SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

[PointGuard]

The Jamie Monroe Big West Review

Three teams won both their games this week: Cal Poly (increasing their win streak to 7 games), Cal State northridge, and UC Irvine. Hawaii had 3 games and after losing the first one at home, surprisingly won the next 2 games, both of which were road games. Three teams lost both their games this week: UC Davis (their losing streak increased to 7 games); UC Riverside; and UC San Diego.

Mike Forrest of Cal State Northridge was named the Player of the Week for scoring 44 points, pulling down 7 rebounds, and getting 4 assists and 7 steals. This was the 3rd time this season Forrest has won that award. Cal State Bakersfield’s Will Morris was again named the Freshman Player of the Week. Morris had 25 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block in his 2 games this week.

While there were a few minor injuries this week, the injury bug has infected Cal State Fullerton. They now have 3 players with major injuries (Travis Jackson, torn Achilles; Corey Cross, broken ankle; and Jarvis Kincaid, broken hand) plus Brian Smith has a strained knee that may keep him out of service for a week.

[PointGuard]

Cal Poly Mustangs (18-5, 13-1) @ Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (3-20, 3-11)

Bryan King, 1st Assistant Coach

We’ve been stressing to our players that they can’t overlook last place Hawaii. That’s even more important since the Rainbow Warriors have all of a sudden come alive, winning their last 2 games, both of which were away games for Hawaii. Our defense has been our strength of late. We’ve allowed an average of 51.2 ppg in our last 6 games. I hope we can continue that but also pump up our offense some.

Horrible start: Almost 8 minutes into the game and we’re down 13-4. But then we score 10 unanswered points to gain the lead. The half ended with the score tied at 24-24. We were lucky to have the tie since we only hit 33% of our shots.

Hawaii scored the first 9 points of the 2nd half, but we again then went on a run, scoring the next 12 points. We kept trying to gain enough of a lead to gain a breather, but couldn’t. With 3 minutes left the game was tied. We attained a razor thin lead and even though we missed 6 straight free throws were able to hold off the Rainbow Warriors and escape with a 57-55 victory. But it definitely wasn’t pretty. We made 2 of 17 of our 3’s and just 11 of 26 of our free throws. We forced Hawaii to make 6 more turnovers than did we…which I believe was our salvation.

SG Nikolos Ivelitsch scored 13 points and had 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. C Victor Collier had 10 points and 4 boards. Danny Preston had a good game defensively and dished out 6 assists, but had an atrocious offensive game.

Our offense continues to sputter. Someway we need to get it clicking again.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 17, 2037: Cal Poly Mustangs (19-5, 14-1) @ Long Beach State 49ers (9-15, 6-9)

Jody Hedde, 2nd Assistant Coach

We barely beat the 49ers by just 2 points when we hosted them about 3 weeks ago.

The first half was basically a wash. Both teams shot pretty well, but overall the play was sloppy. We never had a decent run and left the court at halftime trailing 35-34.

We trailed most of the 2nd half. And while not by much, we just showed no fire. We stumbled to a 70-64 loss. Nothing good to say about this game other than Dekker Chambers who played well. We’re in a slump…time to shake this team up.

C Dekker Chambers scored 20 and pulled down 8 rebounds. SG Nikolos Ivelitsch had 13 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

[PointGuard]

The Jamie Monroe Big West Review

This week several teams either won 2 or lost 2. On the winning side of 2 games were Cal St. Northridge, UC Irvine and Long Beach St. UC Santa Barbara lost an away game but then won 2 at home. On the opposite end of the scale were Cal St. Fullerton, UC Riverside, and Hawaii that each lost both of their games. UC Davis split two extremely close road games, winning in OT by 3 points over Cal State Bakersfield and losing by a single point to UC Santa Barbara.

C Corey Heideman returned to play for UC Davis after missing 2 months due to a broken wrist. And he came back with a bang…scoring 25 and grabbing 6 boards in his first game back on the court.

There were several minor injuries this week, but one serious one: UC San Diego’s starting SG Cliff Burke tore his ACL which, as a senior, will end his collegiate career.

This week Mike Forrest of Cal St. Northridge was named the Big West Player of the Week for the 4th time this season. He scored 50 points and had 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks in the Matadors two games. The Freshman Player of the Week was UC Davis’ Jamil Barnes who scored 18 points and had 15 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals and a block in his 2 games this week.

Even though they split their two games this week, Cal Poly remains atop the Big West standings with UC Santa Barbara 3 games behind in 2nd place and UC Irvine and Cal St. Northridge 4 games behind the Mustangs and tied for 3rd. Cal State Bakersfield is 5th and 5 games out of 1st place. The remaining 6 teams are below .500 and between 7 and 11 games off the pace. 9 teams have 4 games left in the regular season with the 2 others have just 3 games remaining.

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Feb. 22: Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners (12-13, 9-7) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (19-6, 14-2)

C Dekker Chambers

We had a score to settle with the Roadrunners. When we visited them earlier this season, they thrashed and embarrassed us 86-61.

