Patrick TrautfieldTo Cal Poly men’s basketball head coach Kevin Bromley, a rivalry on the hardwood is gradually building between his program and UC Davis.
Part of it, no surprise, is because the Aggies will officially join the Big West Conference next year. The other part is more intriguing – Cal Poly’s storied Horseshoe Classic rivalry with UC Davis in football.
“I think our rivalry with football helps that,” Bromley said Monday at a weekly press conference. “I think it’ll end up developing into something pretty good over the years as Davis ends up being in our conference.”
An early glimpse at the budding rivalry can be seen tonight when UC Davis (2-11), in its final year of transitioning from the Division II ranks, visits Cal Poly (6-8, 1-3 Big West) at 7 p.m. in Mott Gym.
“They’re going to be an integral part of this conference,” Bromley said. “They bring a lot to the conference. They’re very competitive in all their sports. It’s a good academic school. I really like that in the conference.”
Although the Mustangs own a 22-11 advantage in the all-time series, which began in 1946, they have lost all four games against the Aggies since the schools started playing each other home-and-away in the 2004-05 season. And the games haven’t been all that close, with Cal Poly losing 79-56, 85-65, 65-52 and 83-70.
Cal Poly feels like that can change this season, partly because it is 5-2 at home and UC Davis is 0-6 on the road while being outscored by an average of 14.8 points per game on the season.
Like the Mustangs, the Aggies have only three seniors on their roster. That has led to early struggles for UC Davis in both field-goal shooting (38.8 percent) and turnovers (19.6 per game).
The silver lining for the Aggies might be an aggressive defense that comes up with 7.7 steals per game.
“They try to make it ugly,” Bromley said of UC Davis’ style. “They press you. They kind of changed their offensive scheme a little bit this year.”
As for Cal Poly, it’s been an up-and-down season that includes a three-game winning streak followed by two separate two-game losing skids. The latter is exactly what the Mustangs are coming off, suffering consecutive Big West defeats last week at UC Irvine (66-62) and Long Beach State (77-70).
“I like how we competed the last two games, a lot different from San Jose State,” Bromley said, referring to an 80-63 loss at San Jose State (1-13) on Dec. 3.
Bromley said one aspect his team must improve from its last two games is defense in the half-court set.
“Our secondary defense, like our zones, need to get better,” he said. “I didn’t think we guarded the ball very well in both of those. We have kind of a matchup zone 2-3. I thought those were poor. We’re going to work on those. We still have a lot of work to do on our defense.”
One benefit for Cal Poly so far this season has been using the same starting lineup in all 14 games – sophomore point guard Trae Clark, junior shooting guard Dawin Whiten, senior small forward Derek Stockalper, senior power forward Tyler McGinn and sophomore center Titus Shelton.
Bromley, though, said the starting five is “not set in stone” and that spots are determined on the practice floor.
“It’s for guys during the week to take that position from them,” he said. “You like your rotation where the kids kind of know when they’re coming in and when they’re leaving so they can get locked into a comfortable rhythm in the game, but that’s earned in practice.
“If we weren’t playing well and it didn’t look like our assist-to-turnover ratio was very good and we didn’t have great chemistry, obviously, I think you have to keep trying some new lineups. I like our assist-to-turnover ratio right now. We’re sharing the basketball, we’re taking good shots and playing hard. You keep doing those things and you’ll finally get the ‘W.'”
Each of the five starters brings something different to the table – Clark (3.1 assists per game), Whiten (11.9 points per game), Stockalper (12.6 ppg, 6.4 rebounds per game), McGinn (10.4 ppg, 45.2 percent 3-point shooting) and Shelton (7.9 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.9 blocks per game).
The sixth-man – 6-foot-8 junior post player Dreshawn Vance – has been crucial. The former West Coast Conference all-freshman pick while at Portland averages 8.0 points and 6.1 rebounds in only 17.7 minutes.
“Dreshawn has stepped up,” Bromley said. “He doesn’t mind his role of coming off the bench and will do whatever it takes for us to win. I can play him at the four, I can put him in for Titus at the five.”
Shelton tied a school record with six blocked shots against Cal State Fullerton on Dec. 28, equaling Phil Johnson’s six rejections in a 2004-05 game. Shelton has swatted five shots in two other games this season.
Bromley compared the 6-foot-7 Shelton’s defensive prowess to Varnie Dennis, who owns the Nos. 1 and 2 shot-blocking seasons in school history with 58 in 2002-03 and 42 in 2001-02.
Shelton has 26 at the halfway point of his sophomore year, which already puts him sixth on the single-season list.
“Both of them (Shelton and Dennis) have similar abilities and traits where they just have a huge wingspan,” Bromley said. “Titus is 6-7 but he’s got about a 7-foot-1 wingspan. He plays a lot bigger than what he is. He’s got great timing, long arms. I think people think they can just go up against him because he is undersized and all of a sudden that long arm comes up. If he keeps going he’ll break Varnie Dennis’ records.”
As for Cal Poly’s record, it could be back at the .500 mark if the Mustangs sweep their nonconference home stand with games tonight and against Sacramento State (7-9) at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
That would mark the first time the Mustangs have been at .500 this late in the season since a 6-6 start to the 2003-04 campaign, which included wins at Cal and USC.
“We’ve been playing well at home,” Bromley said. “We have great character kids and I expect us to be prepared.”