SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (6-20, 4-13) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (20-8, 10-7)

Benny Tamago, realtor (fan)

The Mustangs went ahead 16-7 five minutes into the game. But Hawaii then went on a run to get within 2 points at the midpoint of the first half. Cal Poly’s defense then stymied the Rainbow Warriors and the Mustangs took a 30-17 lead to the locker room.

While the Mustangs shooting continued to be sub-par, their defense allowed then to steadily pull away from Hawaii in the 2nd half. Hawaii hit just 23% of their shots in the game. Cal Poly overwhelmed the Rainbow Warriors by a final score of 61-33.

PG Danny Preston came back big in his 2nd game back from being sidelined by a 2-month injury rehab and scored 23 points. C Dekkar Chambers had 15 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 assists.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (21-8, 11-7) @ Cal State Fullerton Titans (9-18, 6-12)

Jody Hedde, 3rd Assistant Coach (scouting)

We beat the Titans 67-53 when we played them at our place. CSU Fullerton is having a down year. They only have the 271st best offense and the 288th best defense in Division 1. They’ve lost their last 4 games and are in 9th place in the conference standings. This is a game we should win. We need this win to stay in contention for the conference championship. BUT…can we beat the Titans in their own gym? Road games are always an uncertainty.

We played pretty well early and then hit a series of 3’s that put us up 17-8 with 12 minutes left in the half. But then we let the Titans for on a 13-2 run in the next 3-1/2 minutes that not only got them right back in the game but gave them a 21-19 lead. Our guys did a good job of fighting back so we were able to take a 37-30 lead to the locker room. We shot pretty well and did a good job on the boards in the first half, but made 7 turnovers to CSU Fullerton’s 2.

Defense was absent on both ends of the floor in the early-going of the second half during which we carved out a 51-40 lead with 15:18 to go. Coach Aura got us playing D and by the midpoint of the half we were up 60-42. We played our entire bench and held onto a big lead the rest of the way as we came away with a robust 80-64 victory.

SG Nikolos Ivelitsch—18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks; PF Victor Collier—14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists.

We’re now tied for 3rd place with Long Beach State, a game behind UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis. And…we play UC Santa Barbara in that last regular season game…unfortunately it’s on the road.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (22-8, 12-7) @ UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (16-12, 13-6)

Bryan King, 1st Assistant Coach

It’s fitting that our final regular season game means so much. With UC Davis losing earlier today and Long Beach State winning, it all comes down to: win this one and we’re tied for the conference championship;- lose and we finish 4th.

I think this game just comes down to which team wants it more. Obviously the Gauchos have homecourt advantage and they bring it defensively, but I think we have a slightly more talented roster that can possibly offset those advantages. We got by UC Santa Barbara 68-56, but that was a little over 2 months ago and was on our court.

We had a heckuva tough time getting the ball in the hoop and the Gauchos took advantage of that by edging further and further away from us. We hit below 30% of our shots and fell behind by 16 before hitting a few late shots to up our shooting percentage to 31% and our deficit to 34-24 at halftime. The refs called just one foul against UC Santa Barbara and we didn’t get to the line once in the half while the Gauchos hit 7 of 8 free throws.

Our shooting continued to suck as we missed our first 14 shots in the 2nd half and dropped behind by a 48-24 score with 11:40 to go in the game. Coach Aura benched the entire starting lineup. Rodney Boykin and Darcel Aygar responded by combining to score 12 points in the next 4 minutes. UC Santa Barbara’s lead was cut to 11 points with 4 minutes remaining. But we could get no closer and lost 58-46. A very disappointing performance, hitting just 29% of our FGA’s and only 2 of 19 of our 3PA’s. Our starting guards (Preston and Ivelitsch went a combined 0 for 21. Our bench scored 34 of our 46 points.

PF/C Darcel Aygar scored 12 and PF Rodney Boykin put in 10 points. Our only starter to score more than 2 points was PF/C Victor Collier who finished with 8 points.

