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best of sports
Morgan
leaves mixed legacy
By Phil Witte
On-line Forty-Niner
Wayne Morgan cut
a solitary figure as he walked out the back door of the Anaheim
Convention Center following Long Beach State's 72-65 Big West
Tournament loss to UC Irvine March 7 in the first round of
the Big West Tournament.
Morgan joined LBSU on April 19, 1996 as the school's 14th
head basketball coach. Under Morgan's tutelage, the 49ers
had their ups -- a 24-6 season in 1999 that included a 15-game
winning streak -- and downs -- four losing seasons out of
six.
"I'm sad that this was my last game at Long Beach State,"
Morgan said at the press conference following the game.
With the ax expected to fall at season's end, Morgan announced
his resignation on Feb. 8. Morgan came to LBSU -- his first
college head-coaching job -- after spending 12 seasons as
an assistant to Jim Boeheim at Syracuse University.
"I still talk to Jim about once a month," Morgan
said. "He always there to help me. Obviously, we've talked
a lot more the past five weeks."
Ironically, the announcement seemed to inspire the team. The
49ers finished the regular season with a five-game winning
streak after losing two games following the announcement.
"I'm glad to see the kids turned the season around,"
Morgan said. "This taught them about life in that things
don't always go as planned."
Morgan leaves with a record of 91-84 in six seasons, good
for third place on the LBSU all-time win list behind Jerry
Tarkanian (121) and Seth Greenberg (105). Morgan replaced
Greenberg at LBSU.
Despite an winning overall record in Morgan's six years, LBSU
never advanced to a conference tournament title game and lost
its only postseason game, a 70-66 defeat to Cal in the National
Invitational Tournament in 1999.
Morgan was already looking for his next challenge after the
final loss.
"I want to stay in college basketball, and over the next
three or four weeks, something should develop," Morgan
said.
One area Morgan's legacy will be the strongest is in the classroom.
If all five of this year's seniors graduate as expected, every
one of Morgan's recruits will have graduated.
"[Earlier this season coach] Nolan Richardson of Arkansas
was fired, partly because of a list that said none of his
players graduated between 1990 and 1997," Morgan said.
"Long Beach was on that list too. When you look at 1997
to 2002, we'll no longer be there, and I'm proud of that."
This article originally appeared in the March 13 edition of
the On-line Forty-Niner.
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