Chris Eversley had a fairly successful first professional season. Playing for Westports Malaysia Dragons, CE helped his team to the regular season title before they lost in the finals.

Eversley averaged 19 points and 9 rebounds, shooting 46 percent from the field. Westports Malaysia also included Justin Knox, who played for Alabama and North Carolina before graduating in 2011. Knox’ numbers were almost identical to Eversley, as he averaged .2 more points and 1.2 more rebounds over the 24 game schedule.

The real fun of this post comes in watching CE get out on the fast-break, hang on the rim a little and bring some of the fire we saw in San Luis Obispo to his Malaysian team and teammates.

Here’s a podcast I taped with Chris after his senior collegiate season was over and before he knew he was going to Malaysia. 

Hope you enjoy the video.

WARNING – some explicit lyrics in the video below

Chris Eversley was Cal Poly’s best player over the past two seasons. By Owen Main

In 2013-14, Cal Poly senior forward Chris Eversley helped the Mustangs men’s basketball team win their first ever Big West Tournament title and their first ever NCAA Tournament win.

With graduation fast-approaching, Eversley sat down in the Fansmanship studio for a conversation about the season, his future, and why some of the most influential people during his time in school were — GASP — professors.

Wichita State fans are probably asking what a lot of other fans are right at this moment — Who is Cal Poly? Is San Luis Obispo somewhere near Los Angeles? How did a team with 10 regular-season wins get this far?

So, here’s a little guide for those of you who haven’t been watching the Mustangs all year or, for that matter, couldn’t find San Luis Obispo on a map.

Sophomore transfer, David Nwaba, has been Cal Poly’s go-to guy for above-the-rim finishing. By Owen Main

What kind of a school is Cal Poly?

Let’s start with the University itself. Cal Poly is, academically, the best school in the CSU (Cal State) system. It’s really hard to get into — with what are almost certainly the most rigorous academic standards in the Big West Conference. Cal Poly’s engineering program is world-class and the agriculture (viticulture is a fast-growing major) and architecture programs are really, really good. The school motto is “Learn by Doing” and famous alumni include Weird Al, John Madden, and Ozzie Smith. Multiple astronauts have attended Cal Poly and a few recent alumni are exploring new worlds, playing professionally in Israel, Mexico, and Australia.

Joe Callero tells Jim Rome why it’s good to be weird

Unlike most Big West schools, Cal Poly has an FCS football program (one of only four FCS programs in California), which helps its athletic department. Cal Poly is also home to the biggest college soccer rivalry in the country with UCSB.

Much like the football team that runs the triple option, the Cal Poly basketball team plays a low-possession game and really works hard to not turn the ball over. In their three Big West Conference Tournament games, they only turned the ball over 14 times. Total.

Where is San Luis Obispo?

San Luis Obispo (SLO) is halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, on California’s Central Coast. You should really come visit sometime. It’s a relatively rural area, but is consistently on lists of best places to visit for vacation and also happiest places to live. Tourism and agriculture are two big businesses in the county. It’s not uncommon to find surfing farmers trading Wranglers for wetsuits at the end of the day. There are over 200 wineries in the county’s interior valleys and small beach towns dot its coast. On Higuera Street in downtown SLO, there is a great Thursday night farmer’s market.

While a lot of Cal Poly alumni live in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay area, a big percentage of people in San Luis Obispo County attended Cal Poly. The next Division 1 school is approximately 90 miles South (rival UC Santa Barbara), 130 miles East (Cal State Bakersfield and Fresno State), and 184 miles North (San Jose State).

How did a team with 10 regular-season wins make it this far?

This is what everyone is still asking themselves and why their run is so improbable and fun. The Mustangs have players like David Nwaba and Chris Eversley who can physically match-up with most anyone in the country at their position from a physical standpoint, but that will only get you so far.

