The Cal Poly Mustangs men's basketball team represents

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

, located in

San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

. The school's team currently competes in the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

. The Cal Poly men's basketball team's first season was 1907 and its first season as a four-year institution was 1941–42. The Mustangs are coached by John Smith and play their home games at

Robert A. Mott Athletics Center The Robert A. Mott Athletics Center (formerly Mott Gym) is a 3,032-seat, indoor multi-purpose arena on the campus of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, San Luis Obispo, California. History With Cal Poly Mustang ...

. The team began playing at the Division I level in 1994–95, and shortly thereafter won a regular-season conference title in the four-team

American West Conference The American West Conference (AWC) was a college athletic conference in the United States from 1993 to 1996. It consisted of schools in California and Utah. The charter members of the conference were California Polytechnic State University; ...

(since disbanded) with a 5-1 record in 1996. The 1995-96 championship season saw Cal Poly's

Ben Larson Ben Larson (born ) is an American former college basketball player. A native of Elkhart, Indiana, Larson played NCAA Division I basketball at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) from 1995 to 1999, where as a true f ...

average 3.45 steals per game, the third-most in NCAA history, while winning the AWC Player of the Year award. The Mustangs then joined the Big West ahead of the 1996-97 school year. In 2009,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

selected Ernie Wheeler (1972-86) as the top coach in school history, along with

Derek Stockalper Derek Stockalper (born March 4, 1984) is a former professional and international basketball player. Early life Stockalper graduated from Carlsbad High School, where he became a first-team All-San Diego County player. College career After ini ...

as the best player in program history (joined by Jim Schultz, Mike Wozniak, Mike LaRoche and Varnie Dennis as the network's then-all time starting five). Cal Poly advanced to its first Division I NCAA Tournament in 2014 after an historic run in the Big West Conference tournament, becoming the first 7th seed to win the championship, as the Mustangs defeated CSUN, 61-59, following a go-ahead 3-pointer made by Ridge Shipley at the

Honda Center The Honda Center (formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim) is an indoor arena located in Anaheim, California. The arena is home to the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League. Originally named the Anaheim Arena during construction, ...

. Cal Poly earned the 16th seed and defeated

Texas Southern Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...

in the NCAA first round in

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

. Cal Poly then advanced to the 2nd Round, where they were defeated by unbeaten top seed

Wichita State Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

64–37. Prior to the 2014 conference tournament championship-game victory, Cal Poly advanced to the Big West Championship Game on two other occasions: in 2003 (falling to Utah State) and 2007 (to Long Beach State).

The Blue-Green rivalry

The main rival of the Cal Poly Mustangs men's basketball team is the

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball team is the basketball team that represents University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California, United States. The school's team currently competes in the Big West Conference. The c ...

team. The rivalry is a part of the larger Blue–Green Rivalry, which encompasses all sports from the two schools.

Postseason

NCAA Division I Tournament results

The Mustangs have appeared in one NCAA tournament. Their record is 1–1.

NCAA Division II Tournament results

The Mustangs have appeared in the NCAA Division II tournament seven times. Their combined record is 7–8.

CIT results

The Mustangs have appeared in one

CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament The CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT) was an American men's college basketball postseason tournament founded by Collegeinsider.com. The tournament was oriented toward schools that did not get selected for the NCAA Division I men's ...

(CIT). Their record is 0–1.

Season-by-season results

NBA players

* In 2017,

David Nwaba David Ugochukwu Nwaba (born January 14, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for the Motor City Cruise of the NBA G League. He played college basketball for Santa Monica College and Cal Poly. High school career Nwaba attended ...

became the first Cal Poly alum to play in the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

, making his debut for the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

, his hometown team. Nwaba, who made the 2016-17 G-League All-Defensive Team, has also played for the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The t ...

and

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

. While with Cal Poly, Nwaba was selected to the 2014 Big West All-Tournament Team, and was voted as the conference's Player of the Week on December 22, 2014.

Other notable pro alumni

Sean Chambers Sean Chambers (born February 27, 1965) is a retired American professional basketball player, best known for being a resident import of the Alaska Aces (PBA), Alaska Aces basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association from 1989–2001. ...

, Philippines Aces * Chris Eversley,

Westports Malaysia Dragons Kuala Lumpur Dragons is a professional basketball team based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia that currently plays in the ASEAN Basketball League. It also played as the Blustar Detergent Dragons in the Philippines' PBA Developmental League in 2016. H ...

* Mike LaRoche,

Los Angeles Stars LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significance ...

Lugano Tigers The Lugano Tigers are a Swiss professional basketball club that is based in Lugano, Switzerland. The club competes in the Swiss Basketball League (SBL), the highest domestic tier. Founded as FN Lugano, the team was re-named to Lugano Snakes in 1 ...

* Drake U'u,

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at RAC Arena, known colloquially as "The Jungle". Afte ...

References

{{Big West Conference men's basketball navbox