Closing the regular season with three straight wins catapulted the Otters into the CCAA tournament for the first time in six years.
While their appearance was brief, it's another building block in a program that operates on one of the lowest budgets in the CCAA.
The Otters have taken steps forward in each of the last four seasons, improving in the win column while recording their first winning season in six years.
And while losing two of its top players will be difficult to replace, there is no reason to believe this core can't compete with the elite in one of the stronger Division II conferences in the nation.
"The most difficult part is that we haven't had a full team practice yet because of injuries,'' CSUMB coach Rob Bishop said. "It’s tough to develop an identity with so many players missing."
That won't change anytime soon as the Otters are likely to medically redshirt all three seniors this year, leaving his squad young and unproven.
"We're going to look a lot different than we did,'' Bishop said. "With the injuries, we've had to play some people I wasn't expecting to play so early in the season."
The Otters landed a jewel in 6-foot-4 transfer Shawn Smith, who began his collegiate career at Texas A&M, and was one of the top 30 point guards in the nation out of high school.
Smith, who had been one of the walking wounded, will distribute and disrupt for the Otters, showing flashes of his potential early in the season, averaging 12 points a game.
Sophomore Gregg Polosky came in last season as a freshmen and established himself as one of the leagues premier blockers, swatting away 38 shots last winter.
The 6-foot-11 post lead the Otters in rebounding in seven games and showed flashes of his talents on the offensive end, scoring 12 points against nationally ranked Cal Poly, Pomona last winter.
Not having the schools all-time leader in 3-point goals in uniform this season in Evan Zeller, as well as defensive specialist Mateo Jones -- both injured -- will slow progress this winter.
It was trial by fire for a trio of freshmen in the first month of the season as Bishop used a rotation that included Jahvon Johnson, Stephen Matthews and Kevin Warren.
Warren went into conference play leading the team in scoring at 14.8 points while Matthews was averaging double digits.
"It hurt not having an exhibition game for the first time in six years,'' Bishop said. "But with all the injuries, it was a bit of a blessing. We were able to get some good things done."
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