At the annual Big West Conference Media Day held at the Irvine Hilton Wednesday, the media poll tabbed the Long Beach State men’s basketball team to win the conference while the coaches poll selected the squad to finish second. Both polls selected the women’s basketball team to finish third in the conference.
In the media poll, the men received and overwhelming 18 first place votes of the possible 20. The men also received three votes of the possible eight first place votes in the coaches poll, while Pacific stood atop the poll with five first place votes.
“I think every team’s goal right now is to win the conference,” said LBSU head coach Larry Reynolds. “It is a viable goal for us and we want to continue to get better to reach that goal.”
With guard Kevin Houston by his side and the media before him, Reynolds supported the statement that his squad has one of the best backcourts in the country in Aaron Nixon and Kejuan Johnson.
“As a coach this is the best backcourt I have had. There are teams in the Midwest and on the East Coast who have very good backcourts, but we have a good one too,” Reynolds said.
The women did not receive any first place votes in the coaches poll but did end in a respectable third place slot.
In the media poll, UC Santa Barbara took the poll. The Gauchos received four first place votes while UC Riverside and LBSU received seven and three, respectively.
Women’s head coach Mary Hegarty spent most of the day defending her young roster by saying the young talent pool will add depth to the squad.
With 13 new players, including nine freshmen looking to fill the holes left by the loss of four starters, Hegarty said she will rely on sophomore Karina Figueroa to lead the team.
