CSM men’s hoops to host JUCO playoff opener

“When your guys can sleep in their own bed the night before a game, I think that’s a huge advantage,” CSM head coach Mike Marcial said.

After joining the California Community College Athletic Association ranks two years ago, the Bulldogs enjoyed a moral victory in their first season in 2019-20. CSM finished in the middle of the pack in the Coast Conference North but qualified for the postseason as the final No. 19 seed in Northern California and fell on the road to Alameda in the play-in round.

There was no CCCAA basketball season in 2020-21 due to the pandemic.

This year, backed by the play of local talent such as Sam Manu (Aragon) and Pearse Uniacke (Serra), it was a different story altogether. While CSM settled for third place in the Coast North, it was a stacked conference — one of just two conferences in Nor Cal to feature three 20-game winners — led by second-place Las Positas (No. 5 Nor Cal tourney) and first-place City College of San Francisco (No. 1).

CSM is on the opposite side of the bracket from its two conference rivals. So, the only way the Bulldogs could play either would be in the state final four. And while they are two playoff wins away from making such a leap, don’t count the Coast North’s third-place team out, said Uniacke.

“I think we have the talent and the chemistry to go as far as we can,” Uniacke said. “I know we lost to Las Positas and City twice this year, but it’s tough to beat a team three times.”

Uniacke is one of three Bulldogs to earn first-team Coast North All-Conference honors. And at 6-9, the freshman forward is one of the tallest. Manu and forward Bobby Arenas (Riordan), both sophomores, also garnered first-team honors, along with Skyline College sophomore Colby Vazquez (Mills). Uniacke also earned All-Freshman honors.

Honorable mentions include Skyline sophomore Elijah Flowers and Cañada College freshman Jevon Jesus. CSM sophomore Desai Lopez was named to the conference’s All-Defensive Team.

The only player with more length on the All-Coast North team in CCSF freshman Mezziah Oakman at 7-feet tall. It’s this type of height that put Uniacke on Marcial’s radar to begin with.

“You can’t teach size,” Marcial said. “And Pearse is 6-9 and has a 7-1 wingspan. And his timing … he is one of the better shot blockers in our conference, and he’s got really good hands.”

Uniacke was an ambitious recruiting choice, seeing as he played virtually zero minutes in his varsity career at Serra. Graduating in 2019, he was a senior when current CSM teammate Muti Shuman, also 6-9, was a junior.

“In high school I got no minutes at all, really,” Uniacke said. “I was a junior on JV. Then senior year, coach didn’t play me. So, I felt like the game didn’t love me as much as I loved the game.”

After taking a year off from basketball, Uniacke spent the COVID quarantines of 2020 shooting around in his backyard, and mildly entertaining the idea of returning to organized basketball.

Now, Marcial looks like a mad genius, with Uniacke proving a menace in the post. Since landing the start in the season opener after Shuman started the year on the injured list, Uniacke leads the Bulldogs in rebounds (5.8 per game) and blocked shots (0.6 pg).

This is testament to Marcial’s work ethic as a recruiter. The second-year coach said he attended upwards of 10 Serra practices during Uniacke’s senior year, which is the only way to have seen the big man in action.

It was as much a recruiting job for Marcial as it was for him to get his feet on the ground in the Bay Area, after relocating from Nebraska, with one of his first contacts in the area being CSM assist coach Mike Barton, with whom Marcial said his first communications were on a cellphone conversation with poor reception as Marcial was driving past Nebraska cornfields in his 2006 Toyota Tacoma, U-Haul trailer in tow en route to take the CSM job in California.

“It’s really exciting to see where we started from literally nothing to having a home playoff game in the first round of the playoffs in our second year of competing,” Marcial said.