Victor Joseph was really good last Thursday. By Owen Main

With their win over CSUN and the happenings in the Big West over the weekend, Cal Poly is now guaranteed a spot in the Big West Conference Tournament. Whether they’re a 7 or 8 seed is still to be determined, but we know some things already. 

Twice as nice

Having already played a triple-overtime game and an overtime game at Mott this season, the Mustangs bridged the gap and played a double overtime thriller against CSUN in their only game last week. Victor Joseph scored a career-high 36 points in the senior night win. 

Fellow senior Aleks Abrams grabbed 18 big rebounds for the Mustangs, who notched their fourth conference win of the season. 

The game looked like it was Cal Poly’s to take until CSUN forced some turnovers in the second half and got themselves a four-point lead late in the game. But three pointers by Joseph and some clutch play down the stretch allowed Cal Poly to emerge victorious.

Cal Poly isn’t likely to play late on Thursday

Thursday is SO much fun at the Big West Tournament. Four games in a row at the Honda Center. Usually the late games feature local teams, so if Cal Poly earns the 7 or 8 seed and plays UC Davis or even UCSB, they’re likely to play in the noon game. If they play UC Irvine, the Mustangs could play in game 2 or 3 — probably not the late game. 

Lucky number 7?

The last four seasons, Cal Poly has finished in 7th place in the regular season. The first of those years, the Mustangs went 6-10 in Big West play and ran through the tournament en route to an NCAA Tournament bid. In fact, three of the past four seasons have seen the Mustangs notch a 6-10 Big West record. The outlier, 2015-16, saw Cal Poly earn their 7-seed with a 4-12 record. If they beat UC Riverside on Thursday, Cal Poly will be assured the seventh seed for the fifth season in a row. 

What’s next?

I’m probably getting ahead of myself with the conference tournament talk, but Cal Poly plays two games this week. The first game will be at UC Riverside on Thursday night at 7pm. After their coach was fired and their best player was suspended to start conference play, the Highlanders have tried to right the ship. Dikymbe Martin, one of the best guards in the conference, is back and the Highlanders have gone 3-3 over their last six games and hope to secure their own Big West Tournament spot with a win. 

After the Riverside game, Cal Poly will finish their conference regular season like they started it — against rival UCSB. This time, the game will be in Goleta and you know the Gauchos will be looking for blood after the Mustangs knocked them off at home in the conference opener in SLO. Game time Saturday night is also 7:00pm on UCSB’s senior night. 

Joseph earns Athlete of the Week

For his senior night exploits, Victor Joseph earned Big West Athlete of the Week last week. It’s more difficult to win that award when you only play one game in the week, but 36 points is a strong statement. 

Women heating up

Cal Poly women’s team is also heating up. Faith Mimnaugh’s squad has been squarely in the second tier of the Big West this year (UC Davis is on a tier of their own at 13-1 in Big West play). Going into the final week of Big West play, Cal Poly has a 1/2 game lead over UC Irvine and UCSB for second place. Cal Poly has just one game in their final week and it’s a tough one — Saturday night at Hawai’i. 

In the women’s bracket, the seedings matter quite a lot. The top two teams receive byes into the semi-finals of the tournament, while the third and fourth seeds (of nine) receive a bye into the quarterfinals. Winning their final game and finding a way to get into second place means that Cal Poly wouldn’t play a tournament game until Friday in the semi-finals in the Honda Center. 

If Irvine beats CSUN this week and win out, I think they’d have the inside track in a tiebreaker over UCSB and Cal Poly for second place. If they lose to CSUN, then Cal Poly and UCSB might be up for a tiebreaker. It’d be a messy tiebreaker. Let’s see how the early part of this week goes before we jump to conclusions. 

At any rate, the women’s hoops seniors are coming down the home stretch of their careers. Dynn and Lynn are going to go down in the Cal Poly record books when it’s all said and done and when this team is rolling, they have a legitimate shot against anyone in the Big West. 

Lynn’s AOTW

Lynn Leaupepe joined Victor Joseph on the men’s side to sweep the Big West’s Athlete of the Week awards in basketball. Her games of 16/14 and 18/14 helped Cal Poly into second place in the standings going into the final week. After being injured early in conference play, it seems Lynn has rounded back into form. That has to be a scary sight for Big West opponents. 

Photos by Owen Main

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