12:46pm | The much anticipated basketball tournament in Hawaii started out as what Coach Dan Monson was selling his troops as a “business trip.” And after beat downs on big time programs like Xavier (10 points over the #14 team) and Auburn (21 points over an cash flush-BCS SEC team Auburn) the wall to wall TV shots looked like one of the 49er info-mercials. But even in paradise reality is waiting just around the corner.
 
That would be moving from the equivalent of Frisbee on Waikiki to a Midwest meat grinder in the form of Big 12 front runner Kansas State. The talking head s on TV, especially former Illinois player Steven Bardo, were smitten by the Niners and Dan’s boys Micguire and Maddox who taped their Christmas lists for broadcast over and over.
 
Yes the championship game had some moments, (Larry Anderson and Casper Ware each scored 17 points) but K-State kicked sand on the Beach boys early and never let up. Their offense is hard to explain and perfect for their personnel. A spinning wheel of lots of passes, few or no dribbles, and patient big boys who shot 50.0 percent in contrast to the sputtering work of Long Beach State (37.1 per cent). The Beach did get above 50 percent from the foul line (57%) but the misses stalled any momentum earned with the first two wins, as Kansas State won 77-60.
 
Lost in the pre-tourney worries was a suddenly sharp shooting Rodney McCruder, who earned the tournament MVP, (28 points to up K-State (to 10-1. Casper will live to fight another day, starting next week when Big West play begins. Anderson was named to the all-tournament team after scoring in double figures in all three tournament games and working hard on the boards. 

With a deeper bench K-State got out to an early lead scoring nine of the first 11 points, and the box score had all but one of their players in the contrast for eight or more minutes, 8 of the Cat’s with 16 or more minutes on the court, just wearing out Ware and any other of the homeboys they came across. Long Beach State narrowed the lead to 10 at one point, but McCruder and the rest of the Wildcats never let the 49ers get closer.

Next up on the Niner calendar are a couple of women’ games, at home on Thursday night vs. UC Riverside in the BWC opener and at 1 p.m. Saturday playing UC Irvine. The gentlemen will wait until Monday night for their first game of the new conference season and the New Year when they have a January 2nd game with Irvine behind the Orange Curtain in the Bren Center — DR. DAN