Men’s
basketball has potential to win it
all
Andrew DeLara
The winter season is rapidly approaching, complete with characteristic rainstorms,
nipping ocean winds, frostbiting temperatures and, of course, coastal gloom.
Fellow 49ers all across our beloved Beach are either basking in holiday joy or
succumbing to seasonal melancholy — and if not in ordinary life, certainly
in the Long Beach State men’s basketball team.
Inconsistency, injuries, demoralizing road losses, bad passes, ugly shots,
unadjusted
new players —you name it, we’ve seen it all. Yes, there have been
flashes of brilliance. Yes there has been some talent the past few years. But
our guys never really seemed to be able to get it together.
Even the fan who bleeds black and gold, eats and sleeps Beach and hums
the fight
song in his or her slumber couldn’t help but sink down into his or her
black colored, plastic bench seat in the student section of The Walter Pyramid
during horrific second-half meltdowns.
Fortunately,
basketball, which is a “winter sport,” runs
right into spring. Likewise, long streaks
of gloom and rainstorms eventually give way
to sunshine and blue skies — as least
that’s what we’d like to hope.
With highly touted new-comers like junior college transfer, guard Aaron Nixon
from Cleveland, Ohio, who was rated by Sporting News as the No. 1 junior college
player in the entire nation two years ago, now on campus and practicing in a
49er uniform, prospects seem bright.
Add to the mix Jersey City native Mark Dawson, a power forward with explosive
athleticism, who was also rated one of the top power forwards in junior college
nationally, and you already have a potential one-two punch for the near future.
Fans that attended the first practice of the season can tell you a thing or two
about returning starter and junior guard Louis Darby, who stood Associate Head
Coach Reggie Howard straight up a few feet from the basket. Darby, with tremendous
athletic ability, leaped over the coach and slammed it home during the dunk exhibition.
And lets not forget starting senior guard Jibril Hodges, the son of former Chicago
Bulls World Champion sharpshooter and former LBSU basketball star, Craig Hodges
who can be regularly seen at games.
The influx of athleticism coming into the program, looks to create a positive
result. The coaching staff looks to change the style of play.
And we should all be grateful — because that pass- around-the-perimeter,
soft style of slow-down basketball that we’ve had to endure the past few
seasons just wasn’t cutting it.
Practices this year have been rough and brutal — the way basketball is
supposed to be played at this high level. And it’s about friggin’ time!
Remember that Jerry Tarkanian, Lute Olsen, current head coach at Arizona,
Tex
Winter, inventor of the Bulls and Lakers’ Triangle Offense and Seth Greenberg
current Virginia Tech coach all coached at The Beach. Remember that 24 NBA players
have come out of LBSU basketball since its inception. Remember that we have been
to the Big Dance and have nearly smeared programs like Illinois when we were
there.
With that said, people want results, and they want them now because
they’ve
patiently waited several years. We have the potential, we have the attractive
campus, the academic prominence and the nice venue. Now we need to win.
I for one, am excited about our prospects, and have faith that we will
weather
the storm. UCLA and USC have both been added to next year’s schedule, and
if the stars align right, LBSU can make some real noise in the current day.
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