What happened to Cal Poly basketball? Ousted coach looks back on difficult 5 years

The day after Cal Poly announced it would be parting ways with men’s basketball Coach John Smith, he chatted with the media following the team’s latest loss about the growth he’d seen in his top player.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“I want to show you guys what I’m talking about,” Smith said postgame after the Mustangs fell to Cal State Bakersfield on March 2.

Smith showed a video of Kobe Sanders introducing himself from his freshman season.

“This is Kobe in his freshman year,” Smith said with emotion in his voice. “You look at Kobe now, this ain’t the same dude. You saw a different dude standing in front of me just right now, and that’s what it’s about.”

It was an inspirational moment, but the development of one player was not enough to carry Cal Poly or save Smith’s job.

After the Bakersfield loss, Cal Poly went on to lose its remaining two Big West games, completing an 0-20 conference record and extending its two-season conference losing streak to 38 games.

The Mustangs finished the year with only four wins to go with 28 losses, and it was clear it was time for a change.

But for the coach who spent five years trying to revive a languishing program through a pandemic and major changes to college basketball, nothing came easy, including the answer to one question: Why?

Following the season, Smith sat down with The Tribune to look back at his tenure.

How coach led Cal Poly basketball

Over the past five years, Smith emphasized coaching with the mindset of a father. He wanted to be a mentor who helps his players grow and progress.

Sanders was one of those players who developed tremendously under Smith. He grew from a single-digit scorer in his first three seasons to a 19-points-per-game player who’s now getting attention from high-major college programs.

But while individual players like Sanders experienced growth, Smith’s culture never translated to wins.

Smith’s press conference following the matchup against the Roadrunners came after his final home game at Mott Athletic Center.

After five seasons at the helm of Cal Poly men’s basketball, the program announced on March 1 that it would be parting ways with Smith.

This week, Cal Poly announced his replacement, Mike DeGeorge of Colorado Mesa University, the coach of a Division II program who will be making the jump to Division I to try to do what his predecessor couldn’t: revive a Mustangs’ program that hasn’t had a winning season in more than a decade.

In the past two seasons, the Mustangs managed one conference win in 39 games.

The last time the Mustangs won a conference game was against Cal State Northridge in the Big West opener of the 2022-23 season. Under Smith, the Mustangs never reached double-digit wins in a season.

In his interview with The Tribune, the coach acknowledged that the program experienced failure.

“I took a chance. (Cal Poly) took a chance. And it didn’t work,” he said.

The experience has been something of an unexpected shock for Smith. Before coming to Cal Poly, he had enjoyed success at all his stops.

When he was at Cal State Fullerton, the Titans qualified for the 2018 NCAA Tournament and finished top four in the Big West every season from 2013 to 2019.

At the junior college level, Smith sported a 265-118 record and was inducted into the California Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

“There’s a lot of people taking pot shots at our record and think that’s who I am as a coach,” Smith said. “I haven’t had failure until these last five years.”

To be sure, the struggles aren’t unique to Smith.

Cal Poly has only been at the Division I level for 30 seasons, starting in 1994.

In those three decades, the men’s basketball team has only had winning seasons six times. Its last winning record came in 2012-13, when the Mustangs went 18-14, including a 12-6 record in the Big West.

“It’s a very difficult job because of the academic rigor at Cal Poly,” said Chris Sylvester, who broadcasts Cal Poly games for ESPN+. “I can’t tell you how many times Coach Smith was interested in a player and couldn’t really even get a conversation off the ground because the grades wouldn’t have been good enough to get into Cal Poly.”

Smith’s tenure also intersected with one of the biggest shifts in college sports: the rise of the transfer portal and athletes being able to profit off their name, image and likeness.

Meanwhile, the shifts in college sports also coincided with the pandemic, which drastically impacted the direction of the program.

During that period, the young Mustangs team couldn’t fully practice with their new coach and work through a new system of play.

According to former player Alimamy Koroma, the team couldn’t practice five-on-five and could only do individual workouts.

“He was bringing in his own players. Most of them were freshmen,” said Koroma, who transferred to the University of Portland after last season. “It didn’t really kick off well, and I think that bled over to the next couple of years.”

Looking back at his time at Cal Poly, Koroma said that he wished the team would’ve won more.

“It’s hard to build a DNA of winning when there’s been so much past losing, and that was on the players,” Koroma said. “It’s just losing affects you in a lot of ways, and we sometimes forget how to win.”

What went wrong?

The transfer portal in particular has proved to be both a blessing and a curse for the Mustangs.

Dating back to Smith’s second season in 2020-21, the Mustangs lost leading scorer Junior Ballard to Fresno State. The team also lost promising underclassman forward Dyson Koehler to Weber State.

These losses forced the Mustangs to rely on an inexperienced roster, which led to losing seasons in years two and three.

But at the same time, it was clear the program was building in the right direction with young players like Sanders, Koroma, Brantly Stevenson and Camren Pierce. The Mustangs also found a valuable transfer in Trevon Taylor, a versatile 6-foot-6 forward who could defend and shoot.

In 2022-23, the portal started to work in Smith’s favor heading into the coach’s fourth season, when he and his staff brought in a talented recruiting class.

Chance Hunter was a former All-Big West player at Long Beach State and Cal Baptist. Nick Fleming brought experience and shooting at the point guard position. Bryan Penn-Johnson, a former top 100 recruit in the nation, brought an element of size and athleticism not many other teams in the Big West had. Issac Spears looked to be a promising young guard with athleticism.

In non-conference play last year, the Mustangs won four straight games and nearly beat the University of Washington in what would’ve been the first win over a Pac-12 team in a decade.

But despite the early success, the team started to spiral downwards.

“Our locker room definitely changed after the Washington game,” Smith said, although he declined to elaborate further as to what happened. “Anytime your locker room is compromised, you’re going to lose close games, and you saw that we lost a lot of close games.”

Smith says the team and coaching staff wasn’t as cohesive as he would’ve liked.

“At the end of the day, it falls on me as the leader of the program. But as the leader of the program, there’s things that are out of your control,” Smith said. “When it comes to this program and Cal Poly moving in a different direction, I left them no choice. Our record is our record, and this is a win-loss occupation.”

Following that 8-25 season, Stevenson, Koroma and Pierce transferred to different schools. Hunter, Fleming and Taylor all graduated. Penn-Johnson had to leave the team due to medical reasons.

Sanders was the only remaining player from the team’s core group.

Turn the page to this season, and it’s no surprise the struggles not only continued, but got worse.

Following a loss early this season, Smith said that he “wasn’t expecting” to have nine newcomers to a program, many of whom have never played at the Division I level. The team also gave heavy minutes to two true freshmen: Quentin Jones and Justin Page.

One veteran holdover Julien Franklin was expected to advance and help guide some of the younger players on the roster, but he quit only days into the season. Junior college transfer Cam Malray also departed the team for mental health reasons. Both players have entered the transfer portal.

Junior Logan McLaughlin sustained an injury in the summer and was out for the season.

With a depleted roster and turnover, the Mustangs finished the season 4-28.

After the final game, Sanders, Jones and Page all announced they too would be entering the transfer portal.

Now, Cal Poly will embark on new rebuilding effort, under the leadership of DeGeorge, who guided Colorado Mesa to a 29-5 record, 21-1 in conference, and reached the South Central Regional Championship.

“Whoever gets the job after me is going to be better for what I went through,” said Smith, who expects to look for an assistant-level position as his next job. “I wish nothing the best for Cal Poly and what they’re doing moving forward.”

This story was originally published March 27, 2024 at 5:00 AM.