Men's Basketball, Men's Sports, Sports

BASKETBALL COUNTDOWN: Dan Jennings is the big man on campus

Dan Jennings is big.

He’s a 6-foot-9, 245-pound giant made mostly of muscle. He’s also got the skill set to play a highly-sought position: center.

“At this level, it’s hard to find a true center,” head coach Dan Monson said. “We haven’t had a true center in the seven years I’ve been here besides Dan [Jennings] … You just don’t find at the mid-major level a 6-9, 240-50 pound guy that can move like him with athleticism.”

Being one of two returning starters and the only senior on the Long Beach State men’s basketball team, center Jennings is looking to take the leadership role for a young team looking to repeat as regular-season Big West Champions.

It’s all part of a long journey, though, for Jennings, who grew up more than 2,400 miles away in Staten Island, NY.

Jennings did not start playing structure basketball until he was 10, and his mom told him he was destined to play the sport because he always found basketballs in his neighborhood.

“In my neighborhood, I’d always run into a basketball somewhere, and I’d bring it home, and I used to have a whole collection when I was seven, eight years old,” Jennings said. “I’d have eight basketballs I just found.”

Jennings started his collegiate career at West Virginia, where he went the Final Four with the 2009-10 Mountaineers. He said the experience allowed him to be around other leaders, and he saw how hard they worked to set an example for the younger players.

“I’m all in this year,” he said. “Being a senior, I have to set an example, and I have to go as hard even if it’s me passing out. I have to continue to go hard and show them it’s going to take hard work and persistence to be great at this level.”

Jennings transferred to LBSU after spending two years at West Virginia. Being a New York native, Jennings has had to adjust being miles away from home.

“The environment changed, and my mentality changed,” he said. “At West Virginia, I was in my young stages, and when I came out here, it really allowed me to grow up and mature on a mental level.”

When transferring from West Virginia, Jennings said Monson was a big reason why he chose LBSU.

“A lot of coaches tell you what you want to hear to get you here, but coach Monson basically told me I had to earn everything I get here,” he said. “He really was honest with me, and I really respected that from him. He’s a blue-collar guy and a family guy … He gives you that father figure on the court, and he’s a great role model.”

Jennings averaged 8.4 points and 6.4 rebounds in his first year in a 49ers uniform, and he expects more from himself this year. He said that he lost 25 pounds and 12 to 13 percent of his body fat thanks to some rigorous offseason conditioning.

“Nobody’s worked harder this offseason than Dan [Jennings],” Monson said. “He’s able to do things he’s never been able to do and sustain them. That’s the most impressive thing to me: he can sustain it.”

Jennings said he expects this team to go to the NCAA tournament.

“I just feel once we start playing and they start getting that experience under their belt on the [Division I] level,” he said, “the sky is the limit because we’re executing things that we didn’t execute at this time last year.”

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