The short answer is that everyone got healthy at the right time. Sharpshooters Reese Morgan and Kyle Odister can flat out fill it up, if left open. Eversley, who started at the 2 at one point, is back at the 4. The rotation of sophomores Joel Awich, Brian Bennett, and Zach Gordon have all found their niche roles, too. Because of that, coach Joe Callero has found a rotation he can count on over the past four days. When he needs strong defense he goes to Gordon. For shot-blocking and quick springiness, Awich is his guy. Bennett has had a mature back-to-the-basket game since he stepped on-campus last year.

This is a team that believes in itself and has improved its team culture every season since Joe Callero took over. Eversley and Nwaba are the emotional catalysts and, at the end of the day, you can probably count on them to lead the team in scoring, but you never really know where the rest of the points are coming from, and that makes the team tough to scout and prepare for. If three or four Mustangs are in double figures, usually that means good things for Cal Poly.

Who should Wichita State be worried about?

Eversley has been Cal Poly’s best player for the past two seasons, earning first and second-team all conference honors in 2013 and 2014 respectively, but he is best when he plays off the ball. At his best, he scores off mid-range jumpshots and offensive rebounds. Every other player probably has something they do really well and, looking impartially at it, some major hole in their game. David Nwaba doesn’t shoot from outside 10-15 feet. Brian Bennett, at 6’9″, doesn’t rebound super-consistently. I could go on.

The point is, Cal Poly’s basketball ecosystem is pretty intricate and may be somewhat delicate from a “who does what” standpoint to be successful. It’s one of the reasons, perhaps, that it took them this long to figure it out and play this well. The number-one thing to watch out for, I think, is Cal Poly’s shooting. If they get/stay hot from three-point range, they can stay in a game. If they come out 1-6 or something, it could be a long evening.

Is a 1-16 upset really a possibility?

Probably not. It’s never happened.

A reporter asked Eversley after the Texas Southern game if Wichita State had something to worry about. Eversley gave the politically correct answer — he is pretty smart and savvy with the media. Maybe, inside, he believed something different. You figure a successful college cager is probably pretty competitive. If he thought he had no chance, then he wouldn’t be who he is.

So, no, Cal Poly probably won’t pull the upset. Just don’t tell them because, as weird as this season has been, they definitely still believe. Whatever happens, don’t expect the Mustangs to hang their heads either. Mid-way through a tough skid in Big West play, after a home loss to Cal State Fullerton during which the Mustangs looked lost in the first half, Eversley gave a pretty memorable quote.

“Until we lose the final game of the season,” Eversley said, “until I’ve played my last game in this jersey, the sky’s not falling.”

Improbably, they’ve been keeping that sky from falling for four games over a span of seven days. If they do manage to win on Friday, it would be more than improbable. It would be historic.

Eversley reiterated in a tweet today something the sixth-ranked Cal Poly baseball team has been tweeting all year, so I guess take it for what it’s worth.

#WhyNotUs

— Chris Eversley (@chriseversley) March 20, 2014

A conference tournament celebration is a wonderful thing to behold.

Last night, after its first ever conference tournament win, fans who drove the 220 miles were treated with an opportunity to storm the court and celebrate with the team.

Celebrate they did.

It’s really hard to describe being in the middle of a scrum like this, so I won’t try too hard. Instead, here are a bunch of photos. We’ll have more videos up over the next 24 hours on our YouTube page, so you can check there. In the mean time, here are a bunch of pictures, starting with “THE SHOT” that Ridge Shipley hit.

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

It was just the first game, and already strange things are afoot at the Honda Center.

In what amounted to a huge upset, seventh-seeded Cal Poly withstood a 7-0 run from UC Santa Barbara to begin the game, led by as many as 30 points, and downed the Gauchos 69-38. The Mustangs, who scored more points in the first half (41) than UCSB scored all game, were paced by freshman point guard Ridge Shipley, who came off the bench to score a team-high 15 points.

