Flashback Friday – “It’s Poly at Pauley”
11/20/2020 11:12:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Editor's Note: Each Friday from September through mid-December, Cal Poly Athletics will revisit a notable game from the department's history in the Flashback Friday series presented by Pacific Eye.
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Legendary college basketball analyst Dick Vitale ranked the game No. 4 in his 2014 list of the most notable regular season upsets in college basketball history.
Jeff Miller, writing for the Orange County Register a day after the result, mentioned that, "UCLA entered the game ranked No. 11 and was a 20-point favorite. The Mustangs don't have a player taller than 6-foot-9. The Bruins have five of them, plus a recruiting class so celebrated that you'd figure they could beat the Washington Wizards."
Joshua D. Scroggin began his recap for the San Luis Obispo Tribune with "For the Cal Poly men's basketball team, it was a comeback for the ages …"
SportsCenter: "Cal Poly Upsets No. 11 UCLA."
ESPN.com: "It's Poly at Pauley."
FoxSports.com: "Cal Poly Stuns No. 11 UCLA at Pauley."
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"The day before the game, I remember walking through UCLA's Athletics Hall of Fame and taking in the amazing history that had occurred there," said guard Dylan Royer (right), a fifth-year senior on Cal Poly's 2012-13 men's basketball roster who'd gone from walk-on to captain during his career. "When I saw the names of numerous NBA legends up on the wall, it made me realize the gravity of the situation. As an athlete, you know right then and there that, if you're not going to bring your best effort, you may as well go home."
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On Nov. 28, 2012, the Cal Poly men's basketball program squared off against UCLA in a nationally-televised matchup on Pac-12 Networks. It was the Sunday evening following Thanksgiving and 8,317 fans – including a sizable Cal Poly contingent behind the visitor's bench – filled a fabled Pauley Pavilion that had recently received a $136 million makeover.
The Bruins – ranked No. 11 in that week's AP Top 25 poll – entered the matchup with a 5-1 mark, returning to Westwood after splitting two games against Georgetown (loss) and Georgia (win) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Cal Poly, meanwhile, was playing its first game in six days. Cal Poly's record was 1-2 after dropping a 76-67 home game to Fresno State in front of 2,277 fans.
Since transitioning to the Division I level ahead of the 1994-95 season, Cal Poly had never defeated a ranked program. UCLA was an 11-time national champion.
UCLA's roster that evening featured seven players who reached the NBA. Cal Poly was a year away from having its first and only future NBA player in David Nwaba.
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Midway through the opening half, UCLA had scratched out a 16-10 lead. The Mustangs, however, scored the next 10 points to lead by four six minutes prior to halftime.
UCLA ultimately took a 29-27 lead into the break, but opened the second half with a 22-6 run to lead Cal Poly, 51-33, with 12 minutes, 21 seconds remaining on the Pauley Pavilion clock.
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"At times, it did feel like the game was slipping away. Once you fall into a double-digit deficit against such a talented team, it's a slippery slope," said Royer, who finished with a game high 18 points against UCLA. "The gap can easily balloon to 20 or 30 points. The silver lining was that we knew there were areas of improvement that we could fix immediately. There were open shots that could start to drop, rebounds that we could get and careless turnovers we could prevent. Focusing on the details and taking it one play at a time gives you hope. There's no 18-point play that gets you back in the game. So instead, you focus on the little things and chip away during each possession."
That chipping began on the ensuing possession as senior guard Chris O'Brien – one of Cal Poly's three fifth-year seniors alongside Royer and Drake U'u – forced a turnover which Cal Poly translated into a dunk from freshman forward Brian Bennett. UCLA then missed a three-pointer, O'Brien rebounded and Royer sank one of his six three-pointers to trim the Bruin lead to 51-38.
"Once the momentum started to swing in our favor, winning became less of a fantasy and more of a real possibility," Royer said. "Our confidence exploded and it gave us tremendous energy that carried us throughout the remainder of the game."
Just under the eight-minute mark, junior guard Kyle Odister sank one of his three three-pointers to bring Cal Poly's deficit to 57-48. Two minutes later, a Bennett layup lowered the gap to 61-53.
UCLA then missed three straight shots. Cal Poly rebounded each time and scored on the ensuing possession. First, a layup from Odister. Then junior forward Chris Eversley. Then Royer with yet another three-pointer to nearly bring the Mustangs back from the brink.
"I just kept telling Dylan 'I'll find you, keep shooting,'" said O'Brien who dished out a career high eight assists that evening. "Once Dylan and KO (Kyle Odister) started stringing together three-pointers and after multiple stops, we felt the momentum coming back and coming back fast."
With four minutes to go, Cal Poly trailed, 61-60. The Mustangs had scored 27 points in eight minutes.
