Take a stroll back to 1994—President Bill Clinton had an intern named Monica Lewinski, Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding had the first Olympic cat-fight, the baseball World Series was cancelled, Kurt Cobain died and the SF State men’s basketball team made it to the playoffs. Since then Monica’s blue suit was submitted as evidence, Tonya confessed, now it’s the Hollywood writers on strike and Nirvana is long gone, but the Gators have officially made it to conference playoffs.

All 11 members of the CCAA are ranked by a wins-and-losses formula. With a five-game lead over the ninth-ranked team, the Gators have, at long last, secured a position in the playoffs. The NCAA Western regional tournament is a different story—a complicated formula, taking into account difficulty of schedule as well as wins and losses. The CCAA guarantees the conference leader a spot but the second-place team is left to cross their fingers in hopes of making it to regional playoffs, based on the difficulty of schedule.

“The goals have changed,” head coach Bill Treseler said. “We’ve done some recalibrations.”

At the beginning of the season Treseler set a goal—be in the top eight—but with the goal accomplished, a new one needed to be put out there, Treseler said. The top four CCAA teams will be hosting a playoff game on their home turf and Gators want to compete in their first playoff game in more than a decade in the Swamp.

SF State (15-8, 10-6 CCAA) split last weekend to drop back into fourth place after an 84-to-72 win against Sonoma State and a disappointing 83-to-68 defeat by the second-place CSU Humboldt. If the Gators work their way up the ranking ladder they could have a chance to make it into the Regional Conference Finals -- something not even on the radar a year ago—and not an impossible task when two of the last four teams the Gators will play have fallen to SF State this season.

“Very rarely will a team reach their goals well before a season ends,” Treseler said. “We decided we’re not going to leave anything on the table. We’re going to keep pushing and go after some bigger objective.”

Treseler wants the team to not only host a playoff game, but make their way into the rankings of NCAA Div. II ball.

The upcoming away-games against Cal State L.A., who trailed the Gators by 14 points at the final buzzer, and Cal State Dominguez Hills, a four-point loss for SF State during their last opportunity, will prove to be a couple of tough games. The purple and gold take a mid-week trip to CSU Monterey Bay (another disappointing loss for the Gators) before the Gators host UC San Diego in the Swamp with expectations for another 10 point win.

Part of the Gator's success can be attributed to the versatile and dynamic players on the blocks and on the perimeter. In the NCAA Div. II statistical ranking of 261 teams SF State is 51 in defensive scoring and 46 in field goal defensive scoring.

The team has depth with four really solid post players, Treseler said. “That’s the spot on the floor where the fouls tend to accumulate so it’s good to have depth.”

Chris Rodriguez was Friday night’s pace-setter for the Gators in points and rebounds, putting up 20 points and eight rebounds but was shut down by Humboldt on the score board and allowed only five rebounds. Martin Flores’ 13 points in the first half kept the Gators just behind Humboldt State 43-38 while Derek Fletcher scored 14 of the Gators’ 30 second-half points.

The six top scorers for SF State include three guards, Rob Hayes (11.7points per game), Alex Thomas (11.4 ppg), and Darryl Robinson (5.6 ppg) as well as forwards Rodriguez (10.4 ppg), Flores (9.1 ppg) and Will Logan (5.3 ppg).

Alex Thomas was, as usual, solid throughout the weekend putting up 15 points against Sonoma State and 17 the next night. He’s also ranked 78th in assists turnover ratio leaving 422 players in his dust. Rob Hayes, Derek Fletcher, Ryan Wessels and Chris Rodriguez are also ranked in the top 500 players in Div. II ball.

The SF State men’s basketball team is in a great place right now, according to Treseler, “It’s compelling. Exciting. There’s something on the line.”