By snoadmin
A few weeks ago, men’s basketball coach Dan Monson used the word “untested” when he described his new group of 49ers. The team consists mostly of redshirts who rarely, if ever, took the court last year and true freshmen. Monson knew his team was ripe with inexperience.
The 49ers’ first test came on Saturday against BYU. How did they perform? In front of a recorded 2,777 fans in The Walter Pyramid, the 49ers watched their shots go cold – ice cold – as they were downed 74-34 by the Cougars.
“I’m really not concerned with where we’re at now,” Monson said. “It’s where we’re going and how long it’s going to take us there.”
In his Long Beach State head coaching debut, Monson didn’t let the loss get him down. Dressed in his Sunday best, right down to the initials DLM stitched on the cuffs of his sleeves, a chipper Monson wasn’t entirely disappointed in his team, but admitted the team is not where it needs to be.
“I think it was a reality check for our guys,” Monson said. “You’re not sure how much work to do you have still, but I think that showed that we’ve got a ton.”
The 49ers got off to a cold start, quickly finding themselves in a 0-10 hole until Andrew Fleming sunk a jumper four minutes into the first half. Several missed shots later, Brandon Johnson finally knocked one in for the 49ers on an assist by Maurice Clady to chip away at the Cougars lead, making the score 15-4.
But just when it looked like LBSU had finally found a rhythm, the 49ers’ momentum quickly fizzled out. The game went back to BYU when a fast break attempt by Clady bounced off the rim, and BYU went on a 14-0 run in a span of less than three minutes.
“Our shots were so out of rhythm, I don’t think anybody knows when they’re shooting,” Monson said. “We’ve got to get guys to settle down.”
Ending their dismal first half trailing 36-12, the 49ers started off the second half on a much better note with Darnell Porter hitting a jumper right away, followed quickly with a layup from Fleming. Porter rallied for nine points in the period, while Fleming picked up four offensive rebounds. Artis Gant had a huge block in the second half as well.
LBSU improved drastically from the first half, racking up a 24.4 field goal percentage and shooting 22.2 percent behind the perimeter. However, the 49ers still failed to produce as much as needed offensively to match the Cougars.
“Our offense is going to be ragged for a while,” Monson said.
“We need to get over that and not measure ourselves by our offense, and try to make games defensive struggles and defensive games. We weren’t able to do that today.”
BYU head coach Dave Rose felt the offensive struggles could have been in part because of the team’s youthfulness. Without a true veteran presence, the team lacked that go-to guy most teams rely on.
“They’re looking for an offensive player to go to,” Rose said.
Fleming seemed to emerge as a team leader for the 49ers on Saturday. The 49ers’ 7-footer led the team in scoring with 11 points, had eight rebounds and was often seen directing the team on the court when the melee of rotating point guards wasn’t exactly working.
“I think Andrew had a very solid game,” Monson said. “I think he played, within himself, probably as good as anybody we had today. Andrew is going to get better and better.”
The sophomore center redshirted last year for the 49ers’ Big West Championship team. Fleming saw limited action last season, a stark contrast to his starting role he has earned this season.
“The tough thing right now is that we have a lot of guys who have to play who aren’t quite ready,” Monson said. “The good thing now is they’re thrown in there and they’ll get better because of it. He’s one of them.”
