the first minute of the game. Morse was fouled and sunk both shots to make it 66-62 with 5 minutes left. It looked like the Mustangs were rolling to a come-from-behind victory. But...Houston came right back to score the 8 unanswered points and move ahead by 4. Cal Poly trailed by 6 with a minute to go but hit a 3. The Mustangs then had to foul, though, so even though they knocked down a late 3, they still ended up losing this one by a final score of 78-75. Yet another tough home loss. Cal Poly put 50 points on the board in the 2nd half, but their 1st half fiasco still left them hitting just 41% of their FG’s, 14% of their 3’s, and 48% of their FT’s. Cal Poly's guys need to start recognizing Robert A. Mott Athletics Center as THEIR HOME COURT.

C Brandon Bailey had a good game with 14 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. C/PF Micah Hannah again played well off the bench with 12 points and 5 boards. SG Jase Carroll finished with 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks.

[PointGuard]

Charleston Cougars (6-2) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (5-4)

Omari Aura 3rd Assistant Coach

I told my dad we should convince the team this is an away game since we’re 2-0 away while only 3-4 at home. This is our 2nd straight game we’ve played against a “Cougars” team (we lost to the Houston Cougars earlier this week) and our 3rd this season (we beat the Washington State Cougars toward the beginning of the season. Charleston began this season with 2 losses but now has a 6-game win streak. Their center, Jerome Williams, is averaging 23.6 ppg and 7.4 rpg. Charleston’s NET Ranking is 67 while ours is 75.

Trying to neutralize Jerome Williams, offensively we tried to pound the ball inside hoping to draw some fouls on him and defensively we double teamed him. 7-1/2 minutes into the game and it’s not working. Our interior players have just 2 points and haven’t drawn Williams into fouling. We have held Williams to just 2 shots, but he’s sunk both of them and DJ Smith, their SG, has scored 7 points. And we trail 13-11. Finally with 3:42 remaining in the half and us trailing by 4 points, Williams gets called for his 1st foul. But then our defense shut down the Cougars, and while our offense wasn’t impressive, it was good enough for us to forge a 35-28 halftime advantage. PG Gary Van Dyle led our scoring with 8 points. For Charleson, DJ Smith had 13 points and Jerome Williams had scored 8 points.

Smith continued burning us in the early going of the 2nd half, forcing us to switch out double-team effort to him. Bad idea. Williams immediately scored. Charleston cut our lead to 2 points, but we then scored 6 straight points to give us an 8 point lead with 15 minutes to play. At the midpoint of the half out lead was down to 47-44. 3 subs (SG Brandon Muckle, C Micah Hannah, and PG Gary Van Dyke) came in and gave us an offensive infusion that put us up 63-50 with 5 minutes remaining. We held on to come away with a well-deserved 74-62 home court victory!

While we let SG DJ Smith score 21 points for the Cougars, we did a good job defensively on C Jerome Williams, limiting him 14 points.

Our scoring leaders were: C Brandon Bailey-12; PG Gary Van Dyke-10; SF Louis Taylor-9; PF Steve Hastings-8; PF/SF Lane Lynch-8; PG Jon Overton-7; SG Brandon Muckle-7; C/PF Micah Hannah-7.

[PointGuard]

Oregon State Beavers (6-3) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (6-4)

2nd Assistant Coach David Williams

We’re up against another high-scoring center…Jefferson Phillips is averaging 17 ppg for the Beavers. The guy has scored 28 points in one game and 24 in another, so it’s important to keep him from breaking out. But he strained his knee. While he’s expected to start, maybe that will limit his effectiveness. His backup, Ronald Betz, can put a lot of points on the board as well. Probably the Beavers best player, though, is SF Ryan Patterson. Our game plan is to double on Phillips (or Betz) unless someone else gets hot. We’re also again going to try to work the ball inside and force Phillips and Betz to defend and get tagged with some fouls in the process. Maybe this will reduce our shots from behond the arc…we hit a low percentage of our 3’s. We’ll be starting Gary Van Dyke at PG with Jon Overton backing both he and SG Jase Carroll. Overton’s offense has been weak this season. We’ve been encouraging Overton to shoot more, not get concerned about misses, and regain his confidence so he can hopefully work himself out of what’s been a season-long shooting slump for him. We also hope that SG Brandon Muckle’s last game presages him providing some quick points for us coming in off the bench.