For some reason, UCSB was a good matchup for Joel Awich this season. By Owen Main

“This is clearly a very special team and a very special game,” said Cal Poly head coach Joe Callero. “We didn’t do one thing. It is a testament to just be better, the game of basketball is a fair game. If you do everything well, magical things can happen.”

Four other Mustangs scored at least nine points and senior forward Chris Eversley, the team’s scoring leader all season, was held to just five points. Ten Cal Poly players scored in the game — nine in the first half. Cal Poly scored 41 points in the first half. The Gauchos managed just 38 the whole game.

“They punked us offensively and defensively the entire game,” said UCSB’s Michael Bryson, who led the Gauchos with 19 points.

Cal Poly’s offense looked like it was on a different level early in the afternoon, starting the game 6-8 from three-point range. Three-pointers and open shots were coming off of crisp ball-movement and rotation and the Mustangs seemed to have an extra gear, contesting shots and getting rebounds.

Defensively, Cal Poly gave Alan Williams and co. all they could handle. Kyle Odister was scrambling, all over on a stress-fractured foot and David Nwaba was using all his athleticism to clean-up rebounds or keep them alive for teammates.

Sophomore wing, David Nwaba, played with a ridiculous amount of sustained energy vs. UCSB. Can he do it again against UC Irvine tomorrow night? By Owen Main

“I thought the difference was our defense around the perimeter,” said Callero. “Last week we played them, we allowed the reversal of the ball too freely so we stepped up and took about three or four feet of space… . Guarding Williams is physical and emotional. It’s not easy, I thought these guys did a great job implementing. We had enough significant tweaks that gave us the advantage the second, third time around. We did a really good job pressuring them, but we gave them those looks at home. We knew if we could pressure just a little bit more… that’s what made the difference.”

After beating the second-seeded Gauchos, the Mustangs will face top-seeded UC Irvine on Friday night. Unlike UCSB, Cal Poly has had no success against the Anteaters this season. The game may seem like a home game for the Anteaters — UC Irvine is just 13.5 miles away from the Honda Center.

“We were the underdogs,” said Cal Poly’s Joel Awich, who started and scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds. “Nobody thought we could do it, but as long as we have each other’s backs we can beat anybody.”

The 6:30 game will be live on ESPN3 and tape-delayed on ESPNU. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday night at 7:30 pm on ESPN2.

Photos by Will Parris

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Saturday night is Senior Night at Mott Athletics Center, so I thought it was probably a good time to take a look back at the past five seasons and the contribution the three Cal Poly seniors have made to the program.

This season has been disappointing so far, but over the past five seasons, the Mustang men’s basketball program has clearly made strides under head coach Joe Callero. Kyle Odister is the only player on this year’s roster who was on the team during Callero’s first season, when the Mustangs improved from seven wins the previous year to 12 during Callero’s inaugural campaign.

This year’s senior class is really a study in changing expectations for the program at-large. Looking at just this year might be disappointing for fans who had big expectations, but a look back at the Cal Poly careers of Jamal Johnson, Chris Eversley, and Kyle Odister reveal a program that went from also-ran to contender.

Here’s a quick break-down of this year’s seniors and their careers.

CE usually prefers to throw down with his left hand. By Owen Main

Chris Eversley

After a season at Rice University, Eversley transferred to Cal Poly. The 6’7″ transfer had to sit-out a season before seeing time off the bench backing up David Hanson and Will Taylor. At the end of his sophomore campaign, Eversley saw some bigger minutes and was one of the team’s top scorers late in the season — sparking the team off the bench.

In his junior season, Eversley had what was possibly his finest year, averaging 15.4 points and 7 rebounds per game en route to first-team All-Big West Conference honors. With a sick Eversley, the team was thwarted in the conference semi-finals by a last second tip-in by eventual conference champion, Pacific.

At the beginning of this year, Eversley showed he could score from the outside as well. Against teams from the nation’s top conferences, CE poured in long-range jumper after long-range jumper. Open shots have been more difficult to come by in conference play, but the senior still leads the team in scoring and rebounding.

