By Jonathan Lidskin
Last night, people around the United States tuned in to see the future of the country. That included closely monitoring swing states out west in Arizona and Nevada. In the college basketball world, people were also paying attention to things going on out west, but in California and Washington.
Why you might ask? The Big West was putting on a show.
While they couldn’t pull off wins, Cal Poly and UC Davis were impressive into the late hours of the night as they were competitive with San Francisco and Washington, respectively.
For Cal Poly, the Mustangs were ushering in a new era with Head Coach Mike DeGeorge who spent six seasons before this one at Colorado Mesa.
DeGeorge’s guys were ready to play as they trailed the Dons by just four at the half and took a six-point lead with under nine minutes to play in the game. San Francisco’s guards were up to the task late though as the Dons sniffed out the upset bid by a score of 86-78.
Cal Poly had four players score in double figures including Jarred Hyder who led the team with 19. San Francisco got a huge boost from freshman Tyrone Riley with 26.
Simultaneously to the north, we were seeing one of the best performances of the first two days of college basketball. UC Davis guard Ty Johnson poured in 35 points in a 79-73 loss to Washington, but showed why he is one of the best mid-major players in college basketball. Johnson alone should make the Aggies at worst competitive in the Big West.
For Washington, it was certainly an escape, but also nice to get win #1 under Danny Sprinkle. Great Osobor, who came with Sprinkle from Utah State, led the Huskies with 15 points and 17 rebounds.
While the Big West ultimately lost the games, it seems as if the conference could end up being super fun (as some expected). Staying up to watch some of those games in the winter will be worth it.
Other notable storylines:
Arizona State’s struggles continued into the regular season as the Sun Devils knocked off Idaho State 55-48.
Evansville freshman Gabriel Pozzato had 28 points in a loss at North Texas.
Kansas State won their season opener over New Orleans, but Michigan transfer point guard Dug McDaniel did not start and played just 24 minutes off of the bench.
BYU freshman Egor Demin finished with 18 points and 11 assists in his college debut against Central Arkansas.
Tonight’s games to watch:
Vermont at Auburn, 8:00 p.m. EST
Lipscomb at Arkansas 8:00 p.m. EST
UC San Diego at San Diego State 10:00 p.m. EST