New season. New faces.
The Cal Poly men’s basketball team lost to TCU, 53-46, last Friday in the season opener, but with freshmen forwards Brian Bennett and Zach Gordon combining for 17 points and 17 rebounds in their Cal Poly debuts, the future of the Cal Poly basketball program looks promising, head coach Joe Callero said.
“They are going to be exciting for fans to watch,” Callero said. “I was concerned about our ability to rebound at this level and our freshmen answered the bell. (Their debut) was quite impressive, especially with an opponent like TCU.”
The Mustangs will try and even their record in the home opener this Thursday against Northern Colorado in Mott Gym at 7 p.m.
As the nation’s best 3-point shooting team last year, the Bears put up a school NCAA Division I record 127 points against Southwest last Saturday.
“We know they can score it,” Callero said. “We are looking at a team that is real skilled. We’re not going to stop them from scoring, but we’ve got to limit them. They are a very similar team to us. They have three outstanding shooters. They’ve got some big kids in the middle too.
The Mustangs finished last season an even 8-8 in the Big West Conference, earning the No. 4 seed in the Big West tournament, where they eventually lost to UC Santa Barbara in the semifinals, 64-52.
In last week’s loss against TCU, the Mustangs sank 35.2 percent of their field goals and 26.7 percent of their 3-pointers, while compiling 12 turnovers and 18 personal fouls.
“I think it’s important that we establish some offensive improvement,” Callero said. “We scored 21 points at half which is not enough to be a good consistent team. I’m convinced that defensively we are going to be there from night to night. We’ve got to be more consistently attacking the ball movement.”
Callero in the Mustangs are looking to improve on the road after going 2-6 in Big West opponents’ venues last season, while also taking advantage of nonconference games against Pac-12 teams such as UCLA and Washington.
“We don’t want to just go play them,” Callero said. “We want to knock off a couple of them and learn from them. It’s not enough to say you played close and you played well. We as a team feel like we are experienced enough. We can go into any venue and make it a highly competitive game.”
Big West play begins on the road on Dec. 29 at 1 p.m. against UC Riverside, but for now the Mustangs will focus on nonconference play, as they host Fresno State on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m in Mott Gym.
“We feel like we can compete with anybody,” Callero said.
Women’s basketball
Coming off of a 12-4, first-place finish last season and back-to-back Big West titles, the Cal Poly women’s basketball team is off to an impressive start.
Following a loss to Oklahoma State, the Mustangs upset Pac-12 Oregon State, 77-62 on Monday with a career-high 27-point game from sophomore Ariana Elegado.
Elagado was one of four Mustangs to put up double-figures, with Kayla Griffin, Molly Schlemer and Kristen Ale adding 15, 10 and 10 points, respectively.
Reigning Big West Player of the Year Kistina Santiago, who averaged 23.4 points per game, Ashlee Burns and Kristine Martin, two more of last year’s top five scorers, have all graduated, meaning the Mustangs will need plenty of teamwork and assistance from underclassmen to fill the void.
The Mustangs host San Diego this Saturday at 2 p.m. in Mott Gym, and will face another Pac-12 opponent on the road in No. 13 California on Nov. 19.
Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.
James Corbett and Stephan Teodosescu contributed to this article.