Cal Poly vs San Francisco Prediction College Basketball Picks 11/5/24

The Cal Poly Mustangs and the San Francisco Dons meet Tuesday in college basketball action from the War Memorial Gym. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best bets for this game. Here’s a Cal Poly vs. San Francisco prediction.

Cal Poly Recap

The Cal Poly Mustangs come in off of an abysmal 2023-24 season, finishing 4-28 overall including 0-20 in Big West conference play. The Mustangs would part ways with coach John Smith and now have Mike DeGeorge taking over as new head coach. The Mustangs lost a lot of pieces from last year’s team, but Jarred Hyder returns after logging 10.3 PPG and 2.5 APG for Cal Poly last year. Names like Mac Riniker, Kieran Elliott, Owen Koonce, and Isaac Jessup will be featured if you watch Cal Poly as all of these transfers come in from D-II Colorado Mesa where DeGeorge was most recently employed and turned Colorado Mesa into a powerhouse offensively, making four straight trips to the D-II tournament. It may take some time for this process to come together, but I expect the Mustangs to be a lot more competitive in year one under DeGeorge. Cal Poly will face California, Menlo, Seattle, Eastern Washington, and Arizona State following this one.

San Francisco Recap

The San Francisco Dons come into the 2024-25 season looking to build on a decent 2023-24 campaign where they finished 23-11 overall including 11-5 in WCC conference play. The Dons knocked Portland out in the quarterfinals before falling to Gonzaga in the semifinals. The Dons got an invite to the NIT, but their stay was short-lived as Cincinnati knocked San Francisco out in overtime. The Dons lost two big pieces from their roster, in Jonathan Mogbo and Mike Sharavjamts, but retained Marcus Williams (14 PPG, 3.9 APG) and Malik Thomas (12.4 PPG) from last year’s team while bringing in 7-footer Carlton Linguard Jr. from UTSA to strengthen the frontcourt. Only time will tell if San Francisco can take that next step and help the Dons get back to the Big Dance.

Cal Poly vs. San Francisco Prediction

I’m leaning towards Cal Poly and the points. I get why San Francisco is favored, but Cal Poly brought in 3 starters from DeGeorge’s Colorado Mesa D-II team, and DeGeorge was viewed in the same breath as being the D-II version of Nate Oats and Mesa put up 85+ PPG last season. I think DeGeorge knows what he’s doing and can instill a new mindset in the Mustangs early on. San Francisco is the better team for sure, but this feels like a lot of points when Cal Poly has nothing to lose here and San Francisco has a game with Boise State on deck. I’ll take Cal Poly and the points.