Cal Poly men’s basketball team searching for answers after Hawaii loss

As difficult as the last few months have been for the Cal Poly men’s basketball team, head coach Joe Callero knows nobody in the Big West Conference has any sympathy for the sliding Mustangs.

Sitting in the postgame press conference following a 75-60 loss against first-place Hawaii on Saturday night, Callero delivered a pointed message. The Mustangs played well for the first half, but when things got tough after the break, he saw heads start to hang and body language that “made me sick.”

“I was very heated with our team,” the seventh-year head coach said. “I only get heated a couple times a year, and this was as heated as I’ve been with the team because the general feeling was a little bit of a pity party.”

There’s no question Cal Poly (8-14, 2-7 Big West) had higher expectations coming into this season. Those aspirations can still be met, and that’s what makes the Big West Conference Tournament so exciting. But Saturday’s contest showed just how far these Mustangs still have to go to win on nightly basis.

A veteran Hawaii team — now 18-3 overall and tied with UC Irvine for first in the Big West at 7-1 — used separate second-half runs of 9-0 and 12-0 to hand Cal Poly its fourth consecutive defeat.

With an ESPNU broadcast crew on hand, Mott Athletics Center sold out for the third time this season, the most in Callero’s tenure. The palpable first-half energy was zapped in the opening minutes of the second, as Hawaii built a comfortable lead and was never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

“I think sometimes we push a little bit to make a play that we wouldn’t normally,” said senior guard Reese Morgan, who scored all of his team-high 10 points in the second half. “If we’re gonna kind of turn this season around and get some wins, we’re gonna have to remedy that.

“We can’t beat these good teams in conference playing well for 30 minutes. It’s just not going to cut it.”

Since beating Fresno State at home back on Dec. 5 — arguably the best win of the season and one of the top nonconference victories in Callero’s career — the Mustangs have regressed.

Cal Poly, which is now tied with Cal State Fullerton for last in the Big West standings, has lost 11 of its past 14 games since beating the Bulldogs. The natural attrition of a five-month season has been a factor, with veterans Brian Bennett, Joel Awich and Ridge Shipley both playing through significant injuries.

That’s also paved the way for a 10-man rotation and allowed newcomers Josh Martin and Jaylen Shead to get more playing time. The two freshmen have been among the most exciting players to watch during the second half of the season.

The 6-foot-8, 212-pound Martin possesses leaping ability not seen on a nightly basis in the Big West. His transition dunk in the first half against Hawaii was end-of-the-year highlight-reel material, and he finished the game with eight points and three rebounds in 19 minutes.

In Shead, the true freshman point guard from Texas, the Mustangs have found their most capable dribble penetrator. He was effective getting into the key against a long UC Irvine team earlier in the week, and that prompted Callero to insert Shead into the starting lineup Saturday night.

Making his first collegiate start, Shead scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds and handed out five assists with no turnovers. He also played a season-high 29 minutes, often matching up with Big West Defensive Player of the Year Roderick Bobbitt at both ends of the court.

“The coaches have been telling me to attack more,” Shead said, “and my team has given me more confidence about getting to the basket, because I can be aggressive.”

If Martin and Shead are the future of Cal Poly basketball, the team is headed in an exciting direction long term. For now, they’ll be counted on as role players in the middle of a trying season that is inching closer to the conference tournament.

Unless the Mustangs can make a strong push through the rest of February, they’ll be looking at a first-round matchup against UC Irvine or Hawaii. The Rainbow Warriors seem to be the more complete team, barring any major injuries.

Callero called Hawaii’s Stefan Jankovic “the most skilled man we’ve played against in seven years as a post player.”

He scored 19 points and pulled down nine rebounds — both game highs — to go with two assists and no turnovers in 28 minutes. Bobbitt turned in a typically balanced performance, finishing the game with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Cal Poly will face perhaps the most athletic team in the conference this week when it goes to Long Beach State for a 7 p.m. game Thursday. The Mustangs earned one of their two Big West victories against the 49ers, a 96-92 double-overtime decision, back on Jan. 16.

If there’s going to be improvement on the immediate horizon, Callero said the team’s response to failure has to have “much more fight to it.” He saw that in Shead, and the rest need to follow the freshman’s lead.

“We’ve got eight, nine veterans out there,” Callero said, “that have played some college basketball who need to have that kind of passion for the game.”

This story was originally published February 7, 2016 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Cal Poly men’s basketball team searching for answers after Hawaii loss."