Preview:
Fresh off our exhilarating win over ranked Indiana, we now take on Cal Poly at Maples Thursday night at 7pm. The game will be livestreamed.
I teach in the CSU, and I can tell you that “Cal Poly” is a contentious name. We are playing Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. SLO likes to think of itself as THE Cal Poly, but there is also Cal Poly Pomona, and more recently the renamed Cal Poly Humbolt. SLO is an elite campus in the CSU with admissions standards higher than many campuses in the University of California system, an enrollment of 21k, and a campus that is 1000 acres larger than Stanford’s enormous campus. In some majors there are students who turn down Berkeley and UCLA to go to SLO. SLO, like Stanford, is situated near an idyllic live oak/foothill setting.
SLO’s WBB plays in the Big West conference. Over the last 10 years, they have 8 wins and 15 losses to Hawaii, which should give us a bit of an idea about their general level of play. This year, its WBB team was very ambitious with its schedule. It has already played Washington State and Cal, and was thumped in both games. SJSU has also already beaten them, but SLO was able to get a 10 point win over the University of Idaho, and thus finds itself at 1-3 on its way into Maples.
Last year SLO was not very good, going 10-18, and losing in the first game of its conference tournament to UC Riverside. We played them last year and defeated them 80-43. That was the game Jump went 8/15 from three point range.
One advantage about playing a team with 4 games officially under its belt is that the stats are not completely bogus. Six players have started, and they carry 11 on their roster. SLO does not seem to have one single dominant player: the scoring leader has 12 ppg, then the next players have 9, 9, 7 and 6. That scoring leader is 6’1” senior forward Natalia Ackerman. Ackerman is from Watsonville. Most games she has played only about ½ the game, so it does seem that SLO must do a lot of player rotation. Ackerman is 1/1 from three point range, so she does most of her scoring from inside.
SLO has 2 short guards who are hitting over 40% from three point range. One, 5’3” junior guard Annika Shah is from Paly, so there will be a local fan club cheering for her. Also of note is a 6’3” freshman forward, Mary Carter, who is 9/17 from three point range. Carter does not start but plays more than those who do. Bothering her shot will no doubt be a priority. Expect Brink or Iriafen to come out to the perimeter to guard her.
SLO is a notch better than an exhibition game, but a notch worse than Hawaii. Thursday night will be much more about watching our own players develop—especially the freshmen, Harriel, etc.
Fresh off our exhilarating win over ranked Indiana, we now take on Cal Poly at Maples Thursday night at 7pm. The game will be livestreamed.
I teach in the CSU, and I can tell you that “Cal Poly” is a contentious name. We are playing Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. SLO likes to think of itself as THE Cal Poly, but there is also Cal Poly Pomona, and more recently the renamed Cal Poly Humbolt. SLO is an elite campus in the CSU with admissions standards higher than many campuses in the University of California system, an enrollment of 21k, and a campus that is 1000 acres larger than Stanford’s enormous campus. In some majors there are students who turn down Berkeley and UCLA to go to SLO. SLO, like Stanford, is situated near an idyllic live oak/foothill setting.
SLO’s WBB plays in the Big West conference. Over the last 10 years, they have 8 wins and 15 losses to Hawaii, which should give us a bit of an idea about their general level of play. This year, its WBB team was very ambitious with its schedule. It has already played Washington State and Cal, and was thumped in both games. SJSU has also already beaten them, but SLO was able to get a 10 point win over the University of Idaho, and thus finds itself at 1-3 on its way into Maples.
Last year SLO was not very good, going 10-18, and losing in the first game of its conference tournament to UC Riverside. We played them last year and defeated them 80-43. That was the game Jump went 8/15 from three point range.
One advantage about playing a team with 4 games officially under its belt is that the stats are not completely bogus. Six players have started, and they carry 11 on their roster. SLO does not seem to have one single dominant player: the scoring leader has 12 ppg, then the next players have 9, 9, 7 and 6. That scoring leader is 6’1” senior forward Natalia Ackerman. Ackerman is from Watsonville. Most games she has played only about ½ the game, so it does seem that SLO must do a lot of player rotation. Ackerman is 1/1 from three point range, so she does most of her scoring from inside.
SLO has 2 short guards who are hitting over 40% from three point range. One, 5’3” junior guard Annika Shah is from Paly, so there will be a local fan club cheering for her. Also of note is a 6’3” freshman forward, Mary Carter, who is 9/17 from three point range. Carter does not start but plays more than those who do. Bothering her shot will no doubt be a priority. Expect Brink or Iriafen to come out to the perimeter to guard her.
SLO is a notch better than an exhibition game, but a notch worse than Hawaii. Thursday night will be much more about watching our own players develop—especially the freshmen, Harriel, etc.