Nick CamachoOn one end of the Big West Conference spectrum, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team is fighting for its postseason life, struggling to guarantee a place in the looming conference tournament. At the other end sits Cal State Northridge, which surprisingly sits atop the standings.
Meanwhile, Cal Poly, which they’ll both play over the next few days, drifts in between, guaranteed a berth to the tournament, held in Anaheim from Wednesday to March 15, but also with no chance of earning a top-four finish accompanied by a first-round bye.
Just the same, though, the Mustangs, sixth amongst the Big West’s nine squads, still stand to gain valuable momentum when they visit eighth-place Long Beach State at 7 tonight and then Cal State Northridge at 5 p.m. Saturday.
“If you go down there and beat Long Beach (State) and beat (Cal State) Northridge, you go into the tournament thinking you can beat anybody and win four-straight games,” said Cal Poly head coach Kevin Bromley. “It’s ‘March Madness,’ and that’s why they call it that – you do have a chance, you really do.”
In order to win at Long Beach State (6-22, 3-11), Cal Poly (11-16, 6-8) must stop one player first and foremost: Donovan Morris.
Morris, a 6-foot-3, 201-pound junior guard who transferred from Fresno State following the 2005-06 season, entered the week 22nd in the country in scoring by averaging 21.1 points per game on 47.1-percent shooting from the floor. No other 49er, however, chips in more than 7.4 per contest.
“Obviously you’ve got to do a good job on Donovan Morris – he can really score,” Bromley said.
The conference’s leader in minutes per game, at 37.4, Morris also leads Long Beach State with 5.3 rebounds per game.
Long Beach State, which is last in the conference in point differential, being outscored by 9.9 points per outing, committed 29 turnovers in an 85-51 loss at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday.
Taking on Cal State Northridge (19-8, 11-3), though, ought to be a taller order.
The Matadors, who lead the conference in field-goal percentage defense at 41.4 percent, employ a balanced offensive attack featuring five players averaging double-figure scoring, paced by sixth man and junior guard Deon Tresvant’s 13.3 points-per-game mark.
Junior forward Tremaine Townsend leads the Big West in rebounds with 9.7 per game, while junior guard Josh Jenkins’ 6.5 assists per game are also a conference best.
Cal Poly, which was outscored 37-18 in the second half of its 68-47 loss to Pacific on Saturday, has been forced to shorten its backcourt rotation in the absence of junior guard Chaz Thomas, who’s missed five consecutive games due to an ankle condition.
“We just didn’t have enough left in the tank in the second half,” Bromley said. He added, though, that Thomas could return tonight.
“(He’ll get) maybe some time against Long Beach (State) and maybe even some more minutes, 14 to 20, maybe, against (Cal State) Northridge,” Bromley said. “I’m hoping, because we’ve got to get him some minutes so he doesn’t go down to the tournament cold turkey.”
In Thomas’ absence, junior guard Trae Clark has averaged 15 points in 38.4 minutes per game, considerably more than his team-leading, overall season standards of 10.5 points in 30.7 minutes per contest.
“His personality has grown over the last two to three weeks,” Bromley said. “He does a very good job in the huddle right now as far as being a leader.”
Even with some players having to play nearly entire games, Bromley says that the conference as a whole doesn’t contain any teams that would make the Mustangs’ chances remote.
“It’s not a knock on (Cal State) Northridge or even (second-place Cal State) Fullerton, but these two teams this year are not as good as the three years Pacific won it, and the year before that when Utah State won it,” he said. “They’re just not as good of basketball teams. That doesn’t mean they’re not good; they’re just not as good – so there is a chance to go down there and win that thing.”