Cal Poly men’s basketball team to face tough test against Cal, Washington
The Cal Poly men’s basketball team continues its six-game road stint with consecutive matchups against Pac-12 Conference opponents California and Washington over the next four days.
The Mustangs (5-5) are coming off a 14-point loss at Fresno State last week and will face a dynamic Golden Bears team at 5 p.m. Saturday inside the 12,000-seat Haas Pavilion. Cal brings a 26-game home winning streak into the fifth all-time meeting between the two programs, which will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.
Three days later, Cal Poly will be in the Pacific Northwest to play the Huskies in Seattle. Despite having a potential NBA lottery pick in point guard Markelle Fultz, who leads the Pac-12 in scoring at nearly 23 points per game, Washington has struggled during the nonconference season and owns a 4-5 record.
Two of those victories have come against Big West Conference opponents Cal State Fullerton (104-88) and Long Beach State (94-88).
“If we’re going to win by two points even, we’re going to have to play really well for 40 minutes,” head coach Joe Callero said. “We’re going to have to play well for 40 minutes to steal road games against teams that will be favored. We’ll be the underdog in the next six games.”
Callero and his coaching staff have made a point to schedule teams from the Pac-12 annually, having played Cal, Oregon, Stanford, USC, UCLA and Washington in recent years.
The Mustangs are well compensated financially for scheduling those “guarantee games” — they’ll also get paid for going to Grand Canyon on Dec. 28 — because the bigger-budget opponents do not travel to San Luis Obispo for a traditional home-and-home series.
That’s generally a recipe for some lopsided losses, such as Cal Poly’s 96-74 setback against Arizona State in mid-November. Looking through that lens, Callero said he hopes to see a sustained effort over the course of an entire game against a series of long, athletic opponents.
Cal (8-2) is led by 6-foot-11, 220-pound sophomore Ivan Rabb, an all-Pac-12 honoree as a freshman last season. Freshman point guard Charlie Moore has been efficient in averaging 17.6 points per game. He’s shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 44.7 percent from behind the 3-point line.
The Bears also feature the stingiest defense in the Pac-12, allowing a conference-best 60.1 points per game. They’re limiting opponents to a 36.9 shooting percentage, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for a perimeter-oriented, guard-heavy team like the Mustangs.
“Whether it’s against Cal Poly or the next opponent, it’s really about what we do,” Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin said. “I think we do a lot of good things defensively. Again, I think the biggest key defensively is improving our transition defense, really stopping the ball.”
Cal Poly senior guard Kyle Toth, who ranks No. 9 in the country in 3-point shooting percentage at 54.5, said playing against “some NBA talent” will be a significant adjustment.
Junior college transfer Victor Joseph (11.7 points per game) and Toth (11.6) are the only Mustangs averaging double-digit scoring through the first month of the season. Junior forward Josh Martin averaged more than 10.8 points and 8.4 rebounds through five games before suffering a season-ending stress fracture in his foot.
Sophomore guard Donovan Fields scored a career-high 17 points against Fresno State last week, and Cal Poly will need his scoring prowess moving forward. Luke Meikle, Jaylen Shead and Ridge Shipley are all averaging between 7.1 and 8.6 points per game.
“They play with four guards, they spread you out, they can score the ball,” Martin said. “… We have to do a great job with our transition defense. I think that’s been one of the biggest things that we have to continue to improve on.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2016 at 11:43 AM with the headline "Cal Poly men’s basketball team to face tough test against Cal, Washington."