Reynolds
gives state of the hoops team address
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
I
will say this about Long Beach State men’s
basketball head coach Larry Reynolds. The
guy sure talks a good game. Reynolds is
a straight shooter and at the coaches chat
Tuesday night held for the Sixth Man Booster
Club Reynolds sold them on the 49ers bright
future next season. Well, all except one.
Reynolds
discussed the team’s situation and
how hard they have worked in the off season
to improve their shooting so they can win
more than the measly six games the 49ers
won in its 2003-04 campaign. One victory
better than it had in Reynold’s first
season when the team won a whopping five
games.
“We
worked on our shooting fundamentals and
footwork,” Reynolds told the Sixth
Man Boosters. “We’re getting
ourselves more efficient. We spent all spring
working in groups and a majority of that
time was spent on shooting.”
Last
season the 49ers were eighth in the conference
in scoring averaging at 63.4 points per
game. On defense the 49ers allowed 72.7
points a game putting them in ninth place
just in front of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
who allowed 74.4 points a game. The 49ers
also had one of the worst assist to turnover
ratios in the conference averaging 13 assists
to 15 turnovers.
When
asked about who would pick up the slack
on defense Reynolds responded that Louis
Darby would be one of the team’s better
defensive players in the upcoming season.
“Darby
will be a good defensive player,”
said Reynolds. “He’s rangy and
stronger and getting stronger. Pearson will
help out and Coleman can block shots and
defend.”
But in all fairness to coach Reynolds he
was taking over a program that was not very
good to begin with. The 2001-02 49ers under
then head coach Wayne Morgan only won nine
games in conference and finished 13-17 overall.
Reynolds had to play his first season with
Morgan’s players and some of the better
players like Travis Reed, Ron Johnson and
Michael Darrett had graduated when Reynolds
became the head coach in 2002.
Still
Reynolds told the Boosters not to worry
because he had a plan. His plan includes
junior college players that can come in
and make an impact. Reynolds is bringing
in two players from junior college he feels
will make an impact. Jazz Henderson and
Onye Ibekwe. Ibekwe who is from Los Angeles
and attended Crenshaw High School will be
transferring from Oklahoma State.
“I’m
excited. We have some scorers coming in
which is what I want to see guys who can
score and want to play,” said Reynolds.
Daniel
Frias is a print journalism major at Cal
State Long Beach.
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