For me, the lasting image of Eversley will be his smile, exuberance and positivity both on and off the floor. His love of everything Cal Poly including Mott Athletics Center, the band, and his fellow students has ingratiated him to anyone watching throughout his career. He is a guy who is really easy to root for.

Recently, despite Cal Poly’s rough stretch in conference, Eversley has kept his bright-side attitude. His mantra of believing in his teammates until he’s played his last game in the green and gold is a testament to the kind of leader he seems to be. He is also one of the most eloquent college athletes I’ve ever heard with the media, coming off as more mature than players ten years his senior. His shoes will be hard to fill.

I told you you cannot leave him open. By Owen Main

Kyle Odister

When Kyle Odister entered the Cal Poly lineup in 2009-10, the freshman dazzled, playing point guard and making what seemed like clutch shot after clutch shot. It was Joe Callero’s first year as head coach, the Odister was named to the Big West All-Freshman team, averaging almost eight points per game.

Things looked promising for Odister until he suffered an injury that put him out of basketball for almost a year and a half. Once he returned, injuries seemed to always follow. For a player who always seemed to be playing hurt, Odister’s best game so far has probably been this season’s opener at Arizona. In his first game as a senior, Odister knocked down seven three-pointers en route to 21 points against a team that has been ranked first in the country for most of this season. At his best, Kyle Odister could shoot the ball with anyone.

Cal Poly was off to a great conference start this season until Odister went down with a foot injury in the fourth game of the conference season. While he’s dealt with his stress fracture, the team has gone 3-8 with one conference game left this season.

KO Buckets, as he is affectionately known, has never been afraid to shoot the ball and seems like he’s always most-clutch with the game on the line. Like a few others on this Cal Poly roster, Odister fans examining his career in San Luis Obispo will probably have some “what could have been” sentiment. I have it, too. Rarely does one see such a fearless, deadly shooter who also has enough athleticism and strength to play point guard effectively as a freshman.

Odister had all that and more. Unfortunately, he never really seemed to have a fully healthy season after his freshman year. On one foot or two, teams better know not to leave him open in the conference tournament next week.

In fact, in 35 years, when Odister is in his late 50’s, I’ll still advise that opponents don’t leave him open. He has a shooting stroke that is that smooth and a shooting mentality that is that vicious.

Jamal Johnson has run Cal Poly’s offense as the starting point guard the past two seasons. By Owen Main

Jamal Johnson

Jamal Johnson was thrown into the fire as one of two freshman point guards in 2010-11 when Amaurys Fermin went down with an injury. Over the past two seasons, Johnson has grown more solidly into his role as one of Cal Poly’s more vocal floor leaders.

Callero, a former point guard himself, is notoriously tough on point guards. He is also trusting of point guards he starts, and Johnson has been that since his junior year. Point guards in Callero’s offense aren’t usually big scorers, but Cal Poly has been at its best this year when Johnson has scored more. In fact, if I were going to predict how Cal Poly would do in the upcoming Big West Tournament, I might say that Johnson must have one or two double-digit scoring outbursts, which would be unusual for the lefty from San Antonio.

Johnson’s legacy at Cal Poly will be efficiently running the offense during his junior and senior seasons. Last year, his assist/turnover ratio was almost 3/1, something Callero usually points to as an indicator of success. Johnson’s passage to Cal Poly also perhaps helped pave the way for fellow Texans Ridge Shipley and Taylor Sutlive to come play in SLO.

___________________________________

Tomorrow night’s game against Santa Barbara has already sold-out the general admission seating, a somewhat surprising fact considering the team has lost 8 of its past 11 games and is battling for a seed somewhere between 5 and 7 in the conference tournament. Perhaps that’s the real legacy of these players, along with Callero, over the past five seasons. When the program won seven games in 2008-09, Division I attendance hit rock bottom. This group’s ability to slowly and methodically bring fans back to Mott Athletics Center and re-establish a loyal fan-base for the program over the course of five seasons is notable.