Patterson fouled Louis (Taylor) on our first possession. Then Brandon (Bailey) did a great job in drawing Phillips into an offensive foul. Early in the game we did a good job of working the ball inside to Bailey but couldn’t get Patterson to commit his 2nd foul but by forcing him to defend we wore him down quickly. We weren’t successful in keeping him from scoring though. Finally with 7-1/2 minutes remaining in the half, Phillips was called for his 2nd foul. We’d held a small lead up to that point but then quickly expanded that to double digits. By the end of the half we held a 41-25 lead with Louis Taylor leading our scoring with 11 points. The Beavers’ Phillips scored 9 points during his 13 minutes on the court.

Our offense faltered in the 2nd half and we lost our double digit lead just after the midpoint of the half. But we never let Oregon State get closer than 8 points and won going away by a final score of 82-69. We outshot the Beavers 51% to 41%, were +17 on the boards, +8 on points in the paint, +6 on 2nd chance points, but had 7 more turnovers.

SG Jase Carroll had 17 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals. PF Steve Hastings scored 16 points and had 8 boards and 3 blocks. SF Louis Taylor tossed in 16 points plus had 6 rebounds. C/PF Micah Hannah again played well coming in off the bench and scored 9 points. The Beavers’ Jefferson Phillips scored 15 points but wasn’t a major factor in the game so our strategy workedout pretty well.

[PointGuard]

#6 seed Eastern Michigan Eagles (4-4) vs #3 seed Cal Poly Mustangs (7-4) [First Round of the JAG Holiday Invitational Tournament]

Carlos and Maria Martinez, local residents

Maria: We’re going to watch this game on TV. The Mustangs played poorly at home early this season and got us thinking maybe we should take a break from cheering so intently for Cal Poly. But they’ve won 3 of their last 4 home games, so hopefully they’re figuring out how to exert dominance on their home court again. They’ve got a lot of young players which could have led to their early season difficulties. Our favorite player is Steve Hastings. He and Jase Carroll are both averaging 11.2 ppg.

Carlos: I’m of the opinion that Coach Aura should have left a couple scholarships unfilled last year and then filled those with experienced and proven transfer players. Bringing 6 freshmen onto the team at one time, even though they probably will turn into good college players in the future, had to have weakened the team for this season.

Maria: Well, Carlos, the team’s still participating in pre-conference games. Let’s hope the coaches build a strong team before the conference schedule begins. They’re going to need to if they want to contend within the Mountain West Conference which has much stronger competition than what they experienced in the Big West.

Carlos: Look! Freshman Gary Van Dyke is starting at PG again. It seems Coach Aura has lost faith in Jon Overton. In the last 5 games Van Dyke has played well and started 2 of those. I’d sure like to see him really take hold as the team’s court general.

Maria: Jase Carroll is on fire. He’s hit all 3 of his shots and scored 7 points in the first 2-1/2 minutes.

Carlos: Hell! 6 minutes into the game and none of the Mustangs but Carroll have scored. Hastings even missed both free throws.

Maria: These are college players, not grade schoolers. You’d think they’d be able to hit free throws but we’re 0 for 5 and the Eagles are 0 for 1.

Carlos: Hey! That was one helluva fine block by DJ Morse.

Carlos: Louis Taylor did absolutely nothing at the beginning of the game, but after being benched he’s come back and scored 8 quick points. We’re now up 34-25. He, Carroll and Van Dyke have score 25 of our 34 points.

Maria: Yes and they’ve hit 5 of 9 of their 3’s.

Carlos: Wow, Eastern Michigan’s SG Tim Davis carried his team, scoring 15 of their 31 first half points and keeping them within 7 points. Pretty good D by the Mustangs on the rest of the Eagles, though.

Carlos: Steve Hastings didn’t score at all in the first half, but Aura’s got him back on the court to start the 2nd half. Sure hope Hastings comes on strong in the final 20 minutes.

