NAMES, NUMBERS, REYNOLDS RAP AND SHOPPING WITH THE STUDENTS
As has been widely reported it has taken the crew chief of Long Beach State basketball, Mr. Larry Reynolds, a weekend short of five years to build a championship level 49er scoring machine. In their Big West games Reynolds guys have wrapped up all the team scoring titles, an average of 86.4 ppg., plus 11 scoring margin and the best overall and three point shooting percentages on home and away courts. So one question remains to be answered, what happens when the Niner machine shifts into a neutral court?
Friday night the best Beach basketball model in a dozen years rolls into the Anaheim Arena carrying the hopes of their hardcore hoop fans and, obviously, their coach. Two wins gets you an NCAA dance ticket plus around $160,000, less what ever the Big West conference keeps, and an Excedrin Headache #49 for the those wanting to end the Reynolds era at 61-82. Personnel dramas aside, the regular season conference title came with a bye meaning that the 6:30 p.m. Friday’s contest will be against a team that will have already played one or two tournament games and will try to derail an all senior line up of rested and ready 49ers. The championship game will be Saturday at 8 p.m.
EQUAL TIME DUSTING—The LBSU women played after the Gazette went to press on Wednesday but were hopeful of polishing what has been a dismal season by earning a Thursday afternoon quarter final game with a first round win. Elsewhere the Dirtbags play three at Arizona State this weekend trying to hold onto their Top Twenty ranking.
The men’s NCAA pairings of course come out of an Indianapolis hotel room and this year there is a Big West member on the ten person selection committee, UC Riverside athletic director Stan Morrison, the only man to coach three different Division I teams from the same state (Pacific, USC and San Jose State) to the NCAA tournament.
Last of the famous names. Irvine’s Pat Douglass is happy to have this season over not just because of a losing season (13-17) but because he is sick and tired of seeing that in the corner in your face buzzer beater in the Big West tourney last year by Aaron you know who. Long Beach beat UCI with one tick on the clock in the 2006 semi-finals. The conference made a pre-tournament commercial and used Nixon’s heroics. “Every time I watched a game this season I had to see that shot over and over”
Our closing note is on the recently passed Long Beach State referendum to build a $65 million Student Recreation Center. 2,181 students voted yes, 737 voted no and 31,702 didn’t care.
The facility will have eight basketball, volleyball and badminton courts, an indoor jogging track, rock climbing wall, juice bar, multiple racquetball courts, an outdoor recreational swimming pool and seven multi-purpose dance/group fitness rooms. Among the arguments overlooked in the rush to get today’s student’s to commit tomorrow’s students to paying the above bill (over $300 for the year starting in 2010) is that the location is as far away from the dorms and the center of campus as you can possibly get.
Now I confess to having a NIMBY conflict owning a house across the street, but in the past the good burghers of LB ignored the jibes of rival cities when they called Long Beach “Iowa by the Sea.” Considering the great weather at the Beach, a mere 2,000 beds on campus, existing facilities like two pools, five racquetball courts, 10 bowling lanes, a fitness course, running track, golf range and acres of open space is it not possible that the Long Beach State model of a commuter campus works and LBSU as an academic entity doesn’t need to be “Iowa State By the Sea”? Just my humble opinion.—DR. DAN
Friday night the best Beach basketball model in a dozen years rolls into the Anaheim Arena carrying the hopes of their hardcore hoop fans and, obviously, their coach. Two wins gets you an NCAA dance ticket plus around $160,000, less what ever the Big West conference keeps, and an Excedrin Headache #49 for the those wanting to end the Reynolds era at 61-82. Personnel dramas aside, the regular season conference title came with a bye meaning that the 6:30 p.m. Friday’s contest will be against a team that will have already played one or two tournament games and will try to derail an all senior line up of rested and ready 49ers. The championship game will be Saturday at 8 p.m.
EQUAL TIME DUSTING—The LBSU women played after the Gazette went to press on Wednesday but were hopeful of polishing what has been a dismal season by earning a Thursday afternoon quarter final game with a first round win. Elsewhere the Dirtbags play three at Arizona State this weekend trying to hold onto their Top Twenty ranking.
The men’s NCAA pairings of course come out of an Indianapolis hotel room and this year there is a Big West member on the ten person selection committee, UC Riverside athletic director Stan Morrison, the only man to coach three different Division I teams from the same state (Pacific, USC and San Jose State) to the NCAA tournament.
Last of the famous names. Irvine’s Pat Douglass is happy to have this season over not just because of a losing season (13-17) but because he is sick and tired of seeing that in the corner in your face buzzer beater in the Big West tourney last year by Aaron you know who. Long Beach beat UCI with one tick on the clock in the 2006 semi-finals. The conference made a pre-tournament commercial and used Nixon’s heroics. “Every time I watched a game this season I had to see that shot over and over”
Our closing note is on the recently passed Long Beach State referendum to build a $65 million Student Recreation Center. 2,181 students voted yes, 737 voted no and 31,702 didn’t care.
The facility will have eight basketball, volleyball and badminton courts, an indoor jogging track, rock climbing wall, juice bar, multiple racquetball courts, an outdoor recreational swimming pool and seven multi-purpose dance/group fitness rooms. Among the arguments overlooked in the rush to get today’s student’s to commit tomorrow’s students to paying the above bill (over $300 for the year starting in 2010) is that the location is as far away from the dorms and the center of campus as you can possibly get.
Now I confess to having a NIMBY conflict owning a house across the street, but in the past the good burghers of LB ignored the jibes of rival cities when they called Long Beach “Iowa by the Sea.” Considering the great weather at the Beach, a mere 2,000 beds on campus, existing facilities like two pools, five racquetball courts, 10 bowling lanes, a fitness course, running track, golf range and acres of open space is it not possible that the Long Beach State model of a commuter campus works and LBSU as an academic entity doesn’t need to be “Iowa State By the Sea”? Just my humble opinion.—DR. DAN
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