At the end of the game Saturday night, the seniors will lead a team around the gym to high-five and shake hands with a group of adoring San Luis Obispo fans. Then they’ll salute the band. Just don’t expect it to be quick nor, for either side, easy.

Coming into Saturday’s Big West conference game against UC Riverside, Cal Poly men’s basketball had lost four in a row and head coach Joe Callero was doing everything he could to find a rotation that worked.

In fact, Cal Poly had used five starting lineups in the past eight games prior to Saturday night, when they broke-out an all-new one that included junior Michael Bolden.

Not Michael Bolton:

Or Michael Bolton:

Michael Bolden. With a D, and an E. And, on Saturday night, with four 3’s and a career-high 13 points. He looks like this:

Michael Bolden. Cal Poly fans will probably want to get to know him a little better. By Owen Main

Bolden provided a big spark and helped propel the Mustangs to their second conference win in their past eight games.

Eversley back to the block

After the Long Beach State game, Chris Eversley went to Mustangs head coach Joe Callero with a plan — get Eversley the ball down low. For much of the season the senior power forward has spent time on offense around the three-point line, facing-up and shooting from the outside. Over the past two games, Eversley has had more touches on the low block, resulting in a little better offensive consistency.

“Instead of a mobile four, we made him an inside-out four,” said Callero. “The biggest thing is getting to the free throw line… . That gives us rest and I can play him 39 minutes because he goes to the line, catches his breath.”

Eversley took his inspiration from probably the greatest basketball player in the world right now.

“You look at the teams that are successful and the guys that need to do what they need to do to win,” said Eversley, who scored 22 points against UC Riverside. “I mean you have guys like LeBron saying the same thing last  year: ‘Put me on the blocks and we do whatever we want to,’ and they win championships. So it’s just me trying to step-up and be that guy that can kind of facilitate, maybe help others create when they get in trouble… . It feels good to be able to be multi-dimensional.”

Bolden gives some long-range spark

Cal Poly junior  Michael Bolden started just his second game of the season. Bolden saw a lot of bench time during the first half of conference play but has re-emerged over the past few games, looking more confident and comfortable.

On Saturday, Bolden scored a career-high 13 points, including 4-5 from three-point range, to help give the team a third-option offensively that they so desperately needed.

Bolden has been through adversity in the past and has made it a habit to stick things out and find success. This summer, he played in a summer league with Eversley.

“I knew he could shoot, that’s never been a question,” said Eversley, who also lives with Bolden. “He’s hyper-athletic. Him and Dave (Nwaba) are two of the most freakish athletes I’ve ever seen in my life and they both work hard. I played against David in the summer too and just knowing those guys were going to be my teammates and playing in the summer leagues I saw good things I knew were going to transfer to our team as well.”

Bolden said he’s learned a lot from his senior roommate.

“Chris is like a big brother to me. I live with Chris and he’s just always encouraging me and trying to make me a better person, a better player. Chris is awesome.”

Without a lot of consistent three-point threats, Cal Poly has struggled to find much traction offensively. Now that Eversley is down on the block more, the Mustangs needed someone with some confidence to knock-down open shots and play strong defensively. That’s where Bolden fit-in. The junior made his first shot and was off to the races.

“It always feels good to hit the first shot,” said Bolden. “It’s always a confidence-builder, and then I just kept getting open shots. My teammates were finding me, setting good screens, giving good passes as well.”

Starting Bolden also allows Callero to bring Nwaba, who also scored 13 points on Saturday night, off the bench.

Keep an eye out for three-pointers

In Cal Poly’s six Big West Conference wins this season, the Mustangs are 48-100 from three point range. For those of you who aren’t good at math, that is 48 percent (an average of 8/16.7 per game).

In their seven conference losses, the Mustangs are 41-135 (30.4 percent) from behind the arc, shooting more three-pointers and making less (an average of 5.8/19.3 per game).

