Stephan Teodosescu
steodosescu@mustangdaily.net
Ever since head coach Joe Callero stepped on campus four years ago, he’s made a point of building the Cal Poly men’s basketball team into a top contender in the Big West Conference.
He’s done that by piecing together an increasingly competitive nonconference schedule each season and bringing in talent that other schools with major basketball programs might have passed on to fill the needs of his team.
And in his latest announcement Monday, Callero kept with tradition and glued together several more key pieces by adding two additional players to an already strong backcourt: 6-foot-4 guard David Nwaba from Santa Monica College and 6-foot guard Andy Rowley from Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo.
“We have depth and ball handling (now),” Callero said. “We have a good blend of experience and athleticism, size and quickness. I think it’s the best depth and talent overall we’ve had in this going into my fifth year.”
On top of that, the Mustangs will play a slew of games against teams from major conferences next season. Certainly, opening the year against likely top-10 ranked Arizona at a raucous McKale Center in Tucson won’t be easy. But neither was beating UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in 2012.
A schedule of nationally recognized opponents won’t end there, as the Mustangs have entered agreements to play at Pittsburgh, Stanford and Fresno State while hosting Nevada and Santa Clara as well, Callero said.
“I think that the challenges that we’re going to be faced with in this schedule are exciting because it’s the most prestigious schedule we’ve put together,” Callero said. “When you roll off the names of the teams that you’re playing, it gets our recruits’ attention, it gets our alumni attention and it gets our current students’ attention.”
Cal Poly showed it belonged among those bigger names in college basketball, though, when the team upset No.11 UCLA last November on its home floor. The win marked the second time in as many years the Mustangs took down a Pac-12 opponent after defeating USC in 2011.
“(Callero) keeps raising the bar,” last season’s leading scorer and junior forward Chris Eversley said. “We start off the season at Arizona, so we’ve got to go in there and get another Pac-12 win.”
The Mustangs will try to do that with the help of their exceptionally deep backcourt. Along with incoming freshmen Markel Leonard of Salesian High School, Ridge Shipley of Hebron High School (Carrollton, Texas) and Taylor Sutlive of Churchill High School (San Antonio, Texas), Nwaba will headline the newcomers.
Nwaba, who was named Western State Conference South Division Player of the Year after averaging 20.5 points and almost nine rebounds per game during his 2012-13 freshman season at Santa Monica, will be the tallest guard in the Mustangs’ lineup next season.
While he was a promising athlete out of University High School in Los Angeles last year, Nwaba’s on-court skills seem to fall within a gray area, Callero said. He doesn’t quite have the shooting touch to be a shooting guard, but can run the court like a guard. On the flip side, he’s not quite tall enough to be a forward, but can rebound like one.
Cal Poly fans might recognize that his game is similar to that of former swingman Shawn Lewis’ style, Callero added.
“He doesn’t shoot a lot of 3s, doesn’t post up, but he’s a real attacker and has a mid-range game,” Callero said. “As (Santa Monica coach Jerome Jenkins) said, if he had stayed one more year at this junior college, there’s no way we would’ve got him. We really felt like he would have blown up and been really a high major player.”
Rowley will be the second player in as many years out of nearby Mission Prep to join Cal Poly after redshirt freshman Zach Allmon did so a season ago. He was named to the All-California Interscholastic Federation 5-AA team after helping the Royals to a 24-9 record and a second-round berth in the Division V state tournament this season.
The lineup will also be bolstered by the return of junior guard Maliik Love, who broke a bone in his foot before the beginning of last season and was forced to redshirt after foot surgery. He was considered to be a top candidate in running the point guard position before his injury.
“It’s amazing to get back out here,” Love said. “I’m actually 10 pounds lighter and more in shape coming off the surgery. It’s gonna be a big year, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.”
Despite returning three starters and eight players overall, including Love, from last year’s squad that made it to the semifinal round of the Big West Conference Tournament, Cal Poly will be without its top assistant coach from last season.
Omar Lowrey, a huge recruiting presence for Cal Poly who was responsible for bringing in Shipley and Eversley among other Midwestern-based players, is headed to San Jose State to coach in a similar capacity for the Spartans.
While Callero said he’s not pressing for a replacement at this point in the year, he’d like to name a new coach by the end of July, the heaviest period of out-of-state recruitment.
“We’re not going to make a quick, knee-jerk hire,” Callero said. “We’re going to make a slow, methodical, professional, best-for-the program hire.”
The team also confirmed Monday that Allmon and fellow redshirt freshman Joshua Hall have decided to transfer — Allmon to an NAIA institution in Southern California and Hall to a junior college in his home state of Washington.
Nevertheless, the Mustangs are set on making a deep run in the conference tournament with the newfound talent gracing Mott Athletics Center.
“With those two recruits (Nwaba and Rowley) we just got in, that completed the puzzle,” Love said. “So, I think we’ll be ready for league and to take on any big team.”