Some thought that the Mustangs were turning things around last season, finishing 8-12 in the Big West after an 0-20 season in 2023-24. What second year coach Mike DeGeorge was able to do was to instill a solid offense that scored a lot of points and to win to the extent that had not been seen in nearly 30 years in San Luis Obispo). He’s continuing to do so. Cal Poly is averaging over 80 points per game. Trouble is that in compiling a 5-9 record through December, their defense was allowing over 87 ppg. It was a possibility that the Mustangs had figured out the D because in Big West play this month, they were able to hold UCSD to 65 in an upset, but then they lost to CSUN on Thursday giving up 95. Earlier this season they split two other conference games losing to UCR but downing Fullerton, both offensive shootouts.

Coach DeGeorge had them playing as tough a preseason schedule as any Big West School. They opened with a loss to USC, then lost to Colorado State, and UCLA, but got an upset victory over Utah. They also beat Seattle, which seems to have scheduled half the Big West in preseason. Their home record is an unimpressive 3-5, although one of them was the win against UCSD.

Given their offensive output it should be no surprise that Cal Poly has three of the Big West’s top ten scorers. They are led by sophomore Hamad Mousa, #10, a transfer guard from Qatar via Dayton. He averages 21.7 ppg., best in the conference. No surprise that he has already jacked up 130 trey attempts hitting on over 40% of them. At 6’ 8” he also leads the team in rebounds, over 6 per game. The Mustangs must have recruited at the Olympics because in addition to Mousa, they have players from Slovenia, Uruguay, Canada, Serbia, New Zealand, France and Stockton. It’s interesting that Mousa is the only significant player who transferred in. The rest are either returning players or freshmen. Starting the season playing a three guard lineup, the other two high scorers are also guards: #9 Peter Bandelj (15.1) ppg and #34 Cayden Ward (15.6 ppg.), also both sophomores. Jake Davis and Guzman Vasilic log a lot of minutes substituting (and recently starting) at guard. They combine to add 13 ppg. and 6 rpg.

The frontcourt consists of freshmen Austin Goode and 6’ 9” Ali Assran. There is only one other forward on the entire roster who plays much, Troy Plumtree. In fact, in recent games they have started five guards and I would expect to see that against UCD. I expect the whole game to look like the beginning of the UCSB game as far as the Mustangs offense is concerned. The Aggies will need to come out shooting.