We fell behind 8-3 but scored the next 9 points to go ahead by 4. I was called for a 2nd foul just 4 minutes into the game which meant I’d be spending most all the first half watching from the bench. At the midpoint of the first half we led 26-16. With the help of the refs, Cal State Bakersfield cut into our lead, making it 28-25. But a 10-1 run again gave us some breathing room. The half ended with us on top 45-38.

We drew away from the Roadrunners in the 2nd half and sported a 71-50 lead with 11 minutes to play. We cruised to a satisfying 91-74 thrashing of the Roadrunners. And that maintained our 3-game lead over 2nd place UC Santa Barbara in the Big West standings.

SG Danny Preston led our scoring with 17 points plus he dished out 7 assists. SF Trey Small scored 12 points. PF/C Victor Collier and PF Estell Luton both scored 9 with Collier also recording 6 rebounds. Cal State Bakersfield’s C Dan Barrett poured in 27 points.

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Feb. 24: UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (19-9, 12-5) @ Cal Poly Mustangs (20-6, 15-2)

Tom Poole, Cal Poly alum

In recent years these two teams have continually vied for first place in the Big West standings. And so it is this season also. Since Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo are just a 90 minute drive from each other, when these teams play at either location there are plenty of fans rooting for each team. Nearly every seat at the Robert A. Mott Athletic Center is filled tonight and both groups of fans are already encouraging their teams and ragging on the opposing team’s fans.

A month ago the Mustangs prevailed by 7 points in OT on the Gauchos court. So I assume the Gauchos are wanting to return the “favor”. UC Santa Barbara comes here tonight riding a 3-game in streak. The Gauchos are strong defensively, allowing just 65.6 ppg by their opponents this season which is 46th best in Division 1. They’re a good shooting team that has tossed in 47.5% of their FG’s (39th best in Division 1) and 36.0% of their 3’s (58th best) but due to their deliberate style of play they’re averaging just 69.7 ppg (215th best). Their leading scorers are SG Jamie Howard (14.4 ppg) and C Sean Fox (10.4 ppg).

Ivelitsch hit a beauty of a shot from the corner on our first possession and now spins to his left and puts up a 15 foot jumper that cleanly falls through to put the Mustangs ahead 5-4. He shot poorly for 8 or 9 straight games, but has been hitting his shots in the Mustangs last 4 games. Cal Poly is all over the Gauchos, making it tough for them to get off a shot. Poly’s on top 15-6 with 15 minutes remaining til halftime. Santa Barbara’s coach is railing against the refs after SF Shamar Levy is charged with his 2nd foul. With Coach Aura subbing freely to put fresher legs on the court, it’s allowed the Gauchos to cut the lead down to just 4 points a couple times, but each time the Mustangs have been able to rebuild their lead. Cal Poly’s getting good production down low tonight and that’s helped them develop their 43-33 halftime advantage.

Cal Poly comes out in the 2nd half taking care of business. They’ve steadily augmented their lead and with 10 minutes to go the lead is 19. The Gauchos don’t think the game is over though. With 4 minutes to go they now only trail by 8 points. The Mustangs have stopped the bleeding and have rebuilt a double digit lead. The game ends with Cal Poly putting the Gauchos away by a score of 80-68.

Top Mustangs players: SG Nikolos Ivelitsch—15 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals; PG Danny Preston—12 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists; PF/C Calvis Barnes—12 points, 5 rebounds; C Dekker Chambers—10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists; C Victor Collier—8 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists; PG/SG Scotty Lee—8 points, 2 assists.

With just 3 games left in conference play and a 4 game lead over UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine, the Mustangs have locked up 1st place in the this season’s standings and the #1 seed in the upcoming conference tourney.

[PointGuard]

The Jamie Monroe Big West Review

The big game of the past week was the first place team (Cal Poly) hosting the second place team (UC Santa Barbara). The Mustangs led nearly the entire game to expand their lead in the standings to 4 games thus guaranteeing them the conference regular season championship. UC Irvine won 2 games and extended their win streak to 5 games to move into a tie for 2nd place. UC San Diego also won both of their games but still resides just 2 places in the standings above the basement. Cal State Bakersfield lost 2 games including a disappointing loss at last place Hawaii. Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge also both lost two games this week. The losses by the Roadrunners and Matadors slid them down toward the middle of the conference pack while the Titans losses dropped them within a single game of last place Hawaii. And the Titans play the Rainbow Warriors in the final game of the regular season.

The best individual performance this week was by Corey Heideman of UC Davis who scored 38 points and had 13 rebounds and 2 assists during the Aggies OT win over Cal State Fullerton. Heideman now is averaging 17.1 ppg and is the 3rd highest scorer in the Big West Conference, behind only Mike Forrest (19.1 ppg) and David Barrett (17.5 ppg).