Maria: It’s 10-time. Now Van Dyke, Carroll and Taylor each have 10 points and we have a 10 point lead.

Carlos: The refs are victimizing the Mustangs here in the 2nd half. Call ‘em right, zebras! Davis is scoring enough point all on his own, you don’t have to help him.

Maria: Oh, no. Our 14 point lead is now down to 4 and there’s still almost 12 minutes remaining.

Carlos: &(^$*^(*&%$@!!!! Lang comes in for Eastern Michigan and immediately sinks two straight 3’s and we’ve now fallen behind for the first time in the game at 57-56. Man, I thought we had this one wrapped up.

Maria: Oh that was so disappointing. We led until really late in the game and then just fell apart to lose 72-68.

Carlos: Yeah, our defense just evaporated. We couldn’t stop Tim Davis the entire game…heck, he torched the Mustangs for 32 points, but Eastern Michigan’s other players got scoring late in the game too. Ugly! Coach Aura has to get his team together. Now that Cal Poly’s out of this tournament, they’ve got just one pre-conference game remaining and that’s going to be a tough one at Butler.

Maria: Other than Brandon Bailey who scored 8 points and has 6 rebounds and 4 assists, almost all our scoring came from outside with Jase Carroll finishing with 16 points, Gary Van Dyke popping in 14 points, and Louis Taylor scoring 12 points plus also hauling down 8 boards and dishing out 4 assists. And the Mustangs only sank 5 of their 14 free throws.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (7-5) @ Butler Bulldogs (9-5)

Cal Poly Mustangs News

Butler was an overwhelming favorite to win this game. Not only were they playing on their home court, but freshman PG Pat Sullivan came into the game averaging 24.6 ppg, 6.1 apg, and 7.1 rpg. He’d scored 20+ points in 10 games including 3 games in which he scored 31-38 points and another game where he scored 43 points. He was the 8th ranked recruit last season and has shown why he was rated as such a high 5-star recruit. The other aspect of the game in which the Bulldogs had a big advantage was in hitting 3’s…they were knocking down 36% compared to Cal Poly’s anemic 24%.

The refs called 4 fouls on the Mustangs in the first 2 minutes of the game and by the 6th minute of the game, SG Jase Carroll went to the bench with 2 fouls. But after trailing 18-9, the Mustangs came back to get within 2 and then the Bulldogs’ high-scoring PG picked up his 2nd foul and left the court. With fouls piling up on both teams, SF Kenyon Farrell and SG Brandon Muckle hit two free throws each to put the Mustangs ahead 25-23 at the midpoint of the half. Three minutes later Cal Poly’s lead had grown to 10. But then their offense stalled due to a series of turnovers that allowed Butler to move back ahead and take a 40-36 lead to the locker room.

Cal Poly’s offense stumbled in the 2nd half and Butler gradually opened a 14 point lead. The Mustangs tried to comeback but were unable and lost 78-68. For the second straight game, an opponent’s player scalded the Mustangs…this time it was PG Pat Sullivan who scored 25 points for the Bulldogs.

Leading Cal Poly’s effort were: PG Jon Overton with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals; PF Steve Hastings who had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds; and C Brandon Bailey with 10 points and 5 boards.

Coach Fred Aura said, “It would have been nice to have come away with a better record going into conference play, but we took on some tough opponents who prepared us well for the high level of competition we'll encounter in the Mountain West. We’re a young team that I believe will get better as we gain experience and confidence. One good thing I was happy with was how well Jon Overton played. He's had a slow start this season, so it was great to see him play as well as he did.”

The Mustangs won 7 and lost 6 in the pre-conference and will host Nevada this coming week in their first Mountain West Conference game.

[PointGuard]

Coach Fred Aura

Our preconference play was frustrating. It was a mix of good and bad play…with a lot of inconsistency and a lack of killer-instinct. I have to admit that I overestimated our capabilities. I shouldn’t have had our AD schedule such a demanding group of opponents. After landing an excellent recruiting class I mistakenly felt that several of the 6 freshmen would come on strong out of the gate. While they tried hard, inexperience was tougher for them to overcome than I expected. I should have known better…the jump from high school ball to the Division 1 collegiate level is tough. Thus our bench, which typically is a strong point of the teams I’ve coached, has been rather weak this season. And we’ve let some games, that I think we could have won, get away from us in the 2nd half.

