Henderson, Nev. – For a team stigmatized as the worst program on Cal Poly’s campus and the Big West Conference, Cal Poly Men’s Basketball’s 86-76 win over UC Davis does more than advance them to the Big West Championships quarterfinals.
Long gone are the days of a 46-game Big West losing streak and an offense struggling to score more than 80 points a game. First-year Head Coach Mike DeGeorge has come in and injected a breath of fresh air into a program that has been suffocating since the 2013-14 season.
In DeGeorge’s first year at the helm of the program, he’s taken an offense that averaged the least amount of points per game in the Big West, to one that averages the most in the conference.
The win over the Aggies (15-17, 9-11 Big West) also marks the third Big West postseason win for the Mustangs (15-18, 8-12 Big West) since the team qualified for the NCAA March Madness Tournament in that 2013-14 season.
DeGeorge has taken his postseason experience with Division II Colorado Mesa and formed a team that can handle the adversity they faced in Wednesday’s win.
“We have a mature group and they came out with a tremendous amount of toughness,” DeGeorge said.
The main catalyst for this maturity comes from DeGeorge’s players he brought with him from Colorado Mesa.
Graduate wing Owen Koonce, senior guard Isaac Jessup, graduate guard Mac Riniker and senior forward Ethan Menzies have all helped implement DeGeorge’s philosophy into a Cal Poly program desperate for some identity.
It was an identity the team found after their second loss to the Aggies on Thursday, Jan. 16 earlier in the season.
In that 65-54 loss, the offense hit a wall as they scored the least amount of points they had all this season and extended their conference losing streak.
“It really was the low point of our season,” DeGeorge said. “That losing streak was really weighing on us at that time.”
The team lost to UC Irvine a couple of days after that, but a reinvigorated team came out the week after and finally snapped that losing streak against Long Beach State.
DeGeorge and graduate point guard Jarred Hyder credit that loss to Davis and the Long Beach win as the main factors for propelling the team to where they are now.
“The other teams in the conference know that we’re one of the most dangerous teams that they have to go through in this tournament,” Hyder said.
The former Colorado Mesa players who saw meaningful minutes showed exactly why Hyder believes this team can go far in the tournament.
Koonce led the team in scoring with 18 points, Jessup had 17 points on 4-for-6 shooting from behind the three-point line and Riniker tacked on 12 points while keeping UC Davis guard TY Johnson in check.
Hyder himself scored 16 points on 50% shooting from the field and from three.
He and junior forward Aaron Price Jr. have seen the program at its lowest and showed their gratitude for DeGeorge and what these new players have brought to the team.
Price, a Henderson, Nev. native, gave the team their first lead of the night after cashing in a corner three to go up 59-56. He took advantage of the nine minutes he saw the court to score all of his 11 points during a stretch that saw the team go on a 21-2 run.
“I’m just so grateful to be in the moment, so grateful to get this win with my team and just looking forward to continuing the [winning] streak,” Price said.
The offense played sluggish in the first half and saw themselves down 47-38 going into the break.
A big part of that was the 14 free throw attempts the Mustangs let the Aggies take advantage of.
That wasn’t a problem in the second half, but for the team to continue to make a deep postseason run, fouls can’t be a problem.
The Mustangs will look to take this momentum into the Big West Championships quarterfinals against UC Riverside on Thursday, March 13 at 8:30 p.m. at Lee’s Family Forum.