So what's the scenario?

Two wins and they’re in the semifinals.
That’s the scenario for Cal Poly’s men’s and women’s basketball teams as they gear up for next week’s Big West Conference Tournament.
The two Mustangs squads, who play Cal State Northridge Thursday and Pacific on Saturday, can finish the regular season in second place with a sweep, earning a pair of tournament byes in the process. Advancing directly to the semifinals of next week’s tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center moves a team two wins away from capturing the Big West’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Mustangs have never advanced to the NCAA Tournament in either sport.
The Cal Poly men’s team can move one step closer to clinching a berth in the conference tournament’s semifinals with a win tonight at Mott Gym against Cal State Northridge (14-14, 5-7). The Matadors are currently tied with Pacific (11-17, 5-8) in sixth place. Pacific lost to Long Beach State on Monday, giving the 49ers the regular-season conference title and allowing the Mustangs to control their own destiny.
The men can finish anywhere from a tie for second to sixth place.
The women have already earned at least a first-round bye for the tournament. Two wins gives them byes to the semifinals.

Piecing together Poly’s ’07 FB schedule

Here’s my mock 2007 Cal Poly football schedule, minus dates for the most part. Only the first three games with dates have officially been announced by Mustangs opponents. Cal Poly has not announced its 2007 schedule, although Cal Poly’s AD confirmed Thursday that five games will be played at newly renovated Alex G. Spanos Stadium. The official schedule should be announced within the next couple weeks. Let’s see how my guesstimates hold up:

Games that have been announced (official):
vs. Iona (Nov. 17)
at UC Davis (Oct. 13)
at South Dakota State (Oct. 20)

Conference games (under contract):
vs. North Dakota State
at Southern Utah

Nonconference games (under contract):
vs. Weber State
at Texas State

Other nonconference candidates (unconfirmed):
vs. Northern Colorado
at Idaho
at Idaho State

That leaves one more, which will likely be a non-Division I school.
Let’s just say Humboldt State or someone who would come to Spanos Stadium.

That adds up, I think. Five home games: Iona, No. Dakota State, Weber State, No. Colorado and a DII. Six away games, including five that are out of state: UC Davis, So. Dakota St., So. Utah, Texas St., (FBS/I-A) Idaho and Idaho State. Yikes. Time to cash in those airline miles.

Mustangs in hunt for tourney bye

The Cal Poly men’s basketball team’s 89-80 win over UC Irvine on Saturday was worth a couple spots in the Big West Conference standings.
Because the Mustangs have played only nine conference games, because they’ve played two nonconference games against UC Davis, the win bumped them from seventh to fifth in the eight-team conference.
While Cal Poly is still well off the pace established by first-place Long Beach State, which swept the season series, the Mustangs now find themselves in the hunt for a bye in the first round of the Big West Tournament.
The top four teams earn a first-round bye. The first- and second-place teams receive byes in the second round too.
Cal Poly is only a half-game back of fourth-place Pacific with five conference games to go – including three home games with the season finale coming against, you guessed it, Pacific.
See the up-to-date standings here.

Recruits ready to sign, deliver

Wednesday is national signing day. Here’s a look at the prep players expected to sign with the Cal Poly football program:
Troy Shotwell, 6-3, 205-pound DE from Dos Pueblos High
Jarred Houston, 5-11, 175-pound kick returner, DB/SB from Rodgriguez
Brandon Roberts, 6-2, 216-pound LB/TE from Atascadero
Jake West, 6-0, 160-pound kicker from Atascadero
Jake Romanelli, 6-2, 195-pound DB from Templeton
Jordan Yocum, 6-1, 205-pound LB from Canyons (according to OC Register)
Greg Francis, 6-1, 180-pound DB from La Habra (according to Los Angeles Times)
Matt Duffy, 6-4, 245-pound DE/OL from Manhattan Beach-Mira Costa (according to Rivals.com)
Visited Cal Poly but hasn't confirmed commitment:
Angel Morales, 5-11, 202-pound DB/WR from St. Bonaventure, visited Cal Poly along with Shotwell and Houston but has not announced a verbal commitment publicly
Recruit decides to go elsewhere:
Pacific Grove John Tyndall, 6-2, 220-pound FB/LB was recruited by Cal Poly but decided to go with Cal (according to the Monterey Herald)

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As expected, the first nine players on this list ended up signing with Cal Poly. For the full list of the 12 high school players that signed, click here.