At PG, I initially tried Jase Carroll but it was quickly obvious that PG wasn’t his position and that we needed his scoring at SG rather than it being limited at PG. My 2nd choice was Jon Overton, another true SG. He’s had a very difficult time pulling off the switch to PG…his ball-handling has been good but he’s not been able to make many assists and being called upon to start at the point sapped his confidence making him hesitant to shoot and when he did, shooting poorly. Fortunately, he played well coming in off the bench in our final post-season game so I’m hopeful that bodes well for him in the future. Gary Van Dyke took several games to produce but he’s really developed in the latter half of our pre-conference schedule and now is our regular starter at PG. He’s been scoring well but still needs to work at finding the open man.

Jase Carroll is our SG who I need to have on the court as much as possible. Backing him up are two freshmen, Brandon Muckle and Will Cage, who have yet to produce well, except for brief periods of time. We’ll just have to see how the two of them develop.

Louis Taylor has played well at SF, better than I expected. His primary backup is Kenyon Farrell who, while he hasn’t shot well, has played adequately at the 3. I’ve also used freshman Lane Lynch for short periods at SF, but he plays better at his natural PF and C positions.

Steve Hastings and Brandon Bailey have been good starters at PF and C. Lane Lynch has had some good games backing them up, but isn’t consistent. Micah Hannah, another freshman, started very slowly this season, but has become stronger in the last several games. He’s been awarded the Mountain West Freshman Player of the Week award once. DJ Morse is a solid backup at PF. Earl Barkley, a freshman, has had a very tough time acclimating to college ball. But a bright aspect for him has been his work on the boards and I’m hopeful the game will soon slow down for him allowing him to do some offensive damage and be a good backup at C as our season progresses.

Our leading scorers thus far are: Jase Carroll—11.0 ppg, Steve Hastings—10.8 ppg, Louis Taylor—9.4 ppg, Brandon Bailey—8.9 ppg, Gary Van Dyke—6.2 ppg, Lane Lynch—6.0 ppg, Jon Overton—5.1 ppg, and Micah Hannah—4.3 ppg.

Topping our rebounding are: Brandon Bailey—6.4 rpg, Steve Hastings—5.6 rpg, Louis Taylor—4.8 rpg, Jase Carroll—4.3 rpg, Micah Hannah—2.8 rpg, and Lane Lynch—2.8 rpg.

Nobody is setting the world on fire with assists.

As a team we’re averaging 70.5 ppg and giving up 67.2 ppg. Our rebounding has been good, but the numbers look better than they are since our shooting has been poor thus increasing the number of rebounds.

Our 7-6 record is in the lower half of the Mountain West and our NET Ranking is 112th best in Division 1 and 7th best in the Mountain West.

Mountain West Conference Team Records:

Colorado State—15 and 0, ranked #4 in the polls
San Diego State—11 and 3
Montana—11 and 3
Air Force—10 and 3
UNLV—10 and 3
Boise State—10 and 4
Utah State—8 and 5
Nevada—7 and 6
New Mexico—7 and 6
Wyoming—7 and 6
Cal Poly—7 and 6
Fresno State—6 and 7

Looking at those records, it becomes obvious that we’ll be going up against some strong competition in conference play. There are no patsies.

[PointGuard]

Nevada Wolfpack (7-6, 0-0) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (7-6, 0-0)

Rob Benchley, Athletic Director

It would be great to begin our play in the Mountain West with a “W”. But even though they’re taking on Nevada here, we can’t count of their winning since this season they’ve only won 5 of 9 home games. Nevada whipped Florida State and North Carolina State at home, but they’ve lost their other 4 games against teams from power conferences including their last 2 games against #15 ranked Villanova and #1 ranked Kansas.

Attendance has been down a little this season, but we’ve got a good crowd here tonight.

