On paper, this season reads like a collapse.
Three wins. More than twenty losses. A double-digit losing streak. A Big West record buried at the bottom of the standings.
The numbers are blunt, the standings are unforgiving. And for anyone scanning the schedule or sitting in the stands, Cal Poly Women’s Basketball appears to be simply struggling.
But inside the locker room, this season isn’t being framed as a failure, it’s being framed as construction.
Because when nearly an entire roster turns over in one offseason, a season like this stops being about competing in the present and starts being about building for the future.
Last year, the Mustangs leaned on experience. The roster featured upperclassmen who had spent years within the program, including standout guard Annika Shah, whose scoring and leadership anchored the offense before she moved on to play professionally overseas. That team had continuity, maturity, and a defined identity built over multiple seasons together.
This year’s roster is the opposite.
Instead of seniors and fifth-years, the team now revolves around freshmen and sophomores, players seeing major minutes for the first time, learning systems in real time, and growing into leadership roles before they were ever meant to hold them.
So far, the statistical shift has been dramatic.
Last season, Cal Poly averaged roughly 58 points per game, with multiple experienced scorers contributing. This year, that average has dipped closer to 50, with sophomore guard Vanessa McManus leading the team in scoring. While this difference in points per game does not seem dramatic, turnovers have increased, defensive rotations have been inconsistent, and late-game execution has cost the Mustangs several close contests.
But the players continue to stress how numbers alone don’t explain what’s happening, because for this team rebuilding isn’t just about replacing players, it’s about redefining culture.
“I would say the culture is definitely fun, but it’s very focused on learning,” redshirt sophomore guard Alana Goosby said. “We have a big emphasis on learning right now just because we’re so young and inexperienced. More than anything, it’s about patience and growth.”
That emphasis on growth shows up in how the team measures success. Wins matter. But internally, they’re not the primary metric.
“I would say success looks like having good practices,” Goosby said. “Stacking full days where we’re locked in, doing the little things. We track hustle stats, including defense, effort, energy. That’s what success looks like for us right now.”
It’s a mindset shift that reflects where the program actually stands. This year’s Mustangs are learning how to execute scouting reports, communicate defensive switches, and manage game pace at the Division I level, often while playing opponents with rosters full of juniors and seniors who’ve been together for years.
“I think people looking at the stats don’t see the work we put in every day,” McManus said. “For a lot of us, this is our first year really playing big minutes. We’re inexperienced, but we’re working really hard, and this is a growth process.”
That inexperience shows up in the details, which is the part of the game that rarely makes highlight reels.
“I would say attention to detail is one of our struggles,” freshmen Charish Thompson said. “Sometimes it’s scouting reports, sometimes reads, sometimes communication. Those are things you build over time.”
In recent weeks, Cal Poly has consistently pushed opponents deeper into contests, trimming deficits and forcing late-game situations instead of being overwhelmed early.
Several of the team’s recent losses have come by single digits, evidence, players say, that improvement is happening even if the standings don’t reflect it yet.
“Our small wins are when we have great practices or we cut a game really close,” Thompson said. “Stacking days of practice together, playing strong games, those things matter to us.”
Statistically, that progress shows up in subtle ways. Turnovers have begun to drop over the past stretch of games. Defensive rebounding rates have improved. Offensive spacing and ball movement have stabilized compared to early-season struggles.
Those aren’t headline numbers, they are rebuilding numbers. Because what these Mustangs are attempting isn’t just a one-year reset. It’s a foundational shift.
“I think rebuilding for us is really changing this program,” Goosby said. “We have players from different places bringing different styles, and we’re starting with a really young group. A lot of teams in the Big West have been together a long time. We’re building from the freshmen up.”
That youth is already shaping the team’s identity. Instead of veteran leaders guiding younger players, this team is watching underclassmen learn leadership in real time. For returning players, that shift has required adapting their roles quickly.
“We have a freshman leading us in scoring and Vanessa, who’s only a sophomore, stepping into big roles,” Goosby said. “Last year we had seniors and fifth-years. Now we’re imagining where these players could be in a year or two.”
And while the challenges are real, players say there’s also a sense of long-term optimism growing within the locker room.
“It’s challenging sometimes, but we see the growth,” McManus said. “Every game we get a little better. And knowing we’ll have our same core group back next year makes it exciting.”
Continuity, after all, is the currency of rebuilding.
Where many conference rivals may graduate key contributors this spring, Cal Poly expects to return nearly its entire rotation, which is a rare advantage in modern college basketball. For a program trying to build upward rather than start over again, keeping leaders like McManus in the fold could prove just as important as any recruiting class.
“We all have experience now,” Thompson said. “We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. That’s going to help a lot moving forward.”
In that sense, this season may ultimately be remembered less for its record and more for what it represents: the beginning of a new cycle.
Rebuilding seasons rarely produce immediate results. They produce repetition. Mistakes. Adjustment. Identity searching.
They produce freshmen learning to lead. They produce sophomores learning to speak up. They produce a team learning how to grow together. And sometimes, they produce the foundation for something far better than the standings suggest.
“The last few games have been really close,” McManus said. “You can see we’re getting better. A lot of teams might lose their core soon. We’ll have ours back.”
For now, the scoreboard doesn’t tell Cal Poly’s story. The future might.