Men's Basketball, Men's Sports

Restoring order: LBSU men’s basketball team ready to face familiar opponents

Four games have proven enough for the Long Beach State men’s basketball team to gauge its competition in the Big West Conference, one of the best mid-major programs in the country.

Head coach Dan Monson, who has won three Big West Conference titles since 2007, said it’s a survive-and-advance league.

“Whoever wins this league has a long ways to go,” Monson said. “Nobody is good enough right now to win three games in March. It’s going to be whoever improves the most from now until that tournament. We just have to keep working.”

The unpredictability of the Big West Conference makes it so tough. Last year, UC Irvine was the Big West Conference regular season champion and the favorite to win league tournament before losing in the second round to the eventual tournament champions, Cal Poly.

UC Santa Barbara, a team many labeled as a preseason favorite to win the Big West Conference, is struggling with a losing record in league play (1-2) and overall (8-9). UC Davis has taken advantage of a weak non-conference schedule to boost its overall record (14-3). But the Aggies are also undefeated in league play (4-0), including an overtime win against LBSU.

This isn’t a league that sends many players to the NBA, so players tend to play all four years of college. LBSU senior Point Guard Mike Caffey already knows the type of defenses the team is going to face from this point on.

“I know we’re going to get zoned a lot,” Caffey said. “So we just have to practice on that offensively. We kind of shot badly [against Cal Poly], but we got through it through with defense.”

Even a team struggling in conference play presents a challenge. In last Thursday’s 50-48 win against Cal Poly (8-8, 3-1), it took an incredible last second effort from Caffey to seal the win.

“[Cal Poly] is a hard-hat defensive team,” Caffey said. “We struggle every year scoring against them. Defensively, they drain the clock on offense.”

Senior Guard Tyler Lamb said he thinks the league has improved from a quality standpoint since last season. Lamb, the 49ers’ second leading scorer at 9.3 points per game, said the first couple of games of league play have given the team a good feel for what they are going to face the rest of the season.

“I think conference has picked up from last year,” Lamb said. “It’s good competition. We lost to [UC Davis] at Davis for the first time in seven years last weekend. I’m excited to go into conference play and be able to showcase what I can do and what my team can [do] against these other schools.”

Lamb said the team’s ready to make the Big West Conference Long Beach State’s.

“We’re excited to restore order back in the Big West Conference.”

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