FULLERTON -- It made perfect sense that the Cal State Fullerton men's basketball team was picked to finish last in the Big West Conference preseason coaches' poll.
What's become one for the ages is how the Titans regrouped and rallied to finish third in the conference standings.
Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor and his staff were under pressure after failing to qualify for the Big West Tournament the past two seasons and they faced another major roster overhaul.
They rounded up a combination of lower-division transfers looking to satisfy their dream of playing Division I ball, a few overlooked freshmen with chips on their shoulders, a mid-major veteran making one last college stop, and Fullerton's only returning player from last season, ninth-leading scorer Kendrick De Luna.
Then they asked the assortment to play a new up-tempo style - even though some had never played at that pace - pieced together an 11-man rotation and watched the Titans shock one team after another.
Instead of closing the season on another sour note, Fullerton (17-15 overall, 12-8 Big West) completed its final week of the regular season with a 75-71 win against visiting UC San Diego on Thursday, and a 90-77 win at Cal State Northridge on Saturday night, leapfrogging both teams to earn the third seed for the eight-team conference tournament that begins Wednesday in Henderson, Nev.
"It's what this team deserves," Taylor said. "The last two years, we didn't make it, and I don't think those teams deserved it."
The Titans and fourth-seeded Northridge earned byes into Thursday's quarterfinals, while regular-season champion UC Irvine is the top seed and has a double-bye into Friday's semifinals.
The new roster and the up-tempo style of play has resulted in the Titans rising from 358th out of 364 teams in the nation in scoring last season (63.3 ppg) to 27th this season (83.7 ppg).
"I don't think we intended on playing warp-speed fast, but I love it," Taylor said. "I watch (other) games now and I'm, 'Gosh, they play so slow.'"
Fullerton's two leading scorers are seniors playing their first year at the Division I level.
Joshua Ward averages team highs of 14.5 points, 3.4 assists and 1.6 steals after playing last season at Palm Beach Atlantic in West Palm Beach, Florida, and his first two at Life University, an NAIA program in Marietta, Georgia.
Landon Seaman averages 12.1 points as a 6-foot-8 reserve forward. The Northern California native played the past three seasons at Menlo College in Atherton, which recently transitioned from NAIA to Division II.
Taylor credits fourth-year assistant coach Ryan Hamm with having the connections and the eye for finding players like Ward and Seaman, who fit the Fullerton program like a glove.
"He was the leader also in understanding how important character is," Taylor said of Hamm. "How important good guys are, how important coming from a winning culture is because of what we experienced."
De Luna, a 6-10 junior forward who is in his third season with the Titans, said transfers who arrive from lower divisions tend to be better at dealing with adversity than those who drop down from bigger conferences.
"Those guys coming from the top programs, them stepping down, this is their adversity, so they don't know how to press through it," De Luna said. "Whereas the guy at the lower level, they've been facing adversity trying to get to the D-I level because that's almost every kid's dream."
Fullerton senior guard Jefferson De La Cruz Monegro (12 ppg) played for Valparaiso last season after spending two seasons at Western Michigan. The native of Quebec has started 124 games in his college career.
"Nothing that Jefferson does shows up on paper," Taylor said. "His voice of experience, his voice of toughness, his voice of reality is something that's been a commonality amongst our group from day one, and his voice has continued to carry these guys from the freshmen to the other guys that are three and four and five-year guys."
Bryce Cofield (10.1 ppg), Christian Williams (9.0 ppg) and KJ Garris (8.3 ppg) are true freshman guards who have each put up 20-point games during the season. Mining the high school ranks for blue-chip players has become more lucrative for teams like Fullerton because the transfer portal has become such a big priority for major college programs.
"Freshmen are going to be overlooked," Taylor said. "Hopefully, we can attract a couple of those guys that are talented enough, that are skilled enough. ... just being all-around good dudes."
The Titans dropped their first two conference games in early December, but they showed signs of their potential later that month when they played Oklahoma State down to the wire in a five-point loss in Stillwater.
Fullerton then opened eyes even further with a 95-84 win on New Year's Day against visiting UC Santa Barbara, which was picked to finish second in the Big West.
"I think we've known we were going to be good since Day 1," Seaman said. "First day in, I came in here; I used to always have to be the guy that scored the ball; out here I can be the guy that can help facilitate because we have so many bucket-getters on this team."
Fullerton has done damage when it has made the conference tournament in recent years, winning the event in 2018 and 2022, and losing in the championship game in 2019 and 2023.
"We're here, so let's do everything we can do to stay here as long as we can be here," Taylor said. "That's the message this time of year is like, 'Hey man, we're guaranteed 40 minutes. Let's go be great in those 40 minutes and then that begets another 40.'"
All games at Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nev., all times are PT
- 6 p.m. - No. 4 seed Cal State Northridge (19-13) vs. UCSD-Cal Poly winner
- 8:30 p.m. - No. 3 seed Cal State Fullerton (17-15) vs. UC Davis-UCSB winner