After two straight seasons that ended with below .500 records and quick exits from the conference tournament, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team finally found itself back in familiar territory.
During LBSU head coach Dan Monson’s nine year tenure, the team has gone to four Big West Tournament championship games and earned three postseason berths.
The 49ers (20-15, 12-4) were back in the Big West Tournament championship game after steamrolling past nine Big West foes in the last 10 games of the regular season and knocking off UC Riverside and Irvine in the first two rounds.
Against the Rainbow Warriors, the 49ers were one three-point shot away from punching their ticket into the NCAA tournament.
Monson said the team had the right cast of players it was missing in the last two years, but struggled this season to find consistency and in the tournament final.
“We needed to have the right guys in this program and this team proved that we do,” Monson said after losing 64-60 against Hawai’i on Mar. 12. “Now we just have to get over that last hurdle [of staying consistent] that we didn’t today.”
The 49ers got a seat at the National Invitation tournament and were four minutes away from advancing to the second round with a 94-90 lead. However, its double-digit first-half lead crumbled away against the University of Washington in the second half losing 107-102 to the Huskies in Seattle.
The heartbreaking defeat also closed the book on the collegiate careers of senior guards Nick Faust and A.J. Spencer.
After transferring from the University of Maryland, Faust was the 49ers’ leading scorer this season. The Baltimore, Maryland native averaged 17.0 points per game and finished with a total of 609, making him the eighth player in school history to score 600 in a single season.
Nevertheless, LBSU has a lot to look forward to in the future.
The 49ers return three of their five starters, Justin Bibbins, Gabe Levin and Mason Riggins, and the league’s reigning sixth man of the year, junior forward Travis Hammonds.
Although Hammonds averaged 10.1 ppg and delivered in key moments for the 49ers, Bibbins will be the most valuable asset for LBSU in the next two years.
The sophomore from Carson was the 49ers’ second leading scorer (12.0 ppg) and averaged 5.0 assists, and ranked second best in the Big West behind Hawai’i’s guard Roderick Bobbitt’s 5.5 apg.
Like his predecessors, Bibbins proved this season that he is the new generation of crafty 49er point guards.
When Casper Ware played at LBSU from 2008-2012, he dished out a school-record 545 assists. Ware’s successor, Mike Caffey, [2011-15] filled in Ware’s shoes nicely racking up 457 career assists, third best in school history.
Bibbins learned from Caffey last season and was like a quarterback this season dishing out a total of 164 assists, which is the third best single season total in school history.
Meanwhile, the 49ers were sitting at 9-12 overall on Jan. 23 after blowing a second-half lead against Cal Poly. But after overcoming a second half deficit and beating UC Santa Barbara 80-70 in overtime on Jan. 28, the 49ers steamrolled the last 10 games of the season on a 9-1 run.
“This team improved a lot from beginning to end and that’s fun because that’s what coaching is all about,” Monson said.
There aren’t a lot of programs in the country with as tough a nonconference schedule that includes three teams that made it into this week’s Sweet 16.
LBSU still managed to finish with an overall record above .500 for the first time since the 2012-13 season; the 49ers have something to build on for next season.