For the second year in a row, Cal Poly Men’s Basketball is making the trip to Henderson, Nev. where they will compete in the Big West playoffs, this time as the No. 8 seed in the tournament.
The Mustangs (14-18, 10-10 Big West) take on No. 5 seed UC San Diego in the first round of the postseason on Wednesday. The two teams split their regular season matchups, most recently with the Mustangs falling 80-64.
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The game will tip off at 6 p.m., with the winner advancing to the quarterfinal on Thursday and the loser being eliminated from the tournament.
Cal Poly is faced with looming roster uncertainty due to the transfer portal in the offseason, so Head Coach Mike DeGeorge will be looking to make this trip count for the rising young squad.
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A new-look Tritons roster
The UC San Diego program has a championship pedigree – they are the defending Big West Champions, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament as the lone Big West representative last season.
This season, the team is largely unproven.
All five starters from their NCAA-bound team in 2025 departed in the offseason, as well as Head Coach Eric Olen, who left for a job at the University of New Mexico.
The Tritons adopted a more balanced, win by committee approach for 2026: no single player has emerged as a star, proven by four averaging double figure scoring during the regular season.
Leo Beath, Bol Dengdit and Hudson Mayes were all named All-Big West honorable mentions.
The Tritons finished the season 22-8 with a 12-8 conference record, and had a red-hot finish to conference games. They’ve won six of their last seven games, including the Feb. 28 win over Cal Poly, and ended their season with a 64-63 victory over UC Santa Barbara.
The Mustangs similarly arrived in Henderson on the high of winning five of their last seven, finding their stride after a shaky start to the year.
Who to watch for Cal Poly
Just one day before the playoffs were set to begin, sophomore guard Hamad Mousa was named to the All-Big West First Team, and checked another accolade off the list for the team and conference’s leading scorer.
In his first year at Cal Poly after transferring from Dayton last year, Mousa averaged 20.4 points per game and became just the second player in program history to reach 600 points.
READ MORE: “From Doha to Division I: Hamad Mousa’s basketball journey”
He totaled double-digit scoring in all but one of his games this year, and will be a key contributor for Cal Poly in the first round of the playoffs.
Sophomore guards Peter Bandelj and Cayden Ward also received All-Big West attention. The sophomores form a three-pronged scoring attack with Mousa at the forefront of DeGeorge’s offense.
Both were named All-Big West Honorable Mentions, and in their second years at Cal Poly, both saw jumps in scoring and fit in well with the three-point heavy offense Cal Poly runs.
Rounding out the Mustangs lineup this season was a rotating cast of contributors, including Jake Davis, Guzman Vasilic, Austin Goode, Troy Plumtree and Ali Assran. They have all stepped up in key moments for the Mustangs, including Plumtree scoring 31 against CSU Bakersfield and Davis’ game-winner against Seattle University.
The Mustangs will need them all to step up on Wednesday night if they want to avoid elimination and move on to the second round.