As an eighth grader, before ESPN recognized him as the country’s No. 38 basketball recruit out of Mater Dei High School, Tyler Lamb received his first recruiting letter from his future college.
Lamb passed up the offer, made by Long Beach State, and later committed to UCLA instead, where he played all 34 games as a freshman before starting 32 of his 33 games in his sophomore year.
But after succumbing to a knee operation and falling behind on the depth chart while sitting out his junior year, Lamb decided to transfer out to retain his eligibility as a junior.
After considering several prospective schools once again, Lamb ultimately responded to LBSU’s offer made all those years ago.
“It’s funny because Long Beach State came back around,” Lamb said. “I didn’t want to just sit my whole junior year out [at UCLA], recovering and everything, trying to rehab and just being able to play my senior year.”
While rehabbing from a surgery that removed loose cartilage from behind his chronically swollen left kneecap, Lamb considered schools like UNLV, Connecticut and San Diego State.
But after consulting with close friend and then-49er Keala King, who played with Lamb at Mater Dei, Lamb was turned onto the thought of The Beach.
King’s praise of head coach Dan Monson’s coaching style and the program’s competitive nonconference scheduling helped Lamb finalize his decision.
“Coach Monson is a coach I feel like would let me showcase my talent along with helping the team out,” Lamb said. “He runs a fast-paced offense, and that’s my type of game.”
While LBSU had expressed interest in Lamb back before the guard’s high school days, Monson said that Lamb’s decision to transfer last year was in no way a recruiting effort by LBSU.
Monson was attracted to Lamb’s versatility on the court and experience with success, but because of issues controlling the personalities of a few transfer athletes last year, Monson said he was not actively pursuing the recruit.
“I was very concerned because the transfers we had last year were not working out and weren’t buying into things I expected them to buy into,” Monson said. “Once I found out that his goals matched mine, it was pretty easy.”
Lamb said he is at LBSU now because he wanted a fresh start and another chance. He sat out of the Bruins’ lineup last year while freshman guards Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson excelled.
But the hardest thing Lamb said he’s had to deal with throughout the whole transfer process is leaving his old teammates behind.
Upon his transfer to LBSU last January, Lamb expected to reunite with and play alongside King, his former Monarch teammate who he won a Trinity League title with at Mater Dei in 2010.
Instead, King was one of four players that did not have their scholarships renewed for the 2013-14 season. King is now playing at University of Pikeville, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school in Kentucky.
Even without King, Lamb said he has integrated into his new team with ease and has already formed close friendships with teammates, like point guard Mike Caffey, who Lamb frequently played against as a freshman and sophomore at Colony High School in Ontario, Calif.
“We have a sense of family on this team, and everybody gets along,” Lamb said. “I mean, we argue from time to time just like brothers would, but ultimately it makes us closer when we’re able to respond from adversity and work it out.”
It’s been a year since Lamb last competed on the court. He said what he’s most looking forward to is getting back out there to help his new team fulfill its goals of returning to March Madness, something they fell short of doing last season.
The season begins this Saturday, but Lamb won’t be eligible to play until around the New Year, which will coincide with the beginning of conference play.
Until then, Lamb plans to give his knee as much rest and rehabilitation as he can to ensure he’s ready to compete for the second half of the season.
“I’m 100 percent confident that when it’s that time for me to come back out on the court that I’ll be 100 percent, I’ll be good,” Lamb said. “I think the fact that I do have time, until December to where I start playing, I think that’s going to help me.”
While Monson fought through various problems with transfer athletes last year, he’s embraced Lamb this season.
“I have to say that I’ve been really impressed with Tyler,” Monson said. “In the first two months here of practice, he’s shown leadership, he’s showed maturity. For a guy that won’t be able to play here for another two months, month-and-a-half, whatever it is, he’s worked very hard and had a really good preseason.”