ANAHEIM — Before doing battle on the court, the Big West Conference men’s and women’s basketball coaches had the opportunity to face-off in the kitchen Tuesday at the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney.
Afterward, the collection of five Southern California Big West schools — Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside — met with the media to discuss the upcoming season. The four other Big West teams — Cal Poly, Pacific, UC Davis and UCSB — held their media day separately.
Men’s outlook
The general consensus among the men’s basketball coaches was that Long Beach State is the team to beat this season.
The coaches felt that the cast of players that 49ers’ head coach Dan Monson has assembled makes LBSU the favorite of the conference.
“Long Beach and, I think, [UC Santa Barbara] are the two top teams,” CSUF head coach Bob Burton said. “With all the guys that they [LBSU] have coming back, I think that they’ll be really good.”
CSUN head coach Bobby Braswell, who led his team to the Big West title last season, echoed that sentiment.
“Monson’s got the team that everyone’s going to be going for,” Braswell said during the cook-off.
Monson, who is entering his third year at The Beach, pointed out that there are unknowns in a wide-open conference that saw the 49ers finish tied for second after being picked eighth by the Big West coaches to start the 2008-09 season. Even with eight returning letter-winners, Monson believes that the conference is not as cut-and-dry as it is being made out to be.
“I still think we have some limitations,” Monson said. “I think that we have some proving to do in certain areas … we’re closer. We’ve already had more injuries this year than we did last year; so many factors go into it. We put ourselves in a position last year, and we’ve got a long road just to get back to that position again.”
Monson said the team is not putting much weight into preseason predictions that have the ‘Niners as the favorite.
“I don’t think it matters [to the team] what anybody else thinks,” Monson said. “When they left the locker room at [UCSB] last year they felt like they should have had a piece of the league [title]. That in itself, I think, is the motivation that our team is trying to use to win this league. I think we felt like we let it slip [away] last year.”
Monson will get his first chance to work with the entire team on Friday when the 49ers hold their first official practice. Monson said he believes that the effort some players put in over the offseason will help the 49ers’ transition into full practice.
“We’ve been going pretty hard for half an hour, four days a week,” Monson said. “We’re farther along right now than we have been on any first day of practice since I’ve been here, because we have so many guys that have been through it.
At this point Monson isn’t making any promises with playing time, even with the strides that many players took over the summer to get stronger and strengthen their games.
“You hope as a coach you can reward them with that [playing time],” Monson said. “But as a coach … it’s not a seventh-grade team everybody plays the same amount, either.
There’s only so many minutes for certain positions. As we head into Friday, I think those opportunities will be there for them.”
A media poll and Big West Coaches’ Poll are expected to be released later this month.
Women’s outlook
LBSU women’s head coach Jody Wynn emphasized the importance of her 49ers displaying a renewed energy in both practices and in games this season.
With a roster carrying eight seniors, the first-year head coach wasn’t necessarily surprised as much as she was “refreshed” to see a veteran team respond despite a coaching change.
“To see [a senior] like Lauren Sims take the initiative, it’s just refreshing to rely on and count on [as a new head coach],” Wynn said.
With the team’s first official practice scheduled for Friday, Wynn added that she could sense the players’ anticipation growing.
“Yesterday [during individual workouts] I could feel the anxiousness,” said Wynn, who has yet to decide on a starting five. “It’s still too early. Some kids might start one game and not start the next game.”
One key player, fifth-year senior Karina Figueroa, who took a medical redshirt to recover from a series of foot-related injuries, still “isn’t 100 percent” but has been participating in workouts and Wynn expects the three-time All-Big West guard to be on the floor instead of the sidelines this season.
“Having Karina back will help but almost everyone played [at some point last season] so the seniors are hungry,” she said.
Looking at the competition in the conference, Wynn didn’t want to project where her team or the rest of the conference would finish but kept in mind the 49ers’ last-place finish, including an 8-21 record and 4-12 mark in the nine-team conference.
“All eight [teams] are in front of us and we can’t take anyone lightly,” she said.
However, UCR sixth-year head coach John Margaritis predicted that LBSU could be the surprise team in the Big West and even finish among the top 3.
“If they can stay healthy, all they need is a little confidence. If there’s one team that can do it, it’s [LBSU],” said Margaritis, whose Highlanders (19-12, 14-2 Big West — second place) lost all five starters and nine players in total to graduation.