Tuesday, March 11, 2008

4 wins + 4 days = Big Dance

The sixth-seeded Cal Poly men’s basketball team (12-17, 7-9) will try to pull off the unthinkable this week, winning four games in four days to advance to its first NCAA Tournament.
The Mustangs open the tournament Wednesday night against seventh-seeded UC Riverside (8-20, 4-12) in the first round at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Four wins doesn’t seem like such a daunting task until you realize Cal Poly hasn’t won four straight all year and has put together a winning streak only twice (the best of which was a three-game streak in November).
But hey, a sixth seed has won this thing before. Don’t believe it? San Jose State, yes, the Spartans, took the tournament as the sixth seed in 1996 – only the tournament was a three-day event back then.
Wipe the Spartans’ win off the books and nobody lower than a fourth seed has won the tournament since it began in 1976.

See Tuesday’s paper for a story on all-conference selections and Wednesday’s paper for tournament previews for both the men’s and women’s teams.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

While San Jose State did surprise by winning the Big West Tournament in 1996, it can be argued the win did more harm than good for the Spartans. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the 15th seed Spartans played and lost to Kentucky by 50 points on national TV.

On the flip side, Cal Poly fans probably hope to just get to the big dance as for 15 years neither of its basketball programs have won a conference championship or been invited to the NCAA or NIT.

By any measure, an absolutely dismal performance.

Anonymous said...

Better plan on the volleyball team being the only Cal Poly sport with even a faint hope of NCAA tournament glory. The Cal Poly basketball team is full of choke artists - individual talents that are incapalbe of coming together and producing real results.

Anonymous said...

4 days + 0 wins = fired coach

This is the only equation that makes sense to me...

It's really sad that ESPN radio cuts out of Poly baseball for basketball. The 2nd they cut out I turn of the radio and head to the computer.

Anonymous said...

4 wins + 4 days PLUS Cal Poly !!!

What are you "smokin" ???

Anonymous said...

That is not the brand of Cal Poly basketball I want to watch. It is time for a change.