8:25am | Long Beach State basketball opens the 2011-12 season this Saturday when the 49ers host the Idaho Vandals at 2:05 p.m. in the Walter Pyramid.  The 49ers will look to win their home opener for the third time in the last four seasons when they face the Vandals.  The game is a return game as part of the 2010 BracketBuster game played in Moscow two seasons ago.  T.J. Robinson led the 49ers to a 77-66 win in that game with 22 points and 15 rebounds, while Casper Ware added 20 points and Larry Anderson chipped in 10.  Kyle Barone is the only player on the Vandals’ current roster who played in the first meeting.  He scored six points and grabbed four rebounds in 22 minutes.

Long Beach State heads into the 2011-12 season with a non-league schedule that few teams can match. The 49ers, who had the nation’s top rated non-conference schedule the last two seasons according to a couple websites, will play five teams ranked in the top 14 of the Associated Press preseason poll.  The 49ers will face No. 1 North Carolina, No. 9 Louisville, No. 10 Pittsburgh, No. 13 Kansas and No. 14 Xavier.  LBSU will play 11 games before Big West Conference action begins, with those opponents combining for a 273-99 (73.4 winning percentage) record last season.  Nine of the 49ers’ opponents won at least 20 games, with six winning more than 25 games and two winning more than 30 games.

Heading into the 2011-12 season, Long Beach State players are the active Big West leaders in points, rebounds, assists, steals, field goals made, free throws made and minutes played.  T.J. Robinson leads three categories–points, rebounds and field goals made.  Robinson has scored 1,310 points in three seasons at Long Beach State and leads teammate Casper Ware by 60 points.  Robinson has 861 career rebounds and leads teammate Eugene Phelps by 376 boards, while making 498 field goals, 100 more than UC Santa Barbara’s Orlando Johnson. 

In addition to being second in scoring heading into the season, Ware is the active leader in four categories–assists, steals, free throws made and minutes