Cuesta men’s basketball team set to host 48th annual Rabobank Tournament

The Cuesta College men’s basketball team is scheduled to begin its 2016-17 season this weekend when the Cougars host the 48th annual Rabobank Tournament at Cuesta Gym.

The three-day tournament will feature six teams this year instead of the usual eight, with Cuesta, Allan Hancock, Saddleback, West Valley, College of the Sequoias and West Hills playing three games apiece.

The Cougars will face West Valley at 8 p.m. Friday, Sequoias at 7 p.m. Saturday, and close out the weekend against West Hills at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Cuesta is coming off a 22-win season a year ago that ended in the first round of the California Community College Athletics Association playoffs. The Cougars have to replace four all-conference performers now that Roberto Mantovani, Benat Hevia, Evgeniy Moiseev and Rafail Eleftheriou have moved on.

“I’m very optimistic about our chances for this year,” said head coach Rusty Blair, who is entering his 25th season at Cuesta.

Fall jamborees in Los Angeles and San Francisco gave Blair and his coaching staff an opportunity to evaluate the roster despite having limited practice time. Some of the lingering questions stemming from those games have been answered in practice over the past month, and Blair said he’s looking forward to playing at home this weekend.

The most likely candidate to lead the Cougars early on is sophomore Kerem Ozel, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound guard from Turkey. Ozel was a 30-game starter last season and averaged 13.4 points, 3.1 assists and 2.3 rebounds per contest. He shot a team-high 49.4 percent from the field and 78 percent at the free-throw line.

“He’s a scoring point guard,” Blair said, “which we’re going to need.”

Sophomore guard Andres Aguado is expected to start alongside Ozel in the backcourt.

Aguado, a native of Malaga, Spain, came off the bench for most of his freshman season, averaging 6.6 points and 1.6 rebounds per game. Aguado delivered a memorable 26-point performance during a Western State Conference win over Moorpark last January, when he went 8-for-9 from behind the 3-point line.

“He’s been on a real tear,” Blair said. “He’s been unstoppable in practice.”

Sophomore Joey Liem brings even more international experience to Cuesta’s starting lineup. The 6-5, 200-pound small forward from the Netherlands played for the Dutch under-20 junior national team this year, Blair said, and he projects to be a consistent double-digit scorer.

Noah Saunders, a 6-6, 185-pound forward, will be counted on for his rebounding ability, given the Cougars’ relative lack of an interior presence. Blair said Saunders comes from a military family and had multiple Division II offers but decided to attend Cuesta when his father was transferred to California.

“He’s a Division I player,” Blair added. “If he stays with us for two years, he’ll have some definite looks.

“He’s the type of kid you like to have on your team.”

Sophomore Ryan Gilroy will round out the starting lineup as an undersized center.

At 6-4 and 195 pounds, Blair said Gilroy will “kind of be the glue to the team” and was chosen as the team captain. He won’t be expected to produce the same way the bruising 6-9 Mantovani did last fall when he averaged a double-double with more than 15 points and 11 rebounds per contest.

“We have really good shooters, so it shouldn’t be a problem scoring,” Blair said. “It’s just going to be a problem if we can’t play fundamental enough to block out aggressive rebounding teams, to get rebounds.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Cuesta men’s basketball team set to host 48th annual Rabobank Tournament."