The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2023-24 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach State Basketball is sponsored by CSULB Distinguished Alumnus Nelson Farris.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach State men’s basketball for the 2023-24 season is sponsored by Arline & Mike Walter.
’Tis better to have danced and lost than to never have danced at all.
That’s how the Long Beach State men’s basketball program is feeling on Thursday after making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012.
An improbable run through the Big West Conference Tournament and a lively first half against heavily favored Arizona in Salt Lake City, Utah had the Beach dreaming of its own Cinderella story. But the clock hit midnight hard in the second half as the Wildcats ran away with a 85-65 win.
“We weren’t good enough today but you’ve got to be almost perfect in a game like this,” said LBSU coach Dan Monson, whose recent parting of ways with the university has been a national media story this month.
“We’ve got beat,” added Monson. “(Arizona was) better than us. They outplayed us, but they didn’t out-tough us or out-compete us. I’m proud of the way we fought today.”
No. 2 seed Arizona trailed No. 15 LBSU by one point with a little over two minutes left until halftime, then the Wildcats closed the half on a 7-0 run for a 41-35 halftime lead. Arizona wasted no time rolling that momentum over and opening the second half on a 17-2 to effectively put the game away. The Wildcats led by as many as 24 points.
LBSU’s Aboubacar Traore and Amari Stroud both scored a team-high 14 points. Traore also grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds and dished out four assists while getting in on four blocks.
“You see who loves you and how tight you are as a family when you hit adversity, and I think we showed the whole country that we stayed a family and fought,” Traore said.
Traore, Jadon Jones and AJ George joined Monson for the postgame press conference that almost turned into a sort of exit interview for everyone.
“Of course we wish we would’ve gone further, but we’re going to look back on this fondly,” Jones said. “This is a memory I’ll never forget and I love these guys to death. There is no goodbye. (Monson) created a family. We’re all here because of him. We might not be playing for him again, but we’ll keep in touch… We’re a family and that’s never going to go away. Love is unconditional. Truly, thank you coach. You’ve taught us a lot. You’ve done a lot for us, more than you realize.”
The difficult draw for LBSU meant their beleaguered defense had to face the high-powered offense of Arizona. Like they’ve done all year, the Beach sat in a zone defense to stay solid and make the Wildcats shoot over them. Arizona was more than willing to oblige and made 13/35 from behind the 3-point arc. The 35 attempts is a school record in the postseason.
“I knew they were going to pack it in and we were going to have to shoot some threes,” said Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd. “It’s a lot for us but that’s what the game called for and our guys did a great job knocking them down.”
Arizona guard Kylan Boswell scored a game-high 20 points and five Wildcats scored in double figures. Caleb Love (18 points, 11 rebounds) and Oumar Ballo (11 points, 13 rebounds) both had double doubles.
The game started a bit sloppy with both teams missing open looks round the basket, but that played into LBSU’s hands as they had Arizona out of rhythm. The Beach held the Wildcats to 38.5% shooting in the first half.
Meanwhile, George and Stroud came off the bench to spark a 13-0 run that put LBSU up 22-17 at the nine minute mark.
“My mental approach going into a game is never about my own stuff,” said George. “It’s always for the team. Credit to my teammates today, they found me open. They got me open shots.”
The high-water mark for LBSU came with less than three minutes until halftime when Traore put back a miss to make it 35-34.
Arizona proceeded to go on a 24-2 run through halftime that put the Wildcats up 55-37 early in the second half.
Despite outscoring Arizona in the 38-32 in the paint where the Wildcats are No. 1 in the nation statistically, and out rebounding a much bigger team 50-47, LBSU wasn’t able to control the ball well enough and most of Arizona’s 13 points off turnovers came during their game-winning run.
There were plenty of news stories about the LBSU coaching situation, and even today an interview with new athletic director Bobby Smitheran suggested that the move to part ways with Monson before the tournament was in an effort to motivate the team.
“If it helped then I’m really happy we did it,” Monson said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the job and I’ve said that all along. If that’s what spurred it that’s great. But we’ll never know.”
Asked if he’s done coaching college basketball, Monson said, “I hope not. But that’s not entirely up to me. We’ll see what happens. I’m looking forward to being on the couch tomorrow and maybe watching games on Saturday and Sunday. But on Monday I’m going to miss this team. It will hit me on Monday. I hope I get (another challenge in coaching) but I’m ok if I don’t. It’s not going to define me as a person. That’s one thing that these two weeks have taught me, that my family, friends and players are going to define my happiness.”
