Gutty win and a 2-2 start has Cal Poly men’s basketball trending up to open the season

The perception of the new iteration of Cal Poly’s men’s basketball team is that it will shoot 3-pointers and play a fast, modern style of the game. And the Mustangs have done just that through their first four games of the season.

After a 75-71 win over Seattle University at Mott Athletic Center on Thursday, the Mustangs have now scored at least 73 points in their first four games and have attempted over 25 shots from distance in each.

But it was the defensive end that gave them their first win over a Division I opponent of the season on Thursday night.

With time running short, Cal Poly’s Owen Koonce cut to the basket and attempted a dunk over Seattle forward Matthew-Alexander Moncreiffe, but his shot was blocked.

However, as Seattle tried to outlet the ball to a guard, Mac Riniker snuck in behind and stole the ball for a layup to put the Mustangs ahead 71-70 with a minute remaining.

Riniker plays with relentless energy on both ends. The team asks the 6-foot-5 guard to defend anyone from the opposing team’s center to their best ball-handler.

“Mac Riniker has had the free reign of being able to run around like crazy, and it tends to work out for us,” Head Coach Mike DeGeorge said. “I can’t tell you how many times he’s made a play like that in the past five years to help secure a victory.”

Riniker is one of four players who followed DeGeorge from Division II Colorado Mesa. He was a two-time Rocky Mountain Defensive Player of the Year.

Already, Riniker has put his stamp on each of Cal Poly’s first four games. Against Cal, he chased down a player on a fast break to block the shot after jumping off the wrong foot. He’s stolen the ball, taken charges and altered shots on closeouts.

His game-winning steal was one of many plays he’s made early in his Cal Poly career.

Riniker said he’s always been told his energy and effort “was all he got.” He isn’t a knockdown shooter, but he makes enough to be respectable.

“Shots aren’t always going to fall, but (defense) has always been what’s worked for me,” Riniker said.

Riniker has made offensive contributions as well, scoring 14 points — tied for the team lead — and grabbing three offensive rebounds on Thursday. Another Colorado Mesa transfer, Issac Jessup, also finished with 14 points and made four of his seven 3-point attempts.

He missed the last game with an injury against Menlo College. The Mustangs came out on top 99-66, but it took some time to pull away against the Division II school, and there were some rough stretches.

He’s knocked down 12 of his 25 3-pointers on the season and scored 20 points in the game against Cal.

But he isn’t just a shooter. Jessup was responsible for guarding the Redhawks’ key offensive threat, John Christofilis.

Christofilis converted eight of his 13 shots from 3-point range in the team’s first two games, but the Mustangs held him to six of 17 shooting from the field.

The Redhawks ran multiple plays trying to free Christofilis for a shot, but Jessup repeatedly forced him into contested looks.

When asked about the team’s identity, Jessup said that offensively, they want to break the paint and spray out for 3-point opportunities, but then he added that the team’s focus “really should be on the defensive end.”

“We got a long way to go, but the paint and defense is where we want to be,” Jessup said.

First Division I win for Mike DeGeorge

Seattle U won the College Basketball Invitational Tournament last season, and a handful of players returned from the championship team. But after starting the season with two losses, they were looking to get their first win against a Cal Poly program that finished 4-28 last year.

The Mustangs are already halfway to that win total, now at 2-2.

DeGeorge compared the Redhawks to an upper-half of the Big West team.

“They’re a team that knows how to win,” DeGeorge said. “They have an expectation of how to win late-game situations.”

Cal Poly had competitive outings against the University of San Francisco and Cal, but the games ultimately ended in losses. Still, the team has now secured two home wins in a row for the first time since the start of the 2022-23 season.

“Sometimes when you’re losing, it seems more (like) the obstacle of winning seems greater than it is,” DeGeorge said. “Sometimes when you’re winning, you get this sense that you’re invincible.”

DeGeorge and his staff have been used to winning after building a nationally ranked Division II program at their previous stop.

“We’ve had a lot of teams over the years start to develop that sense of invincibility,” DeGeorge said. “That wasn’t the case tonight. We battled through that, and we found a way to win a game when the other team expected to win. As we continue to build the confidence and figure out a formula for winning these close games, it only just grows our confidence.”

Cal Poly has a difficult three-game road trip ahead as the Mustangs take on Eastern Washington, who previously beat Seattle, followed by Arizona State and St. Mary’s. After hosting Grambling State, Cal Poly then travels to Stanford.