It has been 12 years since Long Baeach State fans witnessed and participated in the madness of March. However, as the old cliché goes, this year could be our year.
After coming off a disappointing eight-point loss in last season’s Big West Championship to Pacific, several experts predicted the 49ers would challenge for the title again this season, despite losing two of their top three scores, Jibril Hodges and Shawn Hawkins.
The difference this season is experience. When The Beach squared off against the Tigers last season for the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, they played as though they were lackadaisical and somewhat content with the season they had at that point.
This season, that experience has aided them in big games as recent as Saturday’s game against UC Santa Barbara, as the 49ers overcame a ten-point halftime deficit in a hostile environment to win in dramatic fashion when Aaron Nixon stole the ball and made a tie-breaking jumper with less than a second remaining. The win kept the 49ers in first place in the Big West and one step closer to a conference title.
Experience has come in the forms of humility and controversy as well.
For example, the 49ers had a three-game stretch where they were dismantled by some of the nation’s quality teams, which included an 18-point route to No. 19 USC, a 30-point massacre to No. 5 UCLA, and 25-point catastrophe to Temple.
In addition, The Beach had to go through another tough three-game stretch without their second leading scorer, Kejuan Johnson, because of an NCAA investigation involving his recruitment prior to coming to LBSU. Despite the blow, the Beach won all three games without him.
You can’t teach players experience, they can only endure it. That’s what some of the dreadful times have given the team this season and the primary justification of the team winning 15 of it last 17 games.
The road that remains ahead includes four conference games with three of them on the road.
The biggest of those comes on Valentine’s Day against Cal State Fullerton. The Beach won the first meeting by ten. Should The Beach find a way to stick an arrow in the hearts of the Titans, it would almost guarantee them a Big West regular season title. Their other three conference games are against a deplorable UC Riverside team, that has only one conference win, and two struggling teams in UC Irvine and Pacific.
So that leaves Long Beach State fans with a question: Will The Beach capture a Big West title and appear in the NCAA Tournament? Or will 12 years of disappointment turn into 13?
