Cal Poly faces their toughest conference test yet, traveling to San Diego to take on the Tritons on Thursday, Jan. 9. UC San Diego has a three-game winning streak against the Mustangs heading into Thursday’s contest.
The Mustangs (6-10, 0-4 Big West) have been looking for their conference win since Dec. 29, 2022, when they defeated CSU Northridge at home. Since then, the program has been on a 42-game conference losing streak spanning three seasons.
Rough start in Big West play
Cal Poly is currently tied at the bottom of the conference with a 0-4 record with CSU Fullerton.
In conference play, the team has failed to shoot better than 30% from three in any of their matches and have been held to their two lowest outputs this season (66 at UC Davis and 55 at Hawai’i).
Realistically, the shooting will regress back to its mean, and this team’s offense will start clicking as it did against teams like Stanford or Arizona State.
After a tough overtime loss at home to UC Irvine on Thursday, the team had to hustle out to Hawai’i to play on Saturday.
This season, their game against Hawai’i was the worst offensive performance, with a team low in points, shooting percentage and even free throws attempted.
With a couple of days off to recharge after those two games, the offense will look to find those early-season ways.
A look at the Tritons
UC San Diego transitioned to Division I four years ago after cleaning out the California Collegiate Athletic Association. During its last four seasons in Division II, the team won three regular-season championships and all four conference tournaments.
After three seasons of getting their footing in the Big West, their fourth and final season in transition netted what would have been a second-place finish.
This season, the Tritons are one of the best mid-major programs in the nation, ranking 7th in the latest mid-major poll from College Insider and preventing Gonzaga from a unanimous first place by stealing a vote away.
Their best win, and arguably the best win that any team in the Big West has, is on the road against the current Mountain West leaders Utah State (15-1).
Led offensively by the Division I leader in three-point makes Tyler McGhie, and do-it-all swingman Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, the Tritons average 81.6 points per game, almost 20 points more than their opponents.
Defensively, the UC San Diego leans on Hayden Gray, who has the most steals in the nation.
With only one player above 6 foot 7 inches in their regular rotation, they will match up evenly with the Mustangs’ height, which has been a rarity.
Cal Poly looks to make a statement against UC San Diego on Thursday, Jan. 9, in LionTree Arena at 7 p.m.
