BACK AND FORTH WITH THE BEACH: FROM HOOPS AND HOPS TO HARDBALL
10:21am | When you are a cash-strapped mid-major athletic program you sometimes feel that your beloved Beach teams are locked in a game of “Split the Baby.” Win a soccer or tennis post season tourney and then look for gold to fund new goals, like a stadium.
Look in the rafters of the Pyramid and see reminders of previous postseason glory in women’s hoops and volleyball. Talk to the business manager and get a stern lecture on the importance of a healthy cash cow, you spell that men’s basketball. Check out your social media and see the chat about newly minted millionaires in golf and baseball. Oh what to do and who gets what half of which and when!
In front of a nice Sunday turnout of 4,547 in Boise the cash cow kids (the iron five plus Kyle Richardson) snapped the Bronco’s 6-0 winning streak with a gritty second half of rebounds and outside shooting to beat BSU 69-66. Greg Plater got untracked for a season-high 21 points, Casper Ware chipped in 16 and six assists, Gene Phelps played 34 minutes and scored 13, and Tristan Wilson was the life off the bench snatching 11 rebounds and messing with the Bronco frontcourt.
The 49ers play at Utah State Tuesday night then go to North Carolina on Saturday, sort of analogous to moving from a microwave into a nuclear reactor. But they are on the schedule and after that the road remains bumpy at playing Saint Mary’s in the John R. Wooden Classic at the Honda Center (Dec. 18), then Arizona State (Dec. 21), UC Santa Barbara (Dec. 28) and Cal Poly (Dec. 30).
The weekend wanderings of LBSU ladies basketball took the team to Houston where the ‘Niners had to play host Rice, a 78-61 defeat, despite some improvement in shooting (40.3 percent from the field) but more misery rebounding (outrebounded, 50-34). The first game of the tourney saw a ten-point defeat by Prairie View A&M 62-52. After spending the last two weeks on the road, Long Beach State returns to the friendly confines of the Walter Pyramid on Wednesday, Dec. 8, when it plays host to San Diego at 7:00pm.
BACK AND FORTH DUSTING–The Beach men’s volleyball team was picked to finish ninth in the 2011 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation preseason coaches ahead of Cal State Northridge, Pacific and UC San Diego but picked to get sand kicked in their face by old foes UC Irvine, USC, Stanford and Pepperdine. The good news is that if the Hawaii deal comes through the Big West could quit the MPSF next season and have their own league champion advance. No word yet on when that would happen but Alan Knipe, on sabbatical for the London Olympics, should be back running the LB show in fall 2012. The Olympic VB venue will be London’s Earls Court with competition from Saturday July 28 to Sunday August 12.
The last serving of the back dusting has been well digested by now. That would be the end of the LBSU women’s volleyball season at 25-8 after losing to USD 3-0 in the first round of the USC regional. The ‘Niners have a sparkling future next fall featuring the return of all league talents Caitlin Ledoux, Haleigh Hampton, Delainey Aigner-Swesey, and Janisa Johnson with a blue chip class of recruits. Who sets next fall? That’s hard to say. Top two picks to replace 5-9 senior Ashley Lee are 6-1 Puerto Rican flash Ashley Vazquez and a highly anticipated Texan setter, Tori Jobe out of Amarillo. Jobe, at 5-11, has good size and athleticism and was a two-time All-Texas selection. Nice competition for a vital position.
Closing the column we peek into the future of a multi-millionaire who’s boss values him as much for “his leadership and clubhouse presence” as that gold glove and silver bat he just earned. Likely the most popular athlete in Denver since John Elway, Troy Tulowitzki at the tender age of 26 is baseball’s $160 million dollar man. That deal meant re-doing his current four year deal to add six more. Because? “Bottom line was, because it was the right thing to do,” Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd said. And he’s right because our Tulo is the face of their franchise and proof that you should reward a highly productive player.