[PointGuard]

San Luis Obispo Tribune

BIG WEST CONFERENCE FINAL STANDINGS FOR THE 2035-36 SEASON

UC Santa Barbara: 14-6; 17-12; NET 133
UC Davis: 13-7; 19-10; NET 73
Long Beach State: 13-7; 18-12; NET 85
Cal Poly: 12-8; 22-9; NET 57
UC Irvine: 12-8; 18-12; NET 110
UC Riverside: 11-9; 13-16; NET 277
Cal State Northridge: 11-9; 14-15; NET 201
UC San Diego: 7-13, 10-19; NET 288
Cal State Bakersfield: 6-14; 8-21; NET 283
Cal State Fullerton: 6-14; 9-20; NET 296
Hawaii: 5-15; 7-22; NET 347

[PointGuard]

Mustang News

BIG WEST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT RESULTS

Day 1

#9 seed Cal St. Bakersfield—82, #8 seed UC San Diego—78

#6 seed UC Riverside—70, #11 seed Hawaii—63

#10 seed Cal St. Fullerton—69, #7 seed Cal St. Northridge—66

Quarterfinals

#1 seed UC Santa Barbara—70, #9 seed Cal St. Bakersfield—66

#6 seed UC Riverside—60, #3 seed Long Beach St.—53

#10 seed Cal St. Fullerton—80, #2 seed UC Davis—73

#4 seed Cal Poly—73, #5 seed UC Irvine—59

UC Irvine took an early lead and moved ahead 24-14 at the midpoint of the first half. The Mustangs began chipping away at the lead and hit a last second basket to take a 36-35 lead going into the 2nd half. Cal Poly slowly edged ahead in the final stanza and led 52-41 with 10 minutes left in the game. The Mustangs held the Anteaters off to win by 14 points. PG Danny Preston scored 15 and had 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks. SF Trey Small also tossed in 15 points and he grabbed 5 boards. SG Nikolos Ivelitsch finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds. The win by the Mustangs sets up a rubber match with UC Santa Barbara since those two teams split their regular season contests, each winning by 12 points on their home courts.

Semifinals

#6 seed UC Riverside—67, #10 seed Cal St. Fullerton—64

#4 seed Cal Poly—90, #1 seed UC Santa Barbara—62

After the starting 5 for the Mustangs had a horrible night against the Gauchos when they played a week ago, the same 5 players came together to demolish the Gauchos. The win earns Cal Poly a spot in the championship game tomorrow night. Cal Poly and UC San Diego battled tooth and nail for the first 12 minutes with 9 lead changes. Cal Poly then began pulling away, and by the end of the half, they held a 50-44 advantage. The Mustangs came out in the 2nd half with a staunch defense which UC Santa Barbara was unable to solve. Cal Poly’s offense continued to blaze. The Mustangs ran away from the hapless Gauchos. All 5 starters for the Mustangs scored in double figures: C Dekker Chambers-16 points (and 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks); PG Danny Preston-16 points (and 8 assists); SG Nikolos Ivelitsch-15 points (plus 4 rebounds and 5 assists); PF Victor Collier-12 points; and SF Trey Small-10 points (plus 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals).

Championship

On paper Cal Poly is the stronger team. But UC Riverside split their two games against the Mustangs, each winning on their home court. And the Highlanders came into this game riding a 5-game win streak which included victories over two teams (UC Davis and Long Beach State) that finished above Cal Poly in the Big West standings. Before the game, Coach Aura said, “I’m expecting a good, hard-fought game by both teams. The Highlanders are just so strong defensively. And if they get a lead it’s hard to make up the difference so we need a good start tonight.”

Defense predominated by both teams early with no scoring and 3 turnovers and 2 blocks in the first 3 minutes of play. Falling behind 4-0, it took Cal Poly 5-1/2 minutes to finally score when PG Danny Preston sank a 3. As the miscues and missed shots piled up by the Mustangs, the Highlanders opened a 14-7 lead with 12 minutes left in the half. Cal Pol then scored the next 8 points to gain their first lead of the game with 10 minutes remaining til halftime. The Mustangs scored the next 5 points as well to go up by 6. While the difference went up and down, Cal Poly continued to hold onto the lead and was on top 36-30 when the half ended. Interviewed as he went to the locker room, Coach Aura said, “It took us far too long to begin hitting shots but we got it going pretty well. But we have to figure out a way to slow down Bernard Mendez (the Highlander C scored 13 points in the half).”