Mustangs defensive on recruiting front

For those scoring at home, that’s six defensive or special teams players who have committed to the Cal Poly football program — out of six recruits The Tribune has confirmed.
Can you tell Cal Poly head coach Rich Ellerson is a former defensive coordinator, who also coaches the Mustangs special teams units?
OK, that’s not entirely true since Rodgriguez High’s Jarred Houston could play some offense down the road, but he’s better known as a return specialist and an all-league cornerback.
Canyon's Jordan Yocum has played running back but was an all-county linebacker.
Then you have the Central Coast products, Dos Pueblos defensive end Troy Shotwell, Atascadero linebacker Brandon Roberts, Atascadero kicker Jake West and Templeton defensive back Jake Romanelli.
Not that there won’t be any additions to the offensive side of the ball next season. In fact, former Righetti High teammates Ryan Mole, a running back, and Jon Dally, a quarterback, might be the only additions who have an immediate impact since they’ll be juniors. The two confirmed they were transferring from Allan Hancock in December.
The rest of the recruits will likely redshirt unless Cal Poly is hit hard with injuries at those positions.
The Mustangs are looking to sign about 15 players. Signing day is Feb. 7.

Shotwell left out of combine ... no really

Kyle Shotwell hasn’t been invited to the NFL Combine.

Seriously. And it has nothing to do with his emergency appendectomy over the weekend.

Cal Poly’s all-everything linebacker was the Buck Buchanan Award winner, which goes to the best defensive player in Division I-AA football.

He was the top tackler in last week’s East-West Shrine Game and earned the Pat Tillman Inspirational Award in the process.

Yet, he won’t be working out in front of scouts at the combine, scheduled for Feb. 21-27 in Indianapolis.

According to the official combine Web site, “top executives, coaching staffs, player personnel departments and medical personnel from all 32 NFL teams will be on hand to evaluate 300 of the nation's top college football players eligible for the upcoming NFL Draft.”

That list wasn’t made public by the time this blog was posted but was supposed to be unveiled by Feb. 1.

That list of the “nation’s top college football players” is already said to include players like Michael Allan, a Division III tight end out of Whitworth College.

But not the best defensive player in Division I-AA?

So any level-of-competition knock on Shotwell is out the door, although that was scrapped after the Mustangs’ win over San Diego State when the 6-1, 235-pound senior linebacker had four sacks in one of the most dominant individual performances by I-AA player this season. Shotwell also held his own against many big-name I-A prospects in the Shrine Game, leading all players with seven tackles.

Must be the size thing, which is something “undersized” Buchanan winners Jordan Beck and Chris Gocong encountered during the draft process the previous two years.

Beck, now with the Atlanta Falcons, and Gocong, now with the Philadelphia Eagles, were expected to compete for starting jobs before going down with season-ending injuries as rookies.

Makes you wonder what games the scouts making the combine recommendations were watching this past fall.

"It’s disappointing," he said. "I guess the invites come from lower-level scouts and depend entirely on those people. If you don’t get a high enough grade, you’re not invited. But I’ve heard as many as 30 or 40 players who don’t get in the combine are still drafted. I’ve also heard that 30 or 40 players who go (to the combine) aren’t drafted. ... I’ve known all along that I’m not a third-round pick because I’m not 6-2 or 6-3 or whatever. But I’m going to get there somehow or someway."

Women's team hobbling along

Hurting. That’s the best way to describe the Cal Poly women’s basketball team.
The Mustangs lost their Big West Conference home opener Thursday, playing without starting guards Sparkle Anderson and Toni Newman because of injuries and minus Kyla Howell because of academic troubles.
Anderson is out for the year with an ACL injury. Newman is sidelined for the time being with a stress fracture.
Injuries have always been a story for the Cal Poly’s women’s basketball program.
In fact, 2005-06 was one of the few years when Faith Mimnaugh’s squad wasn’t ravaged by injuries. Aside from a foot injury that sidelined senior wing Courtney Cameron for seven games, Cal Poly remained relatively healthy throughout the season.
But in 2004-05 — a year after playing without floor leader Michelle Henke for an entire season because of a knee injury — the Mustangs were without star forward Katy Paterson for much of her senior season because of mono. They also lost starting wing Michelle Allotey to a knee injury five games in and forward Emilie Ravn, who played in just four games the previous season because of an ACL injury, missed two-thirds of the season recovering from the injury.
Both players, who would be eligible to play this season, have since left the program, joining the likes of Paige Billingsley, Caroline Rowles and Stephanie Brown as Mustangs starters who have ended their careers early because of recurring injuries.
Ouch.