Cal Poly finished 16-19, 8-12 in the 2024-25 season. Yeah, ho-hum. So what? Well, it was a 12-win improvement (from 4-28 overall, 0-20 in the Big West Conference) after bottoming out the year before.
Here's the worthy backstory: known as a program builder at each of his five previous head coaching spots, Mike DeGeorge officially came over to San Luis Obispo from his successful tenure at D2 Colorado Mesa on March 26, 2024, assembled his staff and went to work.
Some may call the Mustang improvement magical but that term indicates the mystical or the supernatural at work. While nobody on the new Cal Poly coaching staff practices prestidigitation, Cal Poly finished a remarkable #3 among 355 NCAA Division I programs with 11.5 made three-pointers per game and 19th in scoring at 82.1 points per game. In this past season, the Mustangs set new program single season records for total points, three-pointers and field goals while averaging 18.4 more points per game than the previous one.
The label "The DeGeorge Era" is already being bandied about as an SLO term of success and abundance. DeGeorge also rebuilt programs at Rhodes College, Cornell College and Eureka College, the latter beginning in 2000.
THE NEW STAFF
DeGeorge hired:
- Veteran mentor/now assistant coach Ron DuBois enjoys NBA, WNBA, college and overseas/international head coaching and assisting experiences on his hoops résumé. A native of Lodi, DuBois directed a successful nine-year stint at UC Santa Cruz, going 88-112 at a D3 school that offers no free rides and enjoyed a zero hoops reputation prior to his arrival. He departed as the program’s all-time victories leader alongside a 100% student-athlete graduate rate. All this after earning a scholarship to Arizona State University as a point guard, being named a team captain in his senior season and earning all-academic Pacific-10 Conference honors in 1999. DuBois previously worked with DeGeorge.
- Jesse Pruitt as an assistant coach, a basketball veteran with eight years of experience assisting at Stanford as well as another eight seasons at Santa Clara.
- Kyle Bossier who assisted DeGeorge both at Colorado Mesa and Rhodes also assisted DuBois from 2012-16 at UC Santa Cruz, is now back with McGeorge as an assistant and was also a member of the St. Mary's coaching staff in 2016-17. Bossier is a native of Santa Rosa.
- Sam Walters, who played for DeGeorge in a 2018-19 graduate season, later assisted DuBois from 2019-2022 at UC Santa Cruz. Walters then assisted at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA for two very successful seasons. Again in an assistant role, he is a Soquel, CA native (Santa Cruz County).
- BJ Andrews also assisted DeGeorge at Colorado Mesa and is doing the same at Cal Poly. He is the sole coaching staff member minus any northern California basketball coaching connections.
DuBois recently talked with NorCal Basketball about his newest employment.
"We didn't know what to expect but once we beat Stanford (97-90 a road game on November 30), we knew we could make some noise. There were some rough patches (a three-game losing streak in early-to-mid December and then later a seven-game losing streak from mid-December to mid-January)." But the Mustangs closed out strong with a road win over Long Beach State, followed by victories over UC Davis and then UC Riverside in the conference tournament before falling to UC Irvine.
"Coach DeGeorge brought four of his players along from Colorado Mesa (including Ethan Menzies out of Half Moon Bay High) plus a couple of international prospects," DuBois noted. "Cayden (St. Mary's High-Stockton) Ward too. No one recruited him. We gave him a scholarship after just a couple of months" and the 6-foot-5 Ward concluded his freshman season averaging 7.4 points per game plus 3.4 rebounds in just 16.4 minutes a contest.
WHY COME TO CAL POLY?
Lacking much of a hoops reputation, what is the pitch to prospects? DuBois responded, "Playing style and opportunity. We play at a fast pace (tops in the country) and that attracts a lot of players. But freedom is earned and we spend a lot of time on decision making."
He continued, "the players we want have size and versatility, can play without positions and shoot 3s." Cal Poly put up 1,114 treys in 2024-25 to just 895 for opponents, finishing with a 36% shooting accuracy while defending at a 34% rate.
Seeing a major uptick in international players entering the college ranks DuBois said, "those with maturity and the ability to process team basketball seem to fit in quickly on the court at the college level. Academics are also generally at a high level because a lot of schools overseas are good. But the key is English proficiency and being able to adapt culturally once here."
GROWING TALENT
According to DuBois, "Basketball is a game of making quick but good decisions (on both the offensive and defensive ends). When you get the ball, it's either shoot, pass or dribble and making a good choice takes a while to develop. All the drills we do are geared towards that. By playing and making decisions live against speed, our players get more reps because we don't stop. We all have a growth mindset."
Plus, "Mike DeGeorge is good at sharpening strengths and developing weaknesses. We call ourselves Development U as at Cal Poly the school motto is learn by doing. What we do is develop our guys off of video and reps, not by stopping practice and talking. We accept we aren't going to get guys who walk in the door and can do it all, but we can develop who we get."
Let's see what season two brings down San Luis Obispo way.