The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 339 is Cal Poly basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of Cal Poly basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 1
- Bids: 1
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 11.1
- Bids per season: 0.03
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 0
- Conference Players of the Year: 1
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 1
- Conference tournament titles: 1
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on Cal Poly basketball
For the 32 seasons Cal Poly basketball has been around, they’ve been almost the definition of mid. Always good enough to compete in their conferences, but never at the top. And the one time they did qualify for March Madness, they went 14-20. Their 13-19 record going into the NCAA Tournament stands as one of the 10 worst records for a team to ever make it. Funny enough, they beat Texas Southern in the First Four, actually getting an NCAA Tournament win. But 1-seed Wichita State pummeled them, 64 to 37.
Cal Poly also has one former Conference Player of the Year, and it’s very random. The American West Conference only lasted two seasons, and the Mustangs were in it for both of them. Only four teams competed – Cal Poly, Cal State Northridge, Southern Utah, and Sacramento State. But in 1996, Mustangs star Ben Larson won the award for Player of the Year. Cal Poly also won the regular season crown with a 5-1 record.
The program joined the Big West in 1996 and has no more POYs to its name, but it did have a good stretch under Joe Callero from 2010-13, going 51-44 over a three-year span.
So for Cal Poly, it’s been an interesting time in DI, and they honestly jumped up a few spots in our rankings by taking advantage of being in a very small conference and randomly making it to the big dance despite being under .500 one year. But some teams would dream of even doing that, so you can’t take the credit away.
Finally, head coach Mike DeGeorge has led them to 16-19 and 14-19 seasons since taking over in 2024, so maybe even better hoops is ahead.