Cal Poly Men’s Basketball Opens Practice for 2022-23 Season Tuesday

Photo by: Owen Main | Cal Poly Athletics

Cal Poly Men’s Basketball Opens Practice for 2022-23 Season Tuesday

9/26/2022 2:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Welcoming back five regular starters, nine letterwinners and 80.5 percent of its scoring from a year ago, the Cal Poly men's basketball program officially opens practice for the 2022-23 season on Tuesday, Sept. 27.

Cal Poly, which also welcomed four Division I transfers during the offseason, enjoys 42 days of preparation ahead of the program's Monday, Nov. 7 season-opening matchup.

Highlighting Cal Poly's returning core from a season ago are senior forward Alimamy Koroma, senior guard Trevon Taylor and junior guards Camren Pierce, Brantly Stevenson and Kobe Sanders.

A two-time All-Big West Conference honorable mention selection, Koroma started 26 of 28 games a year ago and finished third among Big West players with a 50.0 (143-for-286) percent field goal mark, sixth with 24 blocks and 12th with 13.3 points per game. He also averaged 5.5 rebounds per game and recorded 19 double-digit scoring outings.

Both Pierce and Taylor started 26 times last year and averaged 9.0 points per outing. Pierce finished second among Big West players with 4.1 assists per game and fifth with an 83.1 percent free throw mark while recording 14 double-digit scoring games. Taylor led Cal Poly with 5.6 rebounds per game, produced 12 double-digit scoring efforts and shot 47.7 percent from the floor.

Stevenson, who started 20 times last season, averaged 8.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game while Sanders – a starter in 14 contests – averaged 6.4 points per evening.

Sophomore guard Julien Franklin, who made 12 starts last year and finished as one of three Mustangs to appear in all 28 games alongside Koroma and Pierce, contributed four double-digit scoring outings in his first season as a Mustang.

Cal Poly's remaining returning talent – junior guard Nick Carlson, sophomore center Matur Dhal and sophomore guard Hayden Jory – combined for 31 appearances last year. After redshirting last season, sophomore guard Aidan Prukop returns to the lineup for the Mustangs.

During the offseason, Cal Poly welcomed four Division I transfers to the lineup in graduate forward Chance Hunter (California Baptist), graduate guard Nick Fleming (Southern Utah) and sophomore guard Isaac Spears (Montana State) while 7-1 junior center Bryan Penn-Johnson joins from two-year East Los Angeles College after spending one year with LSU (2020-21) and two at Washington (2018-20).

Hunter was a two-time All-Big West honorable mention selection with Long Beach State (2019-21), Fleming helped Southern Utah (2020-22) to a Big Sky Conference regular season runner-up showing last season and Spears made 12 appearances with Montana State a year ago as the Bobcats captured the Big Sky regular season and tournament titles to reach the program's first NCAA Tournament in 26 years.

Cal Poly's incoming freshman class is comprised of forwards Aaron Price, Jr. (Las Vegas, NV / Liberty HS) and Cole Haller (Bellevue, WA / Bellevue HS) and guard Noah Pick (Arroyo Grande, CA / Sunrise Christian Academy-KS).