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"Basketball is incredibly mental. It's a game of runs and staying level-headed is an absolute necessity," Royer said. "When you're down that many points, it can be easy for anyone to throw in the towel or go through the motions. However, I felt our team was psychologically mature. There were no egos on the team and we had a core group of players that had a lot of experience in similar situations. We pulled for each other; it was never about who got the accolades but rather how the team could succeed as a whole. That mentality allowed us to buckle down and stay committed when the scoreboard wasn't in our favor."
With the home crowd at Pauley Pavilion slipping into silence and the visiting crowd gaining its voice, Cal Poly twice tied the scoreline before finally overtaking the Bruins at 67-65 following an Eversley tip-in with 99 seconds to play. A minute later, Odister sank a free throw to push Cal Poly's lead to three.
UCLA, however, mounted multiple challenges down the stretch.
After a Royer foul with 21 seconds to go, Bruins guard Larry Drew II sank his first free throw attempt. He missed the second, Eversley rebounded, but turned the ball over to the Bruins – who converted the miscue into a layup by guard Jordan Adams.
68-68. 17 seconds remaining. Cal Poly possession.
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"I remember being pretty confused because it was so unexpected," said Royer of what happened next.
Six seconds after Cal Poly inbounded the ball, UCLA guard Norman Powell inexplicably fouled Odister in the backcourt, sending the junior to the line for two free throws.
"If I had to guess, (Powell thought) they were still down a point or two and that they needed to foul," Royer said. "Based on their coach's reaction, intentionally fouling was certainly not the plan. Sometimes games come down to split-second decision-making and we were fortunate to be on the right end of that moment. Not to mention the player on the line was KO, a guy we knew to be a walking bucket."
Odister strode to the Pauley Pavilion free throw line and, in front of the home fans, sank both attempts.
70-68, Cal Poly. Eleven seconds to play.
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And still, UCLA had two more opportunities to pull out the victory. First, Powell missed a three-pointer with five seconds to play. The ball was tipped out of play in favor of the Bruins.
"Their last attempt was by one of their best scorers and was a relatively clean look," said Royer of the final shot from Jordan Adams with 2.5 seconds to go. "Once the ball was released, all we could do was hope and pray that it missed. It seemed like time stood still while the ball was floating toward the hoop and at one moment I was positive it was going in.
"When it finally clanked off the rim and the buzzer sounded, I'm pretty sure I lost voluntary motor control. I remember sprinting and jumping aimlessly with no clear direction. I was simply consumed by a sense of raw emotion."
O'Brien was also on the court for the game's final sequence.
"I was ecstatic. Don't have specific words for it. The whole team was jumping at midcourt and here I was all alone on the UCLA side letting them know that they just lost to some tough-nosed warriors wearing green from a small town up north."
-----
"It was like winning a title," added O'Brien, an Irvine native who had more than a dozen family and friends in attendance. "It was very surreal. Some of us in the locker room just sat in shock. Some danced. Some screamed. We really didn't know what to do, but we did it."
O'Brien said he received so many calls and messages on his iPhone, that it "glitched out. I couldn't keep up with the text messages and calls and social media mentions. We made ESPN, Good Morning America, Yahoo. It was wild. I'd never received so much love and shoutouts for any basketball game in my career. It was one for the ages."
-----
When the following week's AP poll was released, UCLA suffered the second most precipitous drop of any team since the poll began including 25 programs for the 1989-90 season. The Bruins tumbled from No. 11 to unranked and into the receiving votes category. UCLA recovered to win the Pac-12 Conference regular season title but, as a No. 6 seed for that year's NCAA Tournament, the Bruins were eliminated in the first round by Minnesota.
Cal Poly, meanwhile, enjoyed one of its finest seasons in program history. The 2012-13 Mustangs matched the program's Division I-era record for total victories (18) and finished 13-1 at home that season, sweeping all nine Big West opponents inside Mott Athletics Center for the first and only time. Cal Poly finished third in the Big West standings with a 12-6 mark and thumped UC Davis, 64-41, in the opening round of the conference tournament. Pacific, however, eliminated Cal Poly from the Big West Tournament, taking a 55-53 semifinal victory on a last-second putback.
The Mustangs, however, were selected for the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, making the program's first postseason appearance at the Division I level. A year later, Cal Poly captured the Big West Tournament championship to reach the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time in program history.
"All the miles, reps, long hours, film, study and practice was felt in each one of the messages we received that night," O'Brien said. "We put CP on the map that game and continued with an epic memorable season. The next year, Cal Poly goes dancing. It all happened in the middle of a four-to-five-year stretch that really gave life back to the program and I'm happy with the progress and evolution since."
-----
"In a college town like San Luis Obispo, there's an overwhelming sense of pride and togetherness," Royer said. "That culture was very apparent in the aftermath of the game as so many people were quick to congratulate us on the win. Being able to share that high with family, friends and fans made it that much better."
