COLLEGE BASKETBALL PREVIEW : Cal Poly Meek No More, but Southern Utah Still Boss in AWC
A comforting fact for men’s basketball teams in the American West Conference was supposed to be that they at least had Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to kick around.
Not anymore.
Cal Poly, 1-26 last season when it was considered the worst Division I team in the nation, has turned the AWC on its collective head with a 9-9 record. The Mustangs beat Cal State Sacramento, 102-86, in a conference opener last weekend.
The AWC favorite remains defending champion Southern Utah (9-8), which will play Cal State Northridge (4-13) in an AWC opener tonight at 6:30 in Cedar City, Utah.
Still, Cal Poly has opened some eyes.
“When that team walked in here, for about 10 minutes they just put unreal relentless pressure on us,” Sacramento Coach Don Newman said. “They knocked us back on our heels and they didn’t stop.”
Cal Poly began to rebound when Coach Jeff Schneider was hired in April. Schneider brought in three freshman he knew from recruiting for Tulsa and Washington State.
Guard Ben Larson from Elkhart, Ind.; swingman Da’Monn Sanders from Tulsa, Okla., and forward Quency Turner from Garland, Tex., are all starting for the Mustangs. And add to the mix Damien Levesque, last year’s leading scorer.
Two other returners, junior guard Colin Bryant, who is averaging 17.1 points, and junior guard Shanta Cotright, who is averaging 16.9, are the conference’s leading scorers.
The Mustangs’ high-pressure, full-court game is forcing opponents into an average of 22.7 turnovers.
Next year could be the one for the Mustangs, though, because they don’t have a senior on the roster.
Southern Utah is still favored to win the conference because of its experience and a home court on which the Thunderbirds are 121-17 since 1985.
Guard Reggie Ingram, the most valuable player in the AWC tournament last season, is the only starter back from a 17-11 team that has five returning letter winners. Swingman Jon Gaines averages a team-high 16 points.
Southern Utah doesn’t have a starter taller than 6 feet 6, but 6-8 Don Faux plays 25 minutes a game, averaging 8.1 points.
In contrast to Cal Poly, Southern Utah plays a straight half-court game.
Sacramento (4-14) seems to match up most evenly with Northridge. The Hornets were 6-21 last season, losing twice to Northridge.
The Hornets have lost 10 of 11 games. They are also the only team in the AWC shooting worse--39.5%--than Northridge (41.3%).
Sacramento’s leading scorer is senior forward Abie Ramirez, who is averaging 12.6 points. Ramirez leads the conference with averages of 8.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks.
Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said the Matadors can salvage their season with good performances in their six conference games. Northridge will host the conference tournament in March.
“This is the second season now and that’s all that counts,” he said.
Northridge nearly accomplished that feat last season, but it lost the tournament championship to Southern Utah, 83-82, on Ingram’s 10-footer with six seconds left.