Cal Poly men’s basketball drops 11th straight game. Can they save the season?

Three-quarters of the way through its season, the Cal Poly men’s basketball team is searching for answers in a campaign that started strong before taking swift dive.

After posting a 6-6 record in non-conference play and taking their Big West Conference opener against CSU Northridge, the Mustangs have stumbled into losing streak that has extended into double digits and left them in last place.

In Head Coach John Smith’s fourth season, Cal Poly is now 7-17 overall and 1-11 in conference and has yet to find a win since the calendar turned to 2023.

On Saturday, the Mustangs fell 69-56 to the University of Hawaii, running their losing streak to 11 games.

“At this point we just gotta snap out of it. There’s no point of being frustrated, but we got to come back on Monday to get to work,” senior center Ali Koroma said. “I think we’ve made major strides and if we got more stops today, we could’ve won this game.”

Cal Poly struggles in Big West play after strong start

Cal Poly had made progress going back to non-conference play.

The team rattled off four wins in a row and almost upset the University of Washington. That gave them an outline for success: Play hard on defense, bother teams with their length and get just enough offense out of Koroma and whatever perimeter player is in a groove that night.

That strategy hasn’t held up in recent weeks, however, with the offense consistently underperforming.

The Mustangs now rank 346th out of 352 NCAA Division 1 teams in points per game (60.5). When the shots aren’t falling, it takes its toll on the intensity needed to play Coach Smith’s defensive scheme. Then, players lose confidence.

In the week of Jan. 22 to 28, the Mustangs suffered two of their worst losses of the season, against Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton.

Cal Poly put up 52 points against Long Beach State and was behind the entire game except for the first minute-and-a-half.

Two days later, the Mustangs came out and put up a mere 36 points against Fullerton, which is the lowest total the team has scored since 2019.

Veteran team had higher expectations

This wasn’t supposed to be how the season went.

The group Smith recruited and brought through the pandemic are now upperclassmen. The program added three transfers to provide a veteran presence and depth, in graduate students Chance Hunter and Nick Fleming and junior Bryan Penn-Johnson. Hunter led the team in three-point shooting for a stretch, Fleming has provided a boost on offense, and Penn-Johnson has had periods of time where he’s lived up to his four-star status.

However, just like the team as a whole, their performance of late hasn’t been consistent enough to get the Mustangs out of their funk. All three players have seen their minutes cut back, and none have started since Jan. 26.

The issues of commitment have become big enough to where the team had a meeting to get everyone on the same page.

“We had a meeting as a group, and that kind of changed the whole mentality and everything of some people on the team. And (when) we came out after, it was there, but we got to be disciplined for the whole 40 minutes,” junior guard Brantly Stevenson said.

After last week’s poor showing, the Mustangs came back and competed against the best team in the Big West, UC Santa Barbara, losing by only six points in the Blue-Green Rivalry game.

Hawaii was another formidable opponent, and the Mustangs remained within striking distance, but foul trouble was the team’s demise this time. The Rainbow Warriors entered the bonus halfway through the second half and put up 24 free throws, converting all but one. On the other side, the Warriors were physical with the Mustangs on defense and made it tough for them to get into offense.

“Obviously, our competitive spirit was better. But you know, the toughness component to go over, you know, trying to get movement offensively was hard because they are physical and we allowed the physicality to hold us up a little bit. But you know, we just got to be better with that,” Smith said.

Coach tries strategies to improve results

Even with a better week, however, the losses continue to mount.

Smith has tried to mix things up to end the skid, shortening his rotation, changing starters and making tweaks to the offense, but despite the modifications, the Mustangs still haven’t put together a well-rounded, well-executed game.

“I mean, it’s tough, 11 games. Honestly, it’s not something to play around with. We gotta keep our heads up, hold everybody together. Make sure everybody’s staying together. That’s basically it,” Stevenson said.

Through the losing streak, Stevenson has been a bright spot for the team.

He’s scored in double digits the past six games. In non-conference play, he was named Big West Player of the Week. His consistent two-way effort and shot-making ability has helped the Mustangs stay afloat.

Luckily, Cal Poly will make the Big West tournament regardless of seeding. UC San Diego is in its transition period to Division 1 and doesn’t qualify to play in March. The Mustangs are one of the older teams in the conference and have the individual talent to turn it around.

“It’s just a mix of everything. Today was not getting stops. We executed better but we there’s definitely a whole other level,” Koroma said on Saturday. “I think we as a team gotta find a way to work through and just try to get this one win.”

The team has preached being together and playing as one going back to last year. With only 8 games left, if the Mustangs are going to make any kind of noise this season, it’s now or never.

Cal Poly’s next matchup is on the road at second-place UC Irvine (15-8, 8-3) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

This story was originally published February 6, 2023 at 9:49 AM.