@CPMustangs • #RideHigh
 |
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Legendary college basketball analyst Dick Vitale ranked the game No. 4 in his 2014 list of the most notable regular season upsets in college basketball history.
Jeff Miller, writing for the Orange County Register a day after the result, mentioned that, "UCLA entered the game ranked No. 11 and was a 20-point favorite. The Mustangs don't have a player taller than 6-foot-9. The Bruins have five of them, plus a recruiting class so celebrated that you'd figure they could beat the Washington Wizards."
Joshua D. Scroggin began his recap for the San Luis Obispo Tribune with "For the Cal Poly men's basketball team, it was a comeback for the ages …"
SportsCenter: "Cal Poly Upsets No. 11 UCLA."
ESPN.com: "It's Poly at Pauley."
FoxSports.com: "Cal Poly Stuns No. 11 UCLA at Pauley."
-----
 |
"The day before the game, I remember walking through UCLA's Athletics Hall of Fame and taking in the amazing history that had occurred there," said guard Dylan Royer (right), a fifth-year senior on Cal Poly's 2012-13 men's basketball roster who'd gone from walk-on to captain during his career. "When I saw the names of numerous NBA legends up on the wall, it made me realize the gravity of the situation. As an athlete, you know right then and there that, if you're not going to bring your best effort, you may as well go home."
-----
On Nov. 28, 2012, the Cal Poly men's basketball program squared off against UCLA in a nationally-televised matchup on Pac-12 Networks. It was the Sunday evening following Thanksgiving and 8,317 fans – including a sizable Cal Poly contingent behind the visitor's bench – filled a fabled Pauley Pavilion that had recently received a $136 million makeover.
The Bruins – ranked No. 11 in that week's AP Top 25 poll – entered the matchup with a 5-1 mark, returning to Westwood after splitting two games against Georgetown (loss) and Georgia (win) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Cal Poly, meanwhile, was playing its first game in six days. Cal Poly's record was 1-2 after dropping a 76-67 home game to Fresno State in front of 2,277 fans.
Since transitioning to the Division I level ahead of the 1994-95 season, Cal Poly had never defeated a ranked program. UCLA was an 11-time national champion.
UCLA's roster that evening featured seven players who reached the NBA. Cal Poly was a year away from having its first and only future NBA player in David Nwaba.
-----
Midway through the opening half, UCLA had scratched out a 16-10 lead. The Mustangs, however, scored the next 10 points to lead by four six minutes prior to halftime.
UCLA ultimately took a 29-27 lead into the break, but opened the second half with a 22-6 run to lead Cal Poly, 51-33, with 12 minutes, 21 seconds remaining on the Pauley Pavilion clock.
-----
"At times, it did feel like the game was slipping away. Once you fall into a double-digit deficit against such a talented team, it's a slippery slope," said Royer, who finished with a game high 18 points against UCLA. "The gap can easily balloon to 20 or 30 points. The silver lining was that we knew there were areas of improvement that we could fix immediately. There were open shots that could start to drop, rebounds that we could get and careless turnovers we could prevent. Focusing on the details and taking it one play at a time gives you hope. There's no 18-point play that gets you back in the game. So instead, you focus on the little things and chip away during each possession."
That chipping began on the ensuing possession as senior guard Chris O'Brien – one of Cal Poly's three fifth-year seniors alongside Royer and Drake U'u – forced a turnover which Cal Poly translated into a dunk from freshman forward Brian Bennett. UCLA then missed a three-pointer, O'Brien rebounded and Royer sank one of his six three-pointers to trim the Bruin lead to 51-38.
"Once the momentum started to swing in our favor, winning became less of a fantasy and more of a real possibility," Royer said. "Our confidence exploded and it gave us tremendous energy that carried us throughout the remainder of the game."
Just under the eight-minute mark, junior guard Kyle Odister sank one of his three three-pointers to bring Cal Poly's deficit to 57-48. Two minutes later, a Bennett layup lowered the gap to 61-53.
UCLA then missed three straight shots. Cal Poly rebounded each time and scored on the ensuing possession. First, a layup from Odister. Then junior forward Chris Eversley. Then Royer with yet another three-pointer to nearly bring the Mustangs back from the brink.
 |
"I just kept telling Dylan 'I'll find you, keep shooting,'" said O'Brien who dished out a career high eight assists that evening. "Once Dylan and KO (Kyle Odister) started stringing together three-pointers and after multiple stops, we felt the momentum coming back and coming back fast."
With four minutes to go, Cal Poly trailed, 61-60. The Mustangs had scored 27 points in eight minutes.
