Frank StranzlNight and day, apples and oranges, Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb.
They have nothing in common except for the fundamental concept of existence, yet they are all associated in some way. It’s a bit like the women’s basketball team that showed up to play University of the Pacific last Thursday and the team that played Cal State Northridge on Saturday.
The team that played on Thursday, “Team A” for all intensive purposes, shot a collective 25.6 percent from the field, including an 0-for-18 spot from three-point range. Add to the equation an 11-for-23 free-throw showing and there are only a few words you can use to accurately describe the team’s offensive performance: miserable, depressing, woeful, or just plain bad are the first to come to mind.
Team B had a slightly better showing on Saturday – and by slightly I mean the two teams might as well be polar opposites. The team that played Northridge shot 45.5 percent for the game and drained five three-pointers. Although the sample size from the free-throw line was significantly smaller, the team did make eight-of-nine from the charity stripe.
The Cal Poly women’s basketball team fell to Pacific 87-53 for the Tigers’ fifth win of the season (they’re just 2-5 in Big West play) and rebounded to defeat Northridge 83-53, a team with similar credentials to those of Pacific.
I wasn’t at either game (both were played on the road), but any Average Joe looking at the box scores could decipher a pair of games in stark contrast of each other. One team is 34 points worse than a team tied for last in the conference and the other is 30 points better than a team also tied for last.
Now, I can’t be too tough on the team. After all, the Mustangs are 5-2 through the first half of Big West play, good enough for second place. But you have to wonder what happened in those two losses, which the team lost by a combined 64 points.
The question is: Which team will show up for the second half of conference play?
The Mustangs have a huge game against rivals UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, and the Gauchos will undoubtedly be out for blood so to speak. Cal Poly upset the Gauchos in the Thunderdome on Jan. 21 for Cal Poly’s first win at UCSB since 1983.
Mustang Maniacs assemble, and see if this weekend’s game can top the attendance average of an abysmal 175 fans per-home-game for women’s basketball.