Nice opening with the team finding open shots on their first 2 possessions for Carroll and Taylor, both of whom connected on nice jumpers. Then on our next possession Carroll got the ball inside to Hastings who took it to the hole and we were up 6-2. Hastings took a pass along the key the next time we had the ball and backed his way in close for another score. So we’d hit our first 4 FG attempts. But Nevada was hitting 3’s and took their first lead at 11-10. Our shooting fell apart and Nevada pulled away to a 23-15 lead with 7 minutes remaining in the half. We slowly worked our way back and when Bailey connected on a put-back with 2 minutes before halftime the score was knotted at 27-27. But the Wolfpack scored 6 points on fouls to go up 33-27 at the half. We hit just 31% of our FG’s, 17% of our 3’s, and 36% of our FT’s.

We quickly pulled even early in the 2nd half, but then went cold again allowing Nevada to move out to an 8 point lead. Then it was our turn as we went on a 12-0 run. Then the lid went back on our basket and Nevada outscored us 12-1 leaving us behind by 7 with 4 minutes to play. We got within 1 with 1-1/2 minutes left when Hannah hit a 3. Coach Aura called a timeout with a minute left and his play freed up Carroll who drove to the basket and scored to give us the lead. The refs called a very questionable foul and Nevada regained the lead by sinking both ends of a one-and-one. Another timeout and another nice play that freed up Bailey for a jumper from 5 feet that went in with 40 seconds to go. We pressed, but the Wolfpack got it over the center line just before a 10-second call. Nevada cleared the interior and scored on a layup leaving us 24 seconds, with no remaining timeouts, to try to recapture the lead. Carroll found Hastings on the right baseline. Under pressure, Hastings got off a jumper that dropped through with 15 seconds on the clock. Nevada called a time out. Good D didn’t allow the Wolfpack to get off a shot until there were 2 seconds remaining and the 18 footer was off the mark. We rebounded to win 60-59. So we initiated our Mountain West membership with an exciting win. It wasn’t pretty but a win is a win.

SG Jase Carroll had a very good game with 15 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals. C Brandon Bailey also scored 15 and added 7 boards. PF Steve Hastings scored 14 plus had 3 rebounds. The rest of the team hit just 7 of 36 FG attempts.

I caught up with Fred Aura after the game. When I commented about the thrilling ending, he acknowledged that but shook his head and replied, “I’m glad we pulled it out, but we’re still not dominating on our own court which is not good. And even though my teams here have never really shot well from 3-point distance, this year we’re shooting like a grade school team from that distance. Our teams in prior seasons at least shot well from mid-range, but thus far this year our shooting percentage from just about anywhere on the court is embarrassingly low. We’re better shooters than that so my assistants and I are trying to infuse some confidence in our players’ minds because I think that will help us hit a higher percentage of our FG’s. That’s critical if we’re going to compete strongly within this conference.”

Later I learned that PF/C Steve Hastings sustained a bruised thigh that will keep him out of the next 2-3 games. Not having him and his 11.0 ppg and 5.4 rpg on the court is going to make it difficult for our team. A few of our freshman interior players are going to have to step up.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (8-6, 1-0) @ Boise State Broncos (11-4, 1-0)

Game Night Report on CBN (College Basketball Network) “Basketball Tonight”

Cal Poly recently moved from the Big West Conference to the Mountain West Conference. The Mustangs won their first conference game last week, but tonight they had to travel to take on Boise State at the Taco Bell Arena in Boise, Idaho.

The underdog Mustangs got off to a quick start and controlled the game for the first 10 minutes. But then Boise State showed why they’ve beaten 3 of the 4 Top 25 teams they’ve played this season. The Broncos galloped past the plodding Mustangs. By the end of the half, Boise State was on top 48-34, having dropped in 55% of their FG attempts.

The Broncos totally shut down Cal Poly for the first 7-1/2 minutes of the 2nd half. By the time the Mustangs finally scored they trailed by 22 points. Cal Poly was outclassed, losing by a final score of 79-61.

Probably the only good thing that happened for the Mustangs is that, since they were so far behind, their 6 freshmen got substantial playing time. Cal Poly’s only player to score in double figures was a freshman reserve: C Micah Hannah scored 10 points and he also had 6 rebounds, 2 assists and steals. Boise State’s talented C Nathan Drakeford had 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists.