The gauntlet of nationally-ranked nonconference opponents will come to an end Tuesday for the Long Beach State men’s basketball team.
The 49ers (6-6) will travel to Durham, N.C., to face No. 7 Duke (9-1) at hostile Cameron Indoor Stadium, where the Blue Devils are undefeated, and the Cameron Crazies student section may prove to be just as tough as the actual opposing team.
“Teams are always excited to play in the biggest venues,” Duke associate head coach Chris Collins said via telephone Monday afternoon. “We know we’re always going to get the other team’s best shot.”
The game will air at 4 p.m. Pacific time on Fox Sports South (DirecTV channel 640, Dish Network channel 420), and Boston’s Restaurant and Sports Bar in downtown Long Beach will host a viewing party.
It will be 10 days off since head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s team last played, and Collins acknowledged that the “game speed and timing” might not be the same come tip-off.
“We just have to get through those first couple of minutes,” he said.
The Blue Devils will be the fifth Top 25 opponent — and fourth within the Top 10 — to play The Beach this season. The first four of the season (No. 8 West Virginia, No. 19 Clemson, No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Kentucky) all resulted in losses, and the 49ers are 0-17 over the past 15 seasons against Top 25 teams.
But against the Wildcats last Wednesday, LBSU showed its steady improvement by hanging around for 30 of the 40 minutes before running out of gas in an 86-73 loss at Rupp Arena that was closer than the final score indicated. Kentucky didn’t take its first double-digit lead until the 7:21 mark of the second half.
“We have great respect for them,” Collins said. “You look at their schedule and they competed well against some Top 10 teams.”
However, Duke has won 74 consecutive nonconference home games — the longest active streak in the nation — and 34 straight contests against unranked opponents at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
LBSU guards Stephan Gilling and Larry Anderson are coming off 15-point performances heading into Duke, which is the final opponent before the ‘Niners enter Big West Conference play four days later.
Anderson, who has been adjusting to Lasik eye surgery performed in early December, shot 5-of-10 and continued to show signs of shaking off a shooting slump dating back to Thanksgiving.
All of Gilling’s five baskets came from 3-point range, where the senior sharpshooter shoots 45.8 percent (44-of-96) and ranks third in the nation in 3-pointers made.
“We know Gilling can really get hot and make seven or eight 3-pointers,” Collins said.
It’s at the 3-point line where LBSU shoots 39.1 percent (88-of-225) as a team, but Duke has allowed just Wisconsin to shoot 40 percent from beyond the arc. Coincidentally, it was the only loss of the season for the Blue Devils, who surrender just 60.2 points per game and counter with the nation’s ninth-best offense at 84.5 ppg — including 94.7 ppg in six home games.
The ‘Niners will have their hands full with leading scorer Jon Scheyer, who was named the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week by the U.S. National Basketball Writers Association last Tuesday. The 6-foot-5 guard, who also earned Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week honors, averaged 28.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.5 steals in victories over Gardner-Webb and then-No. 15 Gonzaga.
Against Gardner-Webb, Scheyer was two rebounds and an assist shy of a triple-double as he posted career-highs of 36 points and nine assists to go with eight rebounds. He shot 11-of-13 from the field, including 7-of-9 from 3-point territory.
Against LBSU head coach Dan Monson’s former team, Scheyer helped hand the Bulldogs their worst loss in 25 years with 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds in a 76-41 victory at Madison Square Garden. As a result, Gonzaga dropped seven spots to No. 22 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll released today and out of the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
On top of all that, Scheyer (18.2 ppg and 5.9 assists per game) is one of the best decision-makers in the country and leads the nation with a 5.9 assist-to-turnover ratio. His backcourt mate, junior guard Nolan Smith, ranks second on the team with 17.3 ppg.
“He’s been our leader,” Collins said of Scheyer. “He gives us great poise. … He’s a unique guard who can setup our team [and also turn into] a shooter and a scorer for us.”
Like most of its nonconference games, LBSU’s T.J. Robinson and Eugene Phelps will again be undersized compared to their opposition.
This time, the duo will have to box out 6-foot-8 forwards Kyle Singler (15.7 ppg and 7.2 rebounds per game, preseason All-American) and Lance Thomas (5.0 rpg), 6-foot-10 Miles Plumlee (6.4 rpg) and 7-foot-1, 260-pound Brian Zoubek (7.4 rpg), who leads the team in rebounds despite coming off the bench. However, outside of Singler, none of the other three players average double figures in scoring, and the 49ers shouldn’t have to worry about seeing a repeat of the dominance Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins asserted in the paint.
“We have some good size … and we’ll look to throw the ball inside and get some points in the paint,” Collins said. “But T.J. Robinson, who’s arguably been their best player, is a versatile forward … and creates match-up problems.”