By November is finally here. The beginning of college basketball season is upon us and Long Beach State men’s basketball has come out of the gates with a win. The 49ers traveled to Cal State Bakersfield Saturday for a charity exhibition game benefitting California wildfire relief efforts.
While the game didn’t count toward the team’s official record, Long Beach came out victorious over the Roadrunners 73-70 behind a game-high 17 points from redshirt junior guard Ron Freeman and a 14 point, 10 rebound effort from sophomore guard Jordan Roberts.
Head coach Dan Monson was proud of his team, crediting their defense for stepping up and making the difference in the game.
“I thought we had really good energy and we won a game with our defense, which we probably couldn’t say all of last year,” Monson said. “We had three or four stops at the end that we needed. Hopefully we get some confidence and finding ways to win besides just outscoring people.”
The hiring of assistant coach Bobby Braswell over the summer has already proven to be beneficial, as he was brought in to establish a stronger culture and identity on the defensive side of the ball.
Last season, the 49ers biggest flaw became a broken record after every game. The team was able to score a high amount of points but continued to give up even more to its opponents.
Long Beach averaged 75.3 points per game on offense while allowing 78.4 points per game on defense. That isn’t a winning formula. It was not a surprise that the team suffered another early exit in the Big West conference tournament. This season, a new focus has been put in place with the hopes of more success and a stronger showing in conference play.
The main emphasis over the off-season and this fall has been what everyone would expect — defense, defense and more defense. Monson, Braswell and the rest of the coaching staff have primarily preached this.
In practice, there is little offensive work besides shooting and free throws. The 49ers are constantly practicing full court and half court 5-on-5 scenarios.
“We’ve been just killing the defense and we needed to because it’s new,” Monson said. “The offense is pretty much scaled down from last year because we haven’t really worked on it very much. We’re trying to get a new defensive mindset.”
With a heavy defensive emphasis leading up to the beginning of the season, you might think the team could be in trouble on the offensive side of the ball.
Since Long Beach is a team returning a total of nine players with six seniors, there will be no problem putting the ball in the net.
A tough test awaits the 49ers in the season opener Nov. 9 at No. 21 UCLA. For now, Long Beach will continue to focus on itself and hone its fundamentals before a challenging pre-season schedule.
