49ers look to excel in pressure-cooker

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1 49ers look to excel in pressure-cooker - Press-Telegram Page 1 of 2 49ers look to excel in pressure-cooker LBSU men out to avenge January rout. By Frank Burlison, Staff Writer Article Launched: 02/19/ :01:42 PM PST LONG BEACH - One of the men's basketball teams holding a share of the Big West Conference lead rolls into the Walter Pyramid tonight at 7 for a game against a squad that it whacked around by 39 points when they hooked up in Northridge on Jan. 26. The Cal State Matadors come into their game with the host Long Beach State 49ers technically sharing the conference lead with Cal State Fullerton, since the Matadors are 9-2 in conference and the Titans are Coach Bobby Braswell's team, which lost to Fullerton (80-72) on Feb. 2, is 17-6 overall while averaging 78.6 points per game (second best in the conference) while forcing a conference-best 20.2 turnovers per game with its pressure defense. It's that second figure that is of special concern for Long Beach State coach Dan Monson, whose team coughed up the ball 21 times and allowed 17 offensive rebounds when the Matadors prevailed in their first meeting. "Northridge pressures everyone and that (playing against opponents that extend their defenses) is our Achilles heel," Monson said. "We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball against them. They broke us there and we couldn't score. Our defense sustained us for a while but after 10 minutes, it broke. "We're going to have to play our best game of the year and be close to flawless (to have a shot at upsetting the Matadors)." The 49ers fell to 6-18 overall last Saturday evening after a loss to host Cal State Bakersfield, although three players, wing Donovan Morris (32 points), guard Maurice Clady (17) and post Arturas Lazdauskas (12) equaled or established LBSU career scoring bests. The 6-foot-3 Morris surpassed Alex Harris (UC Santa Barbara) and Josh Akognon (Cal State Fullerton) last week to move atop the conference leaders in scoring at 21.2 points per game. The 49ers, 3-8 in Big West games, step out of conference for the final time Saturday night when they are in Las Cruces to play host New Mexico State in a BracketBuster game.

2 49ers look to excel in pressure-cooker - Press-Telegram Page 2 of 2 Long Beach is facing the deepest team in the conference tonight. Nine players are averaging at least 14.3 minutes per game, with five of those scoring at least 9.9 points per game. Guard Deon Tresvant, who played at Cabrillo High and Long Beach City College, leads the club in scoring (13.2 points), despite having not starting a game for Braswell. He has hit a conference-high 67 3-pointers.

3 Page 1 of 4 Pac-10's shot for 8 is not great Article Launched: 02/19/ :37:32 PM PST It's coming down to crunch time for some of the men's basketball teams in the Pacific-10 Conference. Remember the preseason speculation/lobbying/wishful thinking by conference coaches that the Pac 10 could have as many as eight teams playing in the NCAA Tournament? Well, that's not happening. Three teams, UCLA, Stanford and Washington State - at 10-2, 10-3 and 8-5, the only teams with winning conference records - are going to be in the NCAA Tournament, no matter what happens (within reason) over the final three weeks of the regular season and during the Pac 10 tourney (March in the Staples Center). They're playing the final three weeks to enhance their NCAA tourney seeding (the Bruins have a shot at being No. 1 in the West; Stanford could be a 2 and the Cougars, probably, could climb to a 3). And, of course, UCLA and Stanford are the last two clubs, in reality, battling it out for the regular-season title and the top seed in the conference tourney that goes along with it. We can safely presume that, barring four consecutive upsets (the three of which would be considered "major") in the Pac 10 tourney, the Oregon State Beavers (five games away from going zip-for-18 in conference) will not be an NCAA tourney participant. So that leaves Arizona State, Arizona and USC (each at 6-6 in conference), Cal and Oregon (both at 6-7) and Washington (5-8). It's possible that as many as four of those (when the Pac 10 tourney is factored in) teams could do enough before the NCAA tourney bracketing is unveiled on March 16 to join the Bruins, Cardinal and Cougars in the Field of 65. Arizona, which has the No. 1 overall strength of schedule, nationally, would be the safest bet to get an at-large bid with a. 500 conference record (which would put it at going into the Pac 10 tourney). Four of its final six games are on the road, and the ones the Wildcats have at home (UCLA and USC) are going to be just as tough as any of