-----
"Basketball is incredibly mental. It's a game of runs and staying level-headed is an absolute necessity," Royer said. "When you're down that many points, it can be easy for anyone to throw in the towel or go through the motions. However, I felt our team was psychologically mature. There were no egos on the team and we had a core group of players that had a lot of experience in similar situations. We pulled for each other; it was never about who got the accolades but rather how the team could succeed as a whole. That mentality allowed us to buckle down and stay committed when the scoreboard wasn't in our favor."
With the home crowd at Pauley Pavilion slipping into silence and the visiting crowd gaining its voice, Cal Poly twice tied the scoreline before finally overtaking the Bruins at 67-65 following an Eversley tip-in with 99 seconds to play. A minute later, Odister sank a free throw to push Cal Poly's lead to three.
UCLA, however, mounted multiple challenges down the stretch.
After a Royer foul with 21 seconds to go, Bruins guard Larry Drew II sank his first free throw attempt. He missed the second, Eversley rebounded, but turned the ball over to the Bruins – who converted the miscue into a layup by guard Jordan Adams.
68-68. 17 seconds remaining. Cal Poly possession.
-----
"I remember being pretty confused because it was so unexpected," said Royer of what happened next.
Six seconds after Cal Poly inbounded the ball, UCLA guard Norman Powell inexplicably fouled Odister in the backcourt, sending the junior to the line for two free throws.
"If I had to guess, (Powell thought) they were still down a point or two and that they needed to foul," Royer said. "Based on their coach's reaction, intentionally fouling was certainly not the plan. Sometimes games come down to split-second decision-making and we were fortunate to be on the right end of that moment. Not to mention the player on the line was KO, a guy we knew to be a walking bucket."
Odister strode to the Pauley Pavilion free throw line and, in front of the home fans, sank both attempts.
70-68, Cal Poly. Eleven seconds to play.
-----
And still, UCLA had two more opportunities to pull out the victory. First, Powell missed a three-pointer with five seconds to play. The ball was tipped out of play in favor of the Bruins.
"Their last attempt was by one of their best scorers and was a relatively clean look," said Royer of the final shot from Jordan Adams with 2.5 seconds to go. "Once the ball was released, all we could do was hope and pray that it missed. It seemed like time stood still while the ball was floating toward the hoop and at one moment I was positive it was going in.
 |
"When it finally clanked off the rim and the buzzer sounded, I'm pretty sure I lost voluntary motor control. I remember sprinting and jumping aimlessly with no clear direction. I was simply consumed by a sense of raw emotion."
O'Brien was also on the court for the game's final sequence.
"I was ecstatic. Don't have specific words for it. The whole team was jumping at midcourt and here I was all alone on the UCLA side letting them know that they just lost to some tough-nosed warriors wearing green from a small town up north."
-----
 |
"It was like winning a title," added O'Brien, an Irvine native who had more than a dozen family and friends in attendance. "It was very surreal. Some of us in the locker room just sat in shock. Some danced. Some screamed. We really didn't know what to do, but we did it."
O'Brien said he received so many calls and messages on his iPhone, that it "glitched out. I couldn't keep up with the text messages and calls and social media mentions. We made ESPN, Good Morning America, Yahoo. It was wild. I'd never received so much love and shoutouts for any basketball game in my career. It was one for the ages."
-----
When the following week's AP poll was released, UCLA suffered the second most precipitous drop of any team since the poll began including 25 programs for the 1989-90 season. The Bruins tumbled from No. 11 to unranked and into the receiving votes category. UCLA recovered to win the Pac-12 Conference regular season title but, as a No. 6 seed for that year's NCAA Tournament, the Bruins were eliminated in the first round by Minnesota.
Cal Poly, meanwhile, enjoyed one of its finest seasons in program history. The 2012-13 Mustangs matched the program's Division I-era record for total victories (18) and finished 13-1 at home that season, sweeping all nine Big West opponents inside Mott Athletics Center for the first and only time. Cal Poly finished third in the Big West standings with a 12-6 mark and thumped UC Davis, 64-41, in the opening round of the conference tournament. Pacific, however, eliminated Cal Poly from the Big West Tournament, taking a 55-53 semifinal victory on a last-second putback.
The Mustangs, however, were selected for the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, making the program's first postseason appearance at the Division I level. A year later, Cal Poly captured the Big West Tournament championship to reach the NCAA Division I Tournament for the first time in program history.
"All the miles, reps, long hours, film, study and practice was felt in each one of the messages we received that night," O'Brien said. "We put CP on the map that game and continued with an epic memorable season. The next year, Cal Poly goes dancing. It all happened in the middle of a four-to-five-year stretch that really gave life back to the program and I'm happy with the progress and evolution since."
-----
"In a college town like San Luis Obispo, there's an overwhelming sense of pride and togetherness," Royer said. "That culture was very apparent in the aftermath of the game as so many people were quick to congratulate us on the win. Being able to share that high with family, friends and fans made it that much better."
@CPMustangs • #RideHigh
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