big west cal poly slo

With the start of the college basketball season beginning tonight at midnight when teams can start practicing, it's time for some college news from up in the northern end of SoCal: Cal Poly SLO has now become eligible for post-season play and they've finally made the big time in Big West Conference play. Their game against Idaho on Saturday, January 9 will be carried live nationally on ESPN-2. They've also remodeled Mott Gymnasium, and hopefully it's looking more like a college gym than it did last year. The game will be carried at 11:00 am PST, and is the first live television broadcast ever since the team moved up to D-I in 1994. This is an inter-divisional game in the Big West, and Idaho is picked by many to finish first or second in the Eastern Division of the conference this year. Cal Poly SLO is considered by many to be the consensus top team in the Western Division. The Mustangs were the top scoring team in the West, averaging 84.5 points per game last season, and they ranked an amazing 9th in scoring in the nation.

Last season, the Mustangs were 14-14 overall, 7-9 in the Big West. They were not eligible to advance to the Big West Tournament, but this year, they'll be eligible for post-season play. They return the top eight scorers and virtually every starter except Josh Porter. Last year's freshmen players, Chris Bjorkland, Watende Favors, Jabbar Washington, Brandon Beeson and Jeremiah Mayes combined for more than half the points scored, and Wozniak had just about the other half. Wozniak became the first Cal Poly player to score more than 1,000 points his first two seasons, (1,009). Cal Poly beat every team in their division at least once, except UOP and now that Olokwandi is gone, they could very well take the Western Division.

Steve Fleming (6'-5" Sr. F)
Ben Larson (6'-0" Sr. G)
Mike Wozniak (6'-2" Jr. G)
Watende Favors (6'-2" So. G)
Jeremiah Mayes (6'-8" So. F)
Ross Ketcham (6'-8" Sr. F)
Brandon Beeson (6'-7" So. F)
Jabbar Washington (6'-3" So. G)
Chris Bjorklund (6'-9" So. F)
David Henry (6'-7" Fr. F)
James Grace III (6'-5" Fr. F)
Jason King (5'-9" Fr. G)
Carlos Heard (6'-3" Fr. G)

This is a team with a guard oriented offense, and with the new recruits, it'll only get more guard oriented this season. The team returns some great players. Wozniak will light it up for the Mustangs again this year with his great shooting, and he was named to the Second Team Big West last season after leading the Mustangs in scoring with 20.3 ppg. He also led the league in free throw percentage at 89.0 percent. Chris Bjorklund was named the freshman of the year in the Big West, and this was the second year in a row that Cal Poly earned the top honors; Wozniak won it the year before. Bjorklund averaged 17.3 ppg, and grabbed an impressive 153 rebounds last season. Ross Ketchum also returns, and he was just 3 rebounds short of Chris at 150. Favors also returns as the team's third-leading scorer last year and one of the better rebounders as well, with 95 boards pretty evenly split between offense and defensive. Ketcham was also another leading rebounder and defender with about 109 boards, and he can also shoot too with a nice touch in close, and he averaged 8.5, just a little bit better than Jabbar Washington, who average 8.3. Washington is also a pretty good three point shooter, and he shot about .417 from behind the arc, just slightly under Wozniak's percentage.

The new freshmen will fit in very nicely with coach Schneider's guard oriented system, and they can all shoot. Jason King, a true point guard, is a little speedster with a killer crossover from Redmond, Washington, who can drive, penetrate or pull up for the j with great accuracy, and he's especially adept at dishing the ball and pushing the break. David Henry from Santa Rosa, CA,averaged 17.5 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game at Cardinal Newman High School last season and was named the North Bay League Player of the Year, shooting 84.0 percent at the free throw line, and handing out 5.0 assists per game. James Grace III from San Antonio, Texas, averaged 14.9 points per game and 7.0 rebounds per game last season at MacArthur High School, and shot 52.0 percent from the floor and 75.0 percent from the free throw line. He's ambidextrous and can shoot left or right handed, and has great speed and athletic ability. Carlos Heard from Newport News, Virginia is another great shooter, and he'll add some great defensive capabilities as well.

Cal Poly has a pretty tough pre-season. Following an exhibition game, they open at Fresno State on November 16. That's followed by a game against Simon Fraser, who should be an easy target, and then they follow up with games against several good west coast teams, including SacState, Portland State, Fresno Pacific, and Eastern Washington among others.

In their end of the conference, the West Division, Cal Poly-SLO will face, Cal State Fulllerton, Long Beach State, UC-Irvine, UC-Santa Barbara, and Pacific, and Cal Poly beat every team in the Western Division except Pacific, some more than once (actually they only split with Irvine, which is greatly improved, but which still probably won't challenge for the title). And while Utah State, New Mexico State, and even Idaho may be better overall in the conference as a whole, they play in the Eastern Division, and we'd have to say that it's between Cal Poly and Pacific in the West. While Pacific is without the Candi man, they've got some great new big guys like Tim Johnson (6'-10" Fr. C) from Glenco High in Oregon and Mike Preston (6'-9" Fr. C) from Omaha. And they've also got two twins, Matt and Andy Abernethy who are both 6'-7" and Mike Hahn who is also 6'-7". Pacific could once again be the team that upsets Cal Poly's apple cart, or maybe vice-versa, but at least this season Jeff Schneider's team has something more than pride to fight over. They could actually make it to the dance.