The Mustangs scored 6 quick points in the first minute of the 2nd half to increase their lead to 12. When SF Trey Small picked up his 3rd foul and with Preston, Ivelitsch, and Taylor all scoring well , Coach Aura went to a 3 guard offense. UC Riverside slowly picked away at the lead and with 4 minutes to go in the game, Cal Poly led by just 4 at 63-59. The Mustangs score 6 unanswered points in the next minute to regain a double-digit lead. But the Highlanders clawed their way back and after hitting a 3, they trailed 72-69 with 45 seconds left. UC Riverside was then forced to foul and Cal Poly became Big West Champions by a final score of 75-69.

SG/PG Bryan Taylor topped the Mustangs scoring with 22 points with PG Danny Preston finishing with 12 points and 4 assists and SG Nikolos Ivelitsch adding 10. PG John O’Hanlon scored 18 second half points for the Highlanders in the 2nd half to lead all scorers with 23 points.

“It was touch-and-go a few times but our guys refused to yield the lead in the 2nd half,” said Coach Aura. “We’ve been preaching to peak when it counts. Our team did just that in the conference tournament. Now we need to maintain our momentum when we get to the Big Dance.”

[PointGuard]

San Luis Obispo Tribune

CAL POLY TEAM AND PLAYER STATS

Although the NCAA Selection Show doesn’t occur until this Sunday, having won the Big West Tournament the Cal Poly Mustangs are assured of being selected. Here’s how the team and it’s players have done this season:

The team won 25 games and lost 9 this year. Their conference play was at times a roller coaster ride during which they won 12 and lost 8th and finished tied for 4th place. But they added 3 wins in the Big West Tournament to win the conference championship. They have the 47th best NET Ranking within Division 1. This season the team averaged 72.1 ppg while giving up just 64.8 ppg (25th best in Division 1) to their opponents. They averaged 17.9 apg, 34.5 rpg, 5.0 bpg, and 6.4 spg. Offensively they hit 43.9% of their FG’s, 35.2% of their 3’s, and 70.2% of their FT’s.

Here's how the Mustang players did throughout the season:

SG Nikolos Ivelitsch: GP: 34, GS: 34, MP: 28.0, PPG: 12.8, RPG: 3.8, APG: 2.4.
SF Trey Small: GP: 34, GS: 34, MP: 27.9, PPG: 10.9, RPG: 4.9, APG: 1.5.
PF Victor Collier: GP: 34, GS: 34, MP: 24.4, PPG: 6.4, RPG: 6.0, APG: 1.6.
PG Danny Preston: GP: 22, GS: 22, MP: 24.2, PPG: 11.0, RPG: 3.0, APG: 4.2.
C Dekker Chambers: GP: 34, GS: 34, MP: 23.8, PPG: 8.7, RPG: 6.7, APG: 2.1.
SG/PG Bryan Taylor: GP: 33, GS: 3, MP: 16.4, PPG: 7.1, RPG: 1.6, APG: 2.6.
PF Darcel Aygar: GP: 33, GS: 0, MP: 15.5, PPG: 5.4, RPG: 2.7, APG: 0.8.
PG Edouard La Touche: GP: 34, GS: 9, MP: 13.3, PPG: 3.6, RPG: 1.4, APG: 2.1.
PF Rodney Boykin: GP: 32, GS: 0, MP: 9.0, PPG: 3.3, RPG: 1.8, APG: 0.5.
C Justin Clausen: GP: 33, GS: 0, MP: 7.2, PPG: 1.9, RPG: 1.8, APG: 0.6.
SF Ed Tenys: GP: 32, GS: 0, MP: 7.0, PPG: 2.0, RPG: 1.5, APG: 0.5.
SF Benjamin Smith: GP: 19, GS: 0 MP: 6.9, PPG: 2.7, RPG: 0.5, APG: 0.3.
PG Tim Lepore: GP: 24, GS: 0, MP: 6.8, PPG: 3.0, RPG: 0.5, APG: 0.8.
SG Mat/t Williams: GP: 3, GS: 0, MP: 1.3, PPG: 0.0, RPG: 0.3, APG: 0.0.
SG Jason Brewer: GP: 2, GS: 0, MP: 1.0, PPG: 0.0, RPG: 0.0, APG: 0.0.