[PointGuard]

Mar. 1, 2037: Cal Poly Mustangs (21-6, 16-2) @ Cal State Fullerton Titans (7-20, 5-13)

3rd Assistant Coach Omari Aura

Not many fans in the stands, but I guess it’s not surprising since I’m sure the Titans haven’t enthralled their fans this season. They have a darned good dance team, though, that has been national collegiate dance champs innumerable times and they’re sure to perform during most of the timeouts and during halftime. I told my guys to keep their eyes glued on my dad during the timeouts rather than the girls on the dance squad.

We beat these guys by 22 points when we played them on our court. But I’m hoping we don’t have a letdown since we’ve already nailed down 1st place in the conference. The Titans have lost 5 straight games and are probably itching to add to their win total. Their offense had been pretty anemic (63.9 ppg which is 330th best in Division 1). That’s partly due to one starter and 3 reserves being out for the season due to major injuries.

I loved the way our guys kept working the ball inside on our first possession until Dekker Chambers got open to knock down a 5 footer. The Titans SG Brian Smith hits his first 3 shots including two 3’s to score their first 8 points. We’re still ahead by 2 but need to clamp down on Smith. With 14:46 left in the half, we take care of that…or rather the zebras do by tagging him with his 2nd foul. We take advantage by increasing our lead from 5 points to 11 with 11 minutes to go in the half. But then we forget how to put a round ball into a round hoop and the Titans cut our lead to 23-19 with 4-1/2 minutes remaining til halftime. But through a combination of control of the boards and the refs putting getting us to the foul like, we come out of the half with a 36-25 advantage.

Our defense is rather porous and Cal State Fullerton trims our lead to 6 with 14 minutes to go. Our bench comes through with Damien Harris hitting a pair of 3’s and Rodney Boykin adding another to help expand our lead to 64-46 with 7 minutes left. We roll on to stomp Cal State Fullerton 80-55. We outshot the Titans 48% to 33%, hit 10 of 21 from 3point distance and out-rebounded them 37-23.

SG Nikolos Ivelitsch scored 12 and had 2 assists and 2 blocks and PF/C Victor Collier, PF Rodney Boykin, and PG/SG Scotty Lee each scoring 10.

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Coach Frederick Aura

I think one of the best things I’ve done here at Cal Poly was hiring Zahara Carter as my Assistant. Her goal was to become experienced in sports administration so that she could make that as her profession. She immediately stepped in to do whatever needed to be done and take off some of the administrative headaches I’d previously had to do. The more she did, the more challenging jobs I gave her. She came up with creative ideas for getting more Cal Poly students to attend our home games and the student rooting section has become a big factor in improving our home court advantage. With that successfully handled, she expanded that effort toward increasing the number of alumni and local population to attend our games. Another success! Then I assigned her to developing improved statistical analysis about our team and our opponents. She attacked that task with abandon and has really helped us better understand our players and factor in more things into our scouting efforts and resultant game plans. Then this year she developed ways for us to contact our alumni who lived near the other colleges in the Big West Conference to encourage them to attend our away games. Along with that she created a pre-game party program so that those fans had more than just the game to attend and also got to know one another. That has really increased our fan level at our opponents’ courts when we play there, thus negating to an extent that team’s home court advantage. A couple summers ago, an organizer of the San Luis Obispo Blues (which is a team that is part of the California Collegiate League that plays games from the end of May to August) mentioned to me that they were having problems getting a sufficient number of fans to help pay the costs of running the team. I suggested to Zahara that she talk with him…the result was that she now has a part-time job working with the Blue. Their fan base has grown substantially because of Zahara’s efforts. She’s obviously ready to move to bigger and better things sometime soon and getting involved in a different sport’s administration could well be extremely important for her.

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Mar. 3: Cal Poly Mustangs (22-6, 17-2) vs UC Irvine Anteaters (19-9, 13-6)

PG Edouard La Touche

I sprained my toe in practice before our last game. I played a few minutes in the game against Cal State Fullerton, but without much success. The toe is still bothering me, so Coach Aura has decided to sit me out of this game so that the toe will be healed prior to the Big West Tournament getting underway. Sitting in street clothes on the bench watching the game isn’t something I like, but it’s just for one game.

UCI has been hot lately, winning their last 6 games by an average margn of victory of just over 20 points. PF Michael Dahle is their go-to guy, averaging 15.3 ppg and 6.6 rpg. The Anteaters have a solid starting 5, but I think we have a much stronger bench. We played UCI a couple months ago on our court and beat them, but only by 6 points. Tave

The Anteaters burned us early with some hot shooting and took a 36-16 lead in with 6 minutes left in the half.of the game. Things just got worse from there as we trailed 53-27 at halftime. We trailed by about 20 points for most of the 2nd half, but made a furious late game charge. And we nearly caught up with the Anteaters, falling to the by a final score of 78-72.

Danny Preston scored 15 points and had 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. Calvis Barnes had 14 points, 7 boards and 2 steals.