4 Page 2 of 4 the four they have away from Tucson. The Trojans also have a fairly solid nonconference resume (down-to-the-wire losses to Memphis and Kansas, and a win over Oklahoma, will impress the selection folks in Indianapolis) and could also feel - reasonably - comfortable about their atlarge hopes with a 9-9 conference mark, which would make them 18-12, pre-pac 10 tourney. Minus Daniel Hackett (back injury/and maybe out for the season), though, USC isn't nearly the team it was vs. Memphis/Kansas/and Oklahoma, or, certainly, during its road conference wins against Oregon and USC, or home victory vs. Arizona State. And that could enter the selection members' thinking when considering the Trojans. Arizona State has a 22-point win (at home) against a very good Xavier team (which could be a 3 seed) but almost nothing else going for it on its non-conference resume. The Sun Devils have a pair of wins against Arizona and one (at home) against Stanford. But they may need wins in four of their final six games. And, like their in-state rivals, their two home games come against UCLA and USC. Cal, at 6-7, isn't going to be helped by its non-conference performance (9-2, but no eye-poppers, like Xavier). And it's been the most unpredictable team in the conference. But, with three future NBA players in Ryan Anderson, DeVon Hardin and Patrick Christopher, in their lineup, the Golden Bears are gifted enough to win four of their final five conference games, even with three of them on the road and Oregon State not being among the five opponents. And a 10-8 conference mark would put Cal in. The Ducks also need a 4-1 close, and two games in Southern California this week and home games vs. Arizona State and Arizona are sandwiched around the gimmee - at Oregon State on March 2 - so that will necessitate their best stretch of play to remotely make that a possibility. Four wins in their final five games would put the Huskies in tournament discussion in Indianapolis next month. But Stanford, Cal and Washington State will be played away from Seattle, and home games vs. Arizona and Arizona State certainly are going to be chores. So, barring something approaching "major" surprises over the next three weeks and in

5 Page 3 of 4 the Staples Center, I think three teams will be joining the Bruins, Cardinal and Cougars in the NCAA Tournament. And their nicknames are the Wildcats, the Trojans and the Sun Devils. More college comments It isn't going to attract anything approaching the media (area or national) attention, nor, certainly, the attendance, that the Pac 10 event will see, but the Big West Conference's post-season event in Anaheim could be as competitive as has been played in a while. Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton are the Big West co-leaders right now but UC Santa Barbara and Pacific are within striking distance of them and could finish in the two spots as well. Finishing 1 or 2 earns a team a bye into the semifinals. The Long Beach State 49ers are likely to finish in seventh or eighth during the Big West regular season. But I'm sure junior Donovan Morris will still get plenty of consideration for conference Player of the Year. He's one of only 10 NCAA Division I players who currently lead their team in scoring (21.2 points per game), rebounds (5.5) and assists (2.4). How important is he to Long Beach's offense? His scoring average is more than three times that of the 49ers' three next-best scorers (Greg Plater, Cornel Williams and Brian Freeman) combined. A quick survey of about six NBA scoutingtypes in the Galen Center Sunday night leads me to believe that, assuming Jerryd Bayless (Arizona), Brook Lopez (Stanford), Kevin Love (UCLA) and O.J. Mayo (USC) decide to enter the NBA Draft this spring, they are all likely to be among the first 10 selections in June. And it's doesn't border on the "bold" to think they are currently playing their final college seasons. Games to check out Here are the games worth viewing via your mode of television: TONIGHT: Kansas State at Nebraska (6/ESPN2/Michael Beasley of KSU is the front-runner for the John R. Wooden Award and will be the first selection in the next NBA Draft).

6 Page 4 of 4 THURSDAY: Pittsburgh at Notre Dame (4/ESPN/The Panthers are wobbling a bit while Notre Dame has the probable Big East Player of the Year in sophomore forward Luke Harangody), South Alabama at Western Kentucky (5/Fox Sports College Atlantic/both of these teams could be in the NCAA Tourney), Arizona State at Washington State (6/Fox Sports Net/The Sun Devils need this more than do the Cougars) and Oregon at USC (8/Fox Sports Net/both of the teams need this one a lot). FRIDAY: Davidson at Winthrop (4/ESPN2/BracketBuster) and UC Santa Barbara at Utah State (6/ESPNU/BracketBuster and Big West reunion game). SATURDAY: Oregon at UCLA (12:30 p.m. /Channel 7/A "must" win for Ducks if they lose to USC), Drake at Butler (2/ESPN2/The best of the BracketBuster games), Arizona at Washington State (7/Fox Sports Net/A good game but not "critical" for either), Tennessee at Memphis (6/ESPN/The most anticipated game of the season) and Kent State at Saint Mary's (9 p.m./espn2/the second best of the BracketBuster games). SUNDAY: Wake Forest at North Carolina (3: 30/Fox Sports Net/The Demon Deacons beat Duke Sunday night; they won't win this one) and Cal at Stanford (6/Fox Sports Net/" Must win!" alert for the Golden Bears).