Coach Fred Aura said, “This has been a unique season. We had a lot of new players and at times we experienced growth pains and weren’t as consistent as I’d like. But they’re developing and maturing well as players and a team. While we don’t have one guy who routinely carries the load for us, we have a whole bunch of players, in fact nearly our entire roster, who can come out and score in double figures in a given game. So that makes it difficult for our opponents since they have to closely defend all 5 guys we have on the court the entire 40 minutes. If they double on one of our guys, that just means they’re freeing up one of the other 4 players for a clear shot, and any one of those guys can put points on the board. We also have done a really good job on the boards and typically out-rebound our opponents on both the defensive and offensive end of the court. And you know what? Not one of our guys is a senior this year.”

[PointGuard]

NCAA Tournament Selection Show

#1 seeds: Maryland (ranked #3), Mississippi State (ranked #5), Ohio State (ranked #1) Saint Mary’s (ranked #2)

Cal Poly is the #11 seed in the Midwest Region and will play #6 seed and #25 ranked Michigan State

NIT

UC Santa Barbara is #8 seed in the East Region
UC Irvine is the is the #6 seed in the East Region

CBI

UC Davis is the #3 seed in the East Region
Long Beach State is the #7 seed in the East Region

[PointGuard]

CBI Tourney Results

Round 1

Fairleigh Dickinson—65, Long Beach State—60
UC Davis—93, Davidson—69

Round 2

UC Davis—82, Fairleigh Dickinson—72

Round 3 (Semifinals)

Indiana—90, UC Davis—78

NIT Tourney Results

Round 1

Robert Morris—79, UC Santa Barbara—77
Arkansas Pine Bluff—81, UC Irvine--69

NCAA Tourney Results

Round 1

#11 seed Cal Poly Mustangs vs #6 and #25 ranked Michigan State Spartans

Michigan State was a prohibitive favorite coming into this game. While the Spartans led throughout most of the first half, Cal Poly hung with them and was tied with a minute to go, but the Spartans managed to score 4 quick points to make it 40-36 at the break. SF Quincy Robinson scored 14 points in the half for Michigan State.

The Spartans started the 2nd half with a 17-3 run that put the Mustangs down by 18 points. MSU’s pressure D made it tough for Cal Poly to score and they steadily slipped further behind. The Spartans rolled to an 82-52 drubbing of the Mustangs.

SF Trey Small had 12 points and 5 boards and PF Victor Collier scored 8 and pulled down 5 rebounds. Michigan State’s SF Quincy Robinson poured in 30 points plus had 8 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks.

“We did a good job of hanging with Michigan State in the first half, but when they tightened their D in the 2nd half, we just couldn’t handle it. Tough loss, but the Spartans are a very good team. Overall, we did pretty well this year and no players leaving due to graduation, I think our team will be much stronger this coming year,” said Coach Fred Aura.

Tournament Champions:

CIT: Oklahoma

CBI: Indiana

NIT: Louisiana Tech

NCAA: Ohio State

[PointGuard]

Bryan King, 1st Assistant Coach (recruiting)

We keep talking publicly about the entire team coming back next season, but the coaches all expect there to be at least a couple players deciding to look for greener pastures and transferring out. I’m pretty sure one of those will be PF Darcel Aygar. He definitely is a talented freshman with great potential, but he’s not a happy camper. He’s not only unhappy with the coaching staff but also hasn’t fit in well with the team this year. I’d guess the 2nd most likely player to transfer away is PG Tim Lepore. He too is a freshman with a lot of potential, but this season he needed more development and that kept us from giving him the minutes he desires. Plus he hasn’t meshed well with his teammates. And with players who are ahead of him on the depth chart and who are coming back this coming season, I just think he’ll decide to go to a team where he believes he will get the playing time he wants. We’ve got a few other players who could opt out, but hopefully they will decide to hang with us.

[PointGuard]

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

Our basketball team garnered some well-deserved awards this season:

Nikolos Ivelitsch—Big West Conference Defensive Player of the Year

Frederick Aura—Big West Conference Coach of the Year

Nikolos Ivelitsch—Big West 2nd Team All-Conference

Coach Aura has done a tremendous job of moving our team into regular contention for the Big West championship. And after another good season, his award was definitely well-earned. Fortunately for us, Nikolos Ivelitsch will be back this coming season so that spells good news for us.