UC San Diego shows Cal Poly the gap — and the path — to Big West relevance in 81-67 win

Five years after making the jump to Division 1, UC San Diego has risen to the top of the Big West. With many players from the Division 2 level, the Tritons are on the verge of earning an at-large to the NCAA Tournament.

In many ways, the Tritons’ rise is something Cal Poly wants to emulate.

Mike DeGeorge along with his staff and many players came from the Division 2 level. The translation has had its ups and downs with a win over Stanford and the end of the program’s long-standing conference losing streak, but that only came after the Mustangs opened Big West play with nine straight defeats.

The Mustangs’ 81-67 loss to the Tritons at Mott Athletic Center on Thursday showed how far the team needs to go in order to be a championship contender, but it also shows the potential of the program.

Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones transferred to UC San Diego in 2023 from Division 2 Hawai’i Hilo. He finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds and is contention for Big West Player of the Year.

Tyler McGhie scored 17 points. He came to La Jolla from Southern Nazerene. The same goes for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year watchlist member Hayden Grey.

“They’ve done an incredible job evaluating talent,” DeGeorge said. “They’ve done a great job of evaluating who’s going to translate well into their system.”

Even in terms of play style, the Tritons and Mustangs have many similarities. Both teams use ball movement and a fast style of play to fuel their offense. Defensively, they do lots of switching and play with versatile pieces.

The difference in the game, according to DeGeorge, was the mental aspect.

“We have to be fully committed as a group, and I really did not think it was a good mental night for us,” DeGeorge said. “We were a little disconnected on the floor. We missed some significant rotations, box-outs, communications, scramble situations. We just weren’t engaged at the defensive end consistently, like you need to be to beat the team of that caliber.”

The team saw poor shooting nights from its two leading scorers, Jarred Hyder and Owen Koonce. The two graduate students combined for four of 19 shooting. Koonce also dealt with foul trouble.

Cayden Ward and Issac Jessup kept the Mustangs in the game with their 3-point shooting. Ward also found slivers in the defense to convert around the basket.

At the same time as the Mustangs’ game, Cal State Bakersfield defeated UC Davis to give them a 1.5-game advantage over Cal Poly in the standings. With five games left in the season, the Mustangs need to win at least a majority of their game to have a shot to make it into the Big West Tournament in the eighth spot.

“It’s gonna take, like, 100% commitment from everybody on the roster, during practice, during game day,” Jessup said. “We can’t have this. We just gotta believe in ourselves and we gotta trust each other to do what you know we’re trying to do on offense.”

Ward added that the Mustangs are one of the most experienced teams in the conference.

“We got to band together to do it,” Ward said.

Cal Poly plays UC Riverside at home on Saturday.