Whether the three-point numbers are a cause or a symptom of good or poor play, three-point shooting is something that fans can look at as an indicator of how the team is moving the ball and playing offensively.

Callero contextualized his team’s offensive progression.

“I thought before we reversed the ball kind of begrudgingly because we weren’t sure where it was going to go or why it should go there,” said the Cal Poly coach. “Right now we, as a team, know it’s going to go to Chris Eversley. That’s not a secret. We can tell [UC] Davis, ‘watch the film.’ Chris Eversley’s going to get a bunch of touches.”

Playing inside-out through Eversley is something you can look for Cal Poly to do in their final three games and into the Big West Tournament.

Tinkering

Callero has tinkered with the lineup, but the changes have also been based on the health of the team. Reese Morgan is working his way back into the rotation and Kyle Odister has a stress fracture in his foot that has caused him to miss games throughout conference play.

“We were 3-0, we lost at the buzzer, Kyle Odister had a stress fracture,” said Callero. “From that point on, we haven’t gone a practice or a game without wondering what we’re going to do and playing guys out of position really.”

Cal Poly is now (6-7) in Big West Conference play, good for a tie for fifth place, and have three games remaining. Two of their remaining games are against the two teams tied for first place — UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine. The only remaining home game this season will be against UC Santa Barbara in the regular season finale on Saturday, March 8th.

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Cal State Fullerton got way ahead in the first half and hung-on for the conference win. By Owen Main

There isn’t a whole lot to say after that one. Cal Poly got beat-up to the tune of their largest halftime deficit of the season on Thursday night. Fullerton’s first half gave the Titans enough wiggle-room to withstand a few Cal Poly runs in the second half and hang-on for the 67-59 win.

Cal Poly has now lost six of their last seven conference games. The Mustangs have now failed to score more than 62 points in eight straight games and still aren’t playing the team-oriented, trust-powered basketball fans in San Luis Obispo have grown accustomed to over the past few seasons.

With the loss, Cal Poly is in fifth place, but only two games in front of last-place UC Riverside with four conference games remaining. The 9th (last) place team during the Big West’s regular season does not participate in the Big West Tournament at the end of the year.

The first half included a long stretch where Cal Poly missed 11 consecutive field goals.

Quotes

Chris Eversley:

“Until we lose the final game of the season, the sky’s not falling… . They out-hustled us, hat’s off to them. They’re a great team. They came in here and beat us up on the boards — just physicality all over the floor, and that just goes back to us… that was on us tonight. There’s nothing that they can do as coaches to prepare us to play hard and to be focused and concentrate for 40 minutes.”

“Our concentration periods have to be better.”

Joe Callero:

“You’ve got to really take your hat off to Fullerton really coming out and punch(ing) us in the mouth. I think they did a great job of coming out more aggressive, just quicker, stronger… . ”

“Chris Eversley said to me after the Long Beach game, ‘coach, I really think I just gotta get my butt back inside there and really be an interior threat and play off me as an interior player.’ We were developing him as a three-man, as a shooter, as a mover without the ball and long-term in his career he kind of thought that might be the best thing. We said, ‘we’ve just gotta get you backed down and get gritty points.’ I think tonight was the best gritty performance we’ve had. Getting Chris Eversley back to being a double-double machine is a priority for us.”

“The bad news is, it slides us down to the bottom half of the conference. The good news is there’s still two and a half weeks left in conference play for us to put ourselves in a position to have a playoff run. we’re definitely still tinkering and we definitely need to continue to tinker because with the tema that we’ve had this year we have strengths on one side that aren’t necessarily strengths on the other side — guys that can shoot it maybe aren’t our best defenders and maybe our best defenders aren’t our best shooters. But I’ll tell you what, one thing guys can do is play their heart out. Play and be ready.”

“The intensity in that first half. The energy in that first half is unacceptable.”

