Cal Poly is headed back to the Big West Championships. Here’s what to expect

A losing team and a 20-game skid. A long season with little to show for it. Years spent sitting at the very bottom of the Big West conference standings.

For Cal Poly men’s basketball, failure had begun to feel inevitable.

That all changed last season when Head Coach Mike DeGeorge arrived in San Luis Obispo, guiding the team to a spot in the Big West Championships tournament and an unexpected run to the semifinals.

Now, DeGeorge has the Mustangs (14-18, 10-10 Big West) headed back to the conference tournament, with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line.

It all starts Wednesday in Henderson, Nevada.

How Cal Poly made it to the Big West Championships

After last season’s postseason run, Cal Poly entered the year looking to move past the losing seasons that had defined the program in recent years.

With a young core, it took time for the team to learn how to play together, but the pieces eventually began to click.

Their non-conference schedule to open the season was intentionally built to challenge the team, featuring former conference champions and powerhouse programs that DeGeorge said would prepare the Mustangs for Big West play.

The stretch included wins over Seattle and Redlands, along with a notable victory over Utah. Cal Poly also faced tough tests, falling to UCLA, Montana and Colorado State.

An upset win over Utah on Nov. 20 was the first time in 76 years that Cal Poly men’s basketball came out on top against a Big 12 opponent.

A 5-5 start to the season showed more promise than in recent years and hinted that the Mustangs were beginning to turn a corner.

When conference play officially began in January, however, the team struggled to find consistency. Losses piled up as the Mustangs searched for their footing in Big West play.

Cal Poly eventually responded with one of its strongest stretches of the year.

A 107-79 win over Bakersfield on Jan. 29 sparked a run in which the Mustangs went 6-2, capped by a four-game win streak that came at exactly the right time in the push toward the Big West Championships.

The Mustangs could not have timed their run any better.

That late-season urgency that kept Cal Poly in the postseason hunt last year felt familiar as it surfaced again this season.

It’s become a pattern that has started to define Cal Poly basketball under pressure, and much can be credited to the culture DeGeorge has created.

“You got to build a culture where people trust each other and where people’s focus is just on getting better and growing all the time,” DeGeorge told the Tribune. “The more committed (the team) gets to each other and into the process, the outcome ends up taking care of itself.”

Earlier this season, Cal Poly dropped its Blue-Green rivalry game on the road to UC Santa Barbara 107-67, a loss DeGeorge said rattled the team and shook its confidence.

After spending much of this season fighting to stay in the Big West race, the Mustangs then pieced together four straight wins in February when it mattered most. Three of their wins came against the top teams in the standings.

“Their ability to respond to that adversity, and then really play their best basketball after that, to me, is really impressive,” DeGeorge said.

The run began with an upset home win over UC Irvine. Cal Poly followed it by avenging a 40-point loss to UC Santa Barbara, beating Hawaiʻi and defeating Long Beach to secure the No. 8 seed in Henderson.

Players to watch for the Mustangs

The Mustangs are fueled by Hamad Mousa, who has emerged as one of the team’s most reliable playmakers.

A transfer from Dayton, Mousa made his presence felt immediately after arriving in San Luis Obispo. He quickly carved out a major role in the rotation, standing at 6-foot-8.

His performances have been nothing but consistent, helping drive Cal Poly’s late-season push and giving the Mustangs a steady presence as they head into the Big West Tournament.

Mousa’s versatility makes him difficult to defend. If opponents don’t close out aggressively, he can shoot over them. When defenders pressure him, he can drive past them, create for an open teammate or finish at the rim.

He has spent much of the season at the top of the Big West Conference scoring leaderboard, averaging 20.4 points per game.

“He’s a significant threat at the offensive end, but we’ve been proud of his growth defensively, and rebounding the basketball,” DeGeorge said. “I think he’s got another level in him this next week.”

Cayden Ward and Peter Bandelj both know what it is like to play high-stakes basketball in Henderson. The two were part of last year’s squad and earned significant minutes in their first seasons with the program.

Ward is second on the team in scoring, averaging 14.6 points per game behind Mousa. One of his best games of the season came against Big 12 Utah, where Ward recorded a career-high 28 points.

He later matched that total in Cal Poly’s Big West Tournament-clinching win over Long Beach on Feb. 26.

Trailing Ward is Bandelj, who averages 13.2 points per game and leads the Mustangs defensively with a team-high 37 steals.

“I think we are capable of playing at a high level now, and our guys will come in confident,” DeGeorge said. “The guys that returned had a taste of success last year. It doesn’t feel like it’s impossible.”

Big West Championships preview

To win the tournament, No. 8 Cal Poly will need to string together four wins in four days, beginning with No. 5 seed UC San Diego (22-10, 12-8 Big West) in the first round.

The Mustangs most recently faced the Tritons on Feb. 28, in a road loss that ended their late-season winning streak. Turnovers proved costly as UCSD outscored Cal Poly 21-0 in points off turnovers.

In their previous meeting, the Mustangs defeated the Tritons at home 67-65.

“We have to be more active defensively to create more deflections, and then we just have to take way better care of the ball,” DeGeorge said. “I do think there is an advantage when you’ve lost recently to an opponent because you get an opportunity to get right some of the things you didn’t do as well.”

In the other first-round game, No. 6 UC Davis will take on No. 7 UCSB. Both finished with identical records of 18-13, 11-9 Big West.

Meanwhile, the other four teams will watch and wait to see who they play.

The top two seeds, No. 1 UC Irvine (22-10, 15-5 Big West) and No. 2 Hawaii (22-8, 14-6 Big West), earned double byes and will not take the court until Friday’s semifinals.

The only way Cal Poly would see either team again is by advancing to Friday’s semifinals. If the Mustangs can survive the opening rounds, it would set up a rematch of last year’s Big West semifinal against UC Irvine.

No. 3 Cal State Fullerton (17-15, 12-8 Big West) and No. 4 CSUN (19-13, 12-8 Big West) received a single bye and will begin play in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

If Cal Poly wins, it would face CSUN in the second round.

The Mustangs dropped both meetings with CSUN during conference play, though each game was decided by narrow margins. On Jan. 8, the Mustangs fell 95-90, and on Feb. 5, CSUN edged out a one-point win, 98-97.

A win there would send Cal Poly to face UC Irvine on Friday.

“We’ve found our formula for success periodically throughout the season,” DeGeorge said. “We’ve beaten everybody in the tournament except for CSUN, so we certainly know we can beat any of these teams.”

Now it comes down to surviving and playing their best basketball in Henderson, Nevada, with a trip to the Big Dance on the line. The Mustangs haven’t played on the national stage since 2014.

Cal Poly traveled to Henderson on Monday and will tip off the opening round on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Lee’s Family Forum. The game will be livestreamed on ESPN+.

This story was originally published March 10, 2026 at 10:17 AM.