Cal St. Fullerton Spotlight: The Lords of Clutch
While the Power 5 conferences generally get the most attention from the press, the public also tends to love an underdog story. After all, Saint Peter’s was the biggest story from last year’s March Madness tournament, and Oral Roberts and UCLA were the standouts from the year prior. People still talk about VCU’s Final Four run, Dunk City, and Lehigh over Duke as hallmark underdogs. As a result, From Downtown is here to spotlight one of the most exciting teams that has a chance at being an underdog in the postseason this year. That team is Cal St. Fullerton’s Titans, who have won 2 straight games in 2OT in the past week.
Overtime is a very intricate metric in the world of basketball. It occurs just 6.4% of the time at the pro level according to RotoGrinders. As for the college scene, overtime is a likely sight due to the volume of games played each day, but double overtime has occurred just 6 times throughout the season thus far. Michigan State triumphed over Kentucky in the Champions Classic (which was mentioned in last Sunday’s article), and Davidson, UNC Asheville, and UTEP are the only other teams to get a victory in 2OT. The fact that a team not only participated in 1/3rd of every double overtime game thus far, but won each of those games is an incredible statistical anomaly that needs to be addressed.
The Cal St. Fullerton Titans are a team that combines veteran leadership with a large bunch of new players. Head Coach Dedrique Taylor - now regarded as the most successful CSF basketball coach in history - coached this team to the NCAA tournament last year, where they were defeated during Duke’s farewell tour for Coach K. The Titans notably defeated Long Beach State in a thriller to win the Big West title. Taylor led this program to the Big West for the 2nd time in the last 4 seasons, and he has created a nice winning tradition for the program in recent years as a result. While Coach Taylor may stay humble in interviews, this team plays far from humble on the court.
The Titans are led by returning players Jalen Harris, Latrell Wrighstell, Vincent Lee, and Tory San Antonio. The former 3 are the team’s top 3 scorers, and the latter player scored a strong 21 in their 2OT win against Vermont. At a mid major level, player leadership is one of the single biggest ingredients in the recipe for team success. These players have big shoes to fill: E.J. Anosike averaged 16.3 points and 8 rebounds last season, and was Big West Tournament MVP. Taylor has adopted a “next man up” philosophy in his coaching, where he places big expectations on his veterans to set an example for the younger players, who in turn grow up to be these veterans for the future. It seems as though the Titans are creating a strong foundation for success, but why is that success coming by the skin of their teeth?
The short answer is that Fullerton may need to work on their consistency. Take the guard San Antonio for example. The guard nailed 4 3-pointers and 7 free throws to score a game high 21 points, and he also rebounded the ball quite well. Conversely, he was practically nonexistent on Fullerton’s offense against Pepperdine, and scored a measly 5 points. As for Wrightsell, he scored 27 points in Fullerton’s 2OT win against pacific, but he failed to do anything notable against Vermont. Jalen Harris scored north of 20 points in both the Pepperdine and Pacific affairs, but he struggled against the non D-1 opponent Westcliff when he shot 3/11 from the field. All of these players are exhibiting incredibly high levels of potential, but they need to remain consistent if Fullerton wants to win the Big West for the 3rd time in the past 5 tournaments.
Cal St. Fullerton has some of the most impressive “clutch defending” in the entire league. When rewatching their title game against Long Beach State, a double team prevented them from getting a shot off before the buzzer (as a quick aside, Long Beach has an incredible mascot controversy, and are both the Sharks and the 49ers). They held Pepperdine and Pacific scoreless in the last 30 seconds, which was crucial considering they won by a single score. KenPom ostensibly heavily underestimates their defense, but in reality, their defense tightens up when the game is close. Clearly, Taylor is coaching these players to have unparalleled mentality, and that has allowed them to perform incredibly well when it matters most.
This team currently sits on the Big West’s throne, and has only lost to ranked opponent San Diego State. That game was relatively competitive until the Aztecs ran away in the 2nd half. They boast an incredibly effective statline and win column, but a few made shots is the difference between Fullerton being a conference-leading 4-1 and a conference-trailing 1-4. While Fullerton’s future status is uncertain due to their inconsistent, “hot or not” nature, they play exciting basketball. If not for UC Irvine’s marquee win over Oregon, Fullerton would easily be the most exciting team in the Big West. They are still an incredible team to look out for when they take on USC in early December, and look to defend their title when Big West league play begins. Should Taylor coach consecutive tournament appearances, it would cement him as a Titan of the mid major coaching world (pun intended).
Stay tuned for recaps of the major MTEs coming this Sunday!
