The Long Beach State men’s basketball team has had four months, 30 games and dozens of practices to prepare for what’s coming this weekend: the last chance to advance to the NCAA tournament.
When the 49ers take the court at the Honda Center on Thursday, they will start the Big West Tournament with hopes of winning three games and earning an automatic bid to the big dance. With a 14-16 overall record to their name (10-4 in Big West play), an at-large bid has long been out of the question.
Now LBSU will put its season on the line and seek to prove it’s the best in the Big West.
“That’s why we play the tournament, we’re going to find out [if we’re the best],” head coach Dan Monson said. “We weren’t when we played the second half against [Cal State] Fullerton or [Cal State] Northridge…but we’ll see. If we haven’t improved from the second half of that Fullerton game, our season is over.”
Monson was referring to a game on March 1 during which the 49ers were significantly outplayed, outshot and outscored by the Titans en route to an 84-76 loss. LBSU, which earned the third seed in the Big West Tournament, will take on sixth-seeded CSUF once again in the first round on Thursday.
As will be the case throughout the tournament, the key to winning for the 49ers will be defense.
“It needs to be team defense,” Monson said. “We’re going to have to show them different things to disrupt them … we’ve got to look at different ways to guard them throughout the game, and we’re going to have to do ball screens differently sometimes. We’ve got to be more disruptive.”
Leading the Titans (11-19, 6-10 Big West) is a pair of guards, Alex Harris and Michael Williams. The duo has accounted for an average of 33.1 points per game for CSUF this season.
The 49ers are hoping that Thursday’s game is one of many this weekend, not the only one. Monson said he was “confident” that they would play well enough to do that.
“This program is in a position where we’re disappointed if we finish third,” he said. “We expect to win. We expect to win every night and every league championship, and this is another opportunity for us to do that.”
The 49ers will look to Mike Caffey and Tyler Lamb for the biggest contributions on offense, as the two average a combined 31.7 points per game and were both selected to All-Big West teams earlier this week. Caffey earned first-team honors, and Lamb was named to the second team.
“I feel like I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, so I’m going to take this role and try to make sure everybody is on the same page,” Caffey said. “After seeing what happened freshman year when everybody was together [and the 49ers won the Big West tournament] and seeing what happened last year, I know the difference and what I can do to change that.”
LBSU will begin its push for a Big West title at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday when they start the tournament against CSUF at the Honda Center.