Photos by Owen Main

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Mott was hopping on Saturday night. By Owen main

“I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN! I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!”

It was a soccer chant in the middle of a basketball game. It should have come while the Mustangs were on defense. As about a thousand students jumped and chanted in a trance-like state, Cal Poly freshman Taylor Sutlive took a three-pointer that could have brought the crowd into a huge frenzy and the UC Irvine lead to single-digits. I got chills as the shot went up, almost in slow-motion. It was a glimpse into the best timeline at what Cal Poly basketball has the potential to become — for everyone involved.

On this night, though, in what was basically a microcosm of the game, Sutlive’s shot rimmed out, Irvine scored consecutive baskets, and the game was effectively put-away.

Even though Cal Poly lost, fans who were able to get into a sold-out Mott Athletics Center were big winners on Saturday night. For at least the past two years, Cal Poly basketball fans have been ripe for some encouragement and organization. What better place to draw inspiration from than the Mustang Manglers, and their chant of faith?

This atmosphere is what every sports fan in San Luis Obispo should want. By Owen Main

Pregame

Fans showed-up early for this one. The 8:00 pm start helped, but the student section was over half-full by 7:15 and by 7:45, the bleachers across from the opponents’ bench — in the student section — were filled to the brim with black-clad Mustang supporters.

Instead of a typically late-showing student section, Saturday’s was early and excited, creating an energy in Mott Athletics Center that I don’t think I had ever felt.

Signs

Lots of fans brought signs for the nationally-televised game — some more appropriate than others. The heads of Joe Callero, David Nwaba, and Joel Awich were some of my favorites. In a twist on bringing in signs, one fan brought an umbrella and briefly opened it following each of Cal Poly’s eight three-pointers. You see, it was “raining threes” inside of Mott.

The Dunk

Chris Eversley’s first-half dunk on 7′ 6″ Mamadou Ndiaye was the highlight of the night. Actually, it was third in SportsCenter’s Top-10 countdown.

Here’s the Eversley dunk from another angle. Unfortunately for the Mustangs, Irvine was not phased beyond Russell Turner’s technical foul that immediately ensued. By Owen Main

Eversley’s dunk was one of the last moments of pure elation for the Mustangs. Their second unit came in shortly thereafter and Irvine pounced, building a double-digit lead at halftime that they held tightly to throughout the second half.

Irvine is good

The Anteaters were the media’s pick in the preseason to win the Big West and might be even better in-person. Like last year’s Cal Poly team, it’s not always clear where the points will come from, but there are probably six or seven guys who can really score and gain a mismatch on offense on a given night.

Their zone defense was well-prepared and well-executed, too. Most zones give up a lot of offensive rebounds, but Irvine out-rebounded Cal Poly 20-12 overall in the first half and never looked back.

Keep it up

I heard at least five or six fans who are there a lot say some variation of, “We need this to be the way it is all the time.”

I agree. Cal Poly has always had the potential for an obnoxiously loud fan-base. The best part about the fans making noise was when it was student-led. In the second half, at least three students, who I would guess are part of the Mustang Manglers, were leading cheers and chants, keeping the student section riled up. A group of organized students and fans can make the game more enjoyable for other students and fans and continue to foster a great college basketball atmosphere.

It’s not like Mott has never been a madhouse before. If you want inspiration, look at this video from 1985-86.

The kind of environment any Cal Poly sports fan wants is right there in front of them. In soccer, fans will come out no matter how good or bad the team is. It’s become engrained in the culture of going to school at Cal Poly. In two weeks, when the Mustangs return home, I suppose we’ll find out whether students and fans from the community are really ready to fully commit to making that a reality in Mott Athletics Center as well.

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]

Joel Awich and Jamal Johnson enjoy the final minutes of Cal Poly’s victory on Thursday night.

Cal Poly beat Cal State Northridge on Thursday night to match their best start in Big West Conference History. Here are some photos from Thursday night’s game.

[See image gallery at www.fansmanship.com]