By Starting guards redshirt-freshman Darnell Porter and junior Artis Gant were dismissed from Long Beach State’s men’s basketball team Friday.
The dismissal came just one day after the 49ers’ 100-61 loss at Big West Conference leader CS Northridge.
According to a press release from the LBSU athletic department, the two scholarship athletes were dismissed for “attitudes detrimental to the team.”
“We dismissed them for a lack of commitment to our team attitude,” said head coach Dan Monson in an interview after practice Monday.
In Gant and Porter’s absence, Lauren Heard has given up his redshirt season to take the bulk of the playing time.
“I left it to [Lauren], because there are only 13 games left, for him to have the opportunity if he wanted it because there are two guys in his spot out,” Monson said. “But if he wanted to save his year for next year he could. He’s a pretty good team guy. He played a few minutes the other day and did a nice job, so he’s probably going to have a bit more opportunity.”
Chris Peys and Arturas Lazdauskas are also expected to see more minutes off the bench.
“I think Chris Peys will get a little more opportunity,” Monson said. “Arturas [Lazdauskas] will probably move to the small forward a little bit more and power forward.”
Monson alluded to the seriousness of the loss, saying, “You don’t replace guys like that. You just have to, you know, do it from kind of a committee standpoint.”
Gant was one of few players who returned from coach Larry Reynold’s Big West championship squad.
Gant mostly saw time off the bench in the point guard slot, but did start four games. He was averaging 7.4 points and 1.9 rebounds in 24.6 minutes. Gant was shooting .396 from the field and .667 from the line. Last year, Gant averaged 1.3 points and .3 rebounds in seven minutes per game as a true freshman.
Porter redshirted last season as a walk-on from nearby Millikan High. Porter started 11 games this season and averaged 7.4 points per game. Playing 22.4 minutes per game, Porter was No. 3 on the team in rebounds with 4.4 per game.
At the time of his dismissal, he was shooting .382 from the field and .667 from the line. Porter also led the team in steals with 20.
Neither Gant nor Porter ranked in the Big West Conference.
The 49ers will host CS Fullerton and conference rival UC Irvine this weekend, and Monson said he felt some worries about playing without the two guards.
“We’re just kind of concerned about ourselves right now,” Monson said. “We have got to play better or all these teams are going to beat us, between losing guys and not having the rotation to be able to not play at their level. It’s a combination – we have to concern ourselves with getting better.”
Playing as a team is an aspect Monson stresses over others to his young team. He said he feels that with the dismissal of the two, the team will be better able to function as a unit.
“We’ve been saying all along that it’s not about one person – it’s about us as a group, and so we’re hoping that something good can come of it,” Monson said. “You hope so because that’s our only chance. Our only chance, unfortunately, on something like that occurs.”
The dismissals of two of the 49ers’ top players came as a blow to an already struggling team. LBSU is only 4-14 overall, 1-5 in the Big West. The 49ers’ conference record puts them in eighth place – only one game out of last. LBSU is currently above UC Riverside (1-6) and one game behind new Big West Conference member UC Davis (2-5).
