The Long Beach State men’s basketball team has played 27 games so far this season, yet the 49ers remain an enigma to me.
Going into the season, I felt that the ‘Niners boasted the most talented roster in the Big West Conference. I was not alone as 16 other members of the media tabbed The Beach as the top squad in the nine-team conference in the preseason media poll.
Yet, the current standings don’t quite reflect those expectations.
With a win over Idaho on Saturday, LBSU’s overall record stands at 13-14, while its conference record sits at 6-7, which is good enough to put The Beach in fifth place. But the reality remains that the 49ers are just two losses away from being in last place and left out of the eight-team Big West tournament completely.
The seven Big West losses officially means that the 49ers cannot do better than their 10-6 conference record from last season.
But are they really less skilled than the 2008-09 team?
The ‘Niners didn’t lose their talent during a rigorous preseason schedule. Rather, the members of the media just forgot to factor one of the key intangibles that a championship-caliber team must possess night in and night out — effort.
One of head coach Dan Monson’s favorite phrases is in fact “attitude and effort.” Monson has preached this philosophy from day one of his three-year stint at The Beach.
He believes that these are the two facets of the game that the players can control.
The 49ers, however, have not played every game with the same enthusiasm this season, which is one of the main reasons why the team is in its current position.
The Beach has shown that, when clicking as a team, the group can dominate opponents, as evidenced by a 13-point win over Utah State in December and a 20-point victory over UC Santa Barbara.
So the players have shown they have the desire to win this season.
Those games haven’t been the problem, but rather, the uninspired performances against the likes of Cal Poly and, most recently, Pacific.
The 22-point loss to Pacific even prompted a 90-minute post-game meeting between the team and coaching staff.
Monson has likened this year’s team to a family, and like any family, there has been a sense of discord during stretches this season.
After the loss to Cal Poly in mid-January, junior Greg Plater talked about the team’s overall mentality after the game.
“It’s a heart problem,” Plater said. “Not everybody was believing in what Coach Monson said. … Nobody played with any heart or passion today and it’s embarrassing.”
The topic was once again addressed after the 49ers’ lackluster effort against Pacific.
“Most of it I believe is mental more than physical,” Monson said. “And it’s my job to get their effort high, but to relax in other areas.”
The time is running out to right the ship and the path only gets tougher with upcoming road tilts against UC Davis and Pacific.
“We’re gonna be a work in progress and hopefully we can band together for three days in Anaheim, maybe four,” Monson added after the loss to Pacific.
The Beach will need to have a top-notch effort in its three remaining games if the team wants to earn the No. 4-seed and a first-round bye in the Big West Conference tournament.
I still believe that LBSU possesses the most talented team in the Big West.
But if the intensity is not there, the 49ers might have to watch some other team walk away with, what many believed, was their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.