Cal Poly just beat Stanford. How good will the Mustangs be in Big West play?

In this new iteration of Cal Poly men’s basketball led by first-year head coach Mike DeGeorge, the program has already made history.

After defeating Stanford 97-90 on Saturday, Cal Poly (5-4) earned its first-ever win against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent and defeated the Cardinal for the first time since 1976.

It’s also the Mustangs first time defeating a Power 4 opponent since Cal Poly defeated No. 11 UCLA in 2012 under former head coach Joe Callero.

But this team and Callero’s Mustangs couldn’t be more different.

Under Callero, the Mustangs played at a slow pace, and the 2012 Cal Poly team averaged 64 points a game. The year prior to beating UCLA, the Mustangs beat USC in a 42-36 slugfest.

Compare that pace and style to the current Cal Poly team, and it’s a complete shift.

Through nine games this season, Cal Poly is averaging 82 points per game and is playing at a breakneck pace.

According to Synergy Stats, the Mustangs are in the 99th percentile in transition frequency with 25% of their possessions coming on the break.

In the 2012-13 season, Cal Poly got on the break on only 11% of their possessions, which ranked in the 11th percentile.

The present-day Mustangs also increased their 3-point shooting and now lead Big West teams in attempts from distance.

One thing DeGeorge emphasized when he was hired was his use of an analytically driven play style, derived from years of tinkering and experimenting.

DeGeorge compared their practices to soccer, where the team plays through different scenarios, from manipulating the shot clock or setting certain rules about how the team needs to play.

The outcome has been a style that has bothered multiple high-level teams. The head coaches of the University of San Francisco and Arizona State talked about in post-game media interviews, saying that although their teams had an idea of what to expect, it was hard to keep up with the pace.

“That was really an offensive clinic put on by Cal Poly,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said. “They’re able to compete so hard for 40 minutes.”

Cal Poly lost by four and eight points to the Dons and Sun Devils, respectively. But players felt they could’ve won even more of these early season matchups.

“We felt in the early season games against San Francisco and Arizona State, we let it slip,” said graduate guard Jarred Hyder, one of the few returners from last year’s team. “We weren’t happy with being close, but we knew that we wanted to get one of those big wins under our belt, especially coming up close back to back.”

How the Mustangs stack up in the Big West

Now, the games really count as the Mustangs begin Big West play, where they were picked to finish last in the Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

Already, the Mustangs have won more games than last year’s dismal 4-28 team, which finished the season on a 20-game losing streak that saw them go winless in Big West play.

That begins Thursday night on the road against UC Davis (3-4) before the Big West home opener against 6-2 Cal State Northridge on Saturday.

That preseason prediction suddenly looks very outdated, and It was unclear across the conference what the team would look like.

Key players such as Kobe Sanders departed, leaving the roster filled with a few holdovers and many players from DeGeorge’s last stop at Colorado Mesa.

However, those players, along with Hyder, have been the driving force for Cal Poly this year.

Forward Owen Koonce scored 30 points against Stanford and was named Big West Player of the Week. Senior guard Issac Jessup added 21 points on five 3-pointers, including a stretch in the second half where he made three straight shots from beyond the arc to give the Mustangs their first lead of the game.

Hyder is the primary returner who’s been a key piece. The sixth-year college player is averaging 13.8 points. The coaching staff made an effort to keep him and believed he was an ideal fit in their system with his combination of guard skills and feel for the game.

“I’m used to just heavy pick and rolls and things like that., so playing this style has definitely opened my eyes to different ways the game could be played,” Hyder said.

He added that at the beginning stages of hearing about the new system, it was “kind of scary” since the coaching staff has de-emphasized mid-range shots, which is a strong part of Hyder’s game.

“Once we actually implemented it over the summer and got reps in it, you could tell that it was going to work and it was going to be fun to play in, just because of how free flowing it is and how much freedom you have within the offense,” Hyder said.

One question heading into Big West play is how the Mustangs will handle their opponents’ size and rebounding.

UC Irvine is one of those teams and often features towering centers as a staple to their identity.

The Anteaters sport a player over 7 feet tall as one of their primary options in Bent Leuchten. They are the projected conference favorite, according to the coaches’ poll and the NCAA’s NET Rank, and are off to an 8-0 start.

Coming into the season, the Cal Poly’s staff did an analysis of the rest of the Big West on their style of play.

They found nearly every team plays a traditional center the entire game but discovered the centers didn’t add much value on a points-per-possession basis.

Their hope is this new style of play will neutralize centers on the floor.

The team has been tested early against some of the best big men in the nation, such as Arizona State’s five-star prospect and future potential NBA Lottery pick Jayden Quaintance, Saint Mary’s veteran big man Mitchell Saxen and Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud.

The team has a tool to deal with dominant centers: former two-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year Mac Riniker.

Riniker uses his strength to hold players from getting good positioning and uses his defensive smarts to make sure post players have trouble getting the ball.

Already, Riniker has also made two game-winning defensive plays this season. The 6-foot-5 guard made a game-winning steal and layup against Seattle University and a stop against on a Grambling State layup that would’ve gave them the win.

Riniker has guarded every position, from towering centers to small, quick guards. He’s contributed on offense, averaging 11 points per game and making 40% of his 3-pointers.

Against Stanford, the Mustangs faced arguably their hardest test in Raynaud, a 7-foot-1 center from France who averages 22 points per game and 12 rebounds.

Raynaud scored 21 points and grabbed five rebounds in the loss, but Cal Poly was able to take advantage of him defensively and draw him out of the paint.

On the other end, Cal Poly made his catches in the post difficult and swarmed him once he got the ball. Even if he did score, the Mustangs pushed the ball the other way before he could get back.

DeGeorge said their swarming scheme “really disrupted their overall flow.”

“The other thing that is part of it is this psychology of the whole thing that, if he does get us and they gain an advantage and they finish it, that’s fine. Let’s just put it right back on him before they even know what happens and and make them do it again,” DeGeorge said.

DeGeorge and his staff are bringing a unique style of play to the Big West. It’s far removed from the slow-paced games of the Callero era and the structured offensive style of John Smith, but it is a distinct identity.

After the Mustangs beat UCLA in 2012, they went on to an 18-14 season and earned a bid to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The following year the team earned its first-ever NCAA Tournament postseason bid after winning the Big West Conference Tournament.

This team will only have one shot together before losing many of its transfers from Colorado Mesa and Hyder to graduation, but the season can serve as a glimpse into what the future could look like for the Mustangs.