13 years is a long time

Congratulations to all you die-hard Golden State Warriors fans.

For the first time since 1994, your team is in the NBA Playoffs. Not only that, it won a playoff game for the first time since 1992 on Sunday night. It was also the team’s first road playoff win since 1991.

1991?

Think about that for a second.

Cal Poly was still a Division II school, Shaquille O’Neal was still in college, Joe Montana was still with the 49ers and nobody had ever heard of a PlayStation.

We’re talking about a team that had faded into such obscurity, no one really knew where it played. People would ask, “Do the Warriors play in San Jose, San Francisco or Oakland? Berkeley? Fresno?”

We’re talking about a team that drafted Todd Fuller above Kobe Bryant, traded Mitch Richmond for Billy Owens, let Chris Webber go after one Rookie of the Year season, once had its best player (Latrell Sprewell) choke its head coach and was too cheap to keep Gilbert Arenas but somehow found the cash to give Adonal Foyle a $41.6 million contract.

We’re talking about absolute ineptitude.

Your 5-year-old little brother could make better personnel decisions.

But those days are long gone.

In this new Warriors era of possessing perhaps the best backcourt in the league, a 10-deep roster that can hang with anyone in the NBA and selling out Oracle Arena night after night, anything seems possible.

Sunday’s win, by the way, would have made it onto the back sports page if not for that loathsome 9 p.m. deadline.

Here are some other random musings:

 The next time UC Santa Barbara comes to town chanting “high-school gy-ym, high-school gy-ym!” here’s a good response: “No foot-ball pro-gram, no foot-ball pro-gram!”

It’s all in good fun.

 I got quite a shock last week while shopping for video games.

Guess who’s on the cover of “MVP 07 NCAA Baseball?” That’s right, it’s Jered Weaver, rocking his Long Beach State gear from only a few years back. Weaver drew a record crowd at Baggett Stadium when he pitched against Cal Poly in 2004, his final season at Long Beach State in which he went 15-1 with a filthy 1.63 ERA.

The 6-foot-7 Weaver went 11-2 as a Los Angeles Angels rookie in 2006 and appears on his way to stardom, if he wasn’t already. But there he was, on the cover of a hugely popular video game, representing a Big West Conference school.

 Speaking of the Big West, how good is the baseball version?

Pretty good.

So good that it was ranked Monday the sixth-best among 31 Division I conferences, according to BoydsWorld.com, which uses a widely acknowledged simulation of the NCAA’s secret Ratings Percentage Index formula to predict what teams will reach the postseason.

The reason?

The eight Big West teams have combined for a winning overall record (161-152) despite playing what the Web site calls the toughest collection of schedules in the country. All eight teams possess one of the 12 toughest schedules. Cal Poly – ranked 86th among 293 Division I teams in the Web site’s RPI – is No. 5 in terms of strength of schedule.

 So Greg Oden and Kevin Durant have decided to go pro.

No surprise.

Without getting into the lose-lose situation of debating age limits in the NBA and whether players should come out at a certain time, here is one thought – can anyone argue this will be the best NBA Draft class since 2003?

That’s when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Kirk Hinrich, Mickael Pietrus, T.J. Ford and Chris Kaman all went in the lottery. Later picks included Josh Howard, Leandro Barbosa, Boris Diaw, James Jones, Luke Walton, Steve Blake, Maurice Williams and Kyle Korver.

This summer’s list of draft entrants reads more like a cast list to a summer blockbuster.

Aside from Oden and Durant – who would both be No. 1 overall picks in most drafts – look at some of the others. Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green represent Florida. Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Julian Wright, Arron Afflalo, Acie Law IV, Josh McRoberts, Alando Tucker and Aaron Gray are widely projected as first-rounders.

Like that 2003 draft, it could push potential future starters into the second round, such as Aaron Brooks, Reyshawn Terry, Nick Fazekas, Jared Dudley, D.J. Strawberry, Glen Davis and Ivan Radenovic.