As the Long Beach State men’s basketball season came to an end Thursday afternoon in Portland, so did the careers of seven senior players.
Larry Anderson, Eugene Phelps, Casper Ware, T.J. Robinson, Edis Dervisevic, Corey Jackson and Sean Starkey sat long-faced in their locker room at the Rose Garden after their 75-68 loss to New Mexico – donning the black and yellow of LBSU for the last time.
Anderson limped about the perimeter of the room with ice on his injured knee. Phelps and Robinson were sitting stoically next to one another, staring at nothing but the wall in front of them. Ware was huddled in the corner of his locker, surrounded by reporters and visibly upset.
These seven players, four of whom are long-time starters and LBSU record-holders, have created a legacy head coach Dan Monson says will be the starting point for every team he will ever lead at The Beach.
“I don’t know where this program is going, but they’re the foundation,” Monson said. “They always will be, as long as I’m the coach.”
The group was relieved to reach the NCAA tournament after consecutive losses to conference-rival UC Santa Barbara in the Big West final.
Anderson, Phelps, Robinson and Ware are all members of the 1,000 point club for their careers, not something a group of four typically accomplishes together on any team.
After averaging 17.4 points and 3.4 assists per game, Ware was named the 2012 Big West Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, while he, Anderson and Robinson were named first team All-Conference. Phelps was named second-team.
Anderson was also named as the conference Defensive Player of the Year, an accomplishment Ware experienced last season.
The guard averaged 1.8 steals per game to lead the Big West.
Anderson, who missed the Big West tournament due to a knee injury, said he is proud of the way the team competed as the season came to an end.
“We went out fighting. It’s what we do, we keep fighting.”
Anderson added: “We’ll see (what happens next), let my knee heal for sure, but probably a couple [of] camps and see where it goes from there.”
Robinson is the all-time leading rebounder in the Big West Conference with a career total of 1,206 after Thursday’s game.
“We had a great career,” Robinson said. “Our first time to the NCAA tournament we came up a little short but we put Long Beach on the map and built a legacy.”
Although Ware was not ready for the ‘Niners season to come to an end, he feels prepared for the journey ahead.
“Me and the seniors are going to try to make the best out of our lives,” Ware said. “We will try to go play basketball somewhere. The good thing about it is we’re all getting our degrees, so we don’t have to rely on basketball.”