Utah
Mustangs Resume Road Trip Thursday at Utah
11/19/2025 11:39:00 AM | Men's Basketball
SAN LUIS OBISPO – The Cal Poly men’s basketball team looks to snap a two-game slide when opening the second half of a six-game road trip – the program’s lengthiest in four years – at Utah on Thursday, Nov. 20. Tip time is 6 p.m. PT for Cal Poly (2-3), which opened the road trip with a 73-71, buzzer-beating victory at Seattle (Nov. 8) before sustaining road setbacks at Colorado State (Nov. 12) and Montana (Nov. 14). Utah (5-0), playing its sixth straight home game Thursday to open the season, stayed perfect with an 85-77 Tuesday victory against Purdue Fort Wayne.
CAL POLY VERSUS UTAH: Utah has prevailed in the two previous matchups with Cal Poly, last defeating the Mustangs on Dec. 16, 2006 (77-58). The Utes also prevailed in San Luis Obispo on Dec. 22, 2004 (77-58).
MOUSA’S MOMENT: A double-digit scorer in all four appearances, sophomore guard Hamad Mousa – who finished with 26 total points in 20 games at Dayton last season – leads Cal Poly and ranks fifth among Big West players at 17.8 points per game. Scoring a collegiate best 23 points against Pacific Lutheran (Nov. 5) and 18 at both Seattle (Nov. 8) and Colorado State (Nov. 12), Mousa – one of just two players from Qatar in Division I this season – also paces the Mustangs with 6.8 rebounds per night.
BAMDELJ KEEPS THE SCORING PACE: Cal Poly’s leading returning scorer from last season, sophomore guard Peter Bandelj climbed to second in Cal Poly’s lineup at 15.8 points per game following a season best 21-point effort at Montana (Nov. 14). A double-digit scorer in all four appearances, Bandelj also sits second in the lineup with a 48.8 (21-for-43) percent field goal mark. Through 39 collegiate appearances, Bandelj is averaging 11.0 points per game.
WARD’S SUPERB SOPHOMORE EFFORT: The only Mustang to start all five games this year, sophomore guard Cayden Ward (top) – behind four double-digit scoring efforts – enters Thursday’s matchup with Utah third in Cal Poly’s lineup at 14.4 points per game. Activated from a potential redshirt season last winter a month into the campaign, Ward – who averaged 7.4 points per game as a freshman – produced a new career scoring high with 26 points against Pacific Lutheran (Nov. 5).
UNITED NATIONS: Cal Poly’s 2025-26 roster features players from nine different countries – a figure eclipsed by only UT Martin (13). Cal Poly, however, is the only Division I program this year with a roster that canvasses all six habitable continents/regions.
CLOSED PORTAL DOORS: Alongside Duke, Tennessee, American and Boston University, Cal Poly was just one of just five Division I programs not to lose a player to the transfer portal during the offseason.
MUSTANGS LOOK TO BUILD OFF OF HISTORIC 2024-25 SEASON: In addition to reaching the Big West Championship semifinals for the first time in 11 years last spring during head coach Mike DeGeorge’s first season, the 2024-25 Mustangs:
- Recorded the most overall wins (16) and Big West wins (eight) since the 2012-13 season;
- Finished third among 355 Division I programs in three-pointers made (11.5) and attempted (31.8) per game, 19th with 82.1 points per game and 30th in effective field goal percentage (55.4);
- Averaged 18.4 more points per game than the 2023-24 season – the most significant turnaround in the nation and;
- Enjoyed a 12-win improvement from previous season marking the fourth most dramatic reversal among Division I programs.
SANDERS DEBUT MAKES NBA MUSTANGS TWO: Cal Poly saw a second Mustang alum make his NBA debut on Oct. 22 when guard Kobe Sanders (2020-24) – drafted 50th overall by the New York Knicks in June before being traded to the Clippers – appeared for Los Angeles. Cal Poly’s first and only NBA Draft selection since 1978, Sanders joined guard David Nwaba (2013-16) – who appeared for the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago, Cleveland, Brooklyn and Houston between 2017 and 2022 – as the only former Mustangs to play in the NBA.
ETC.: The Mustangs are in their 32nd Division I season and 82nd as a four-year program … Cal Poly’s Nov. 3 season opener at USC marked the earliest start date in program history … the Mustangs improved to 50-1 against non-Division I opposition with a 101-79 home victory against Division III Pacific Lutheran on Nov. 5 (Cal Poly transitioned to the Division I level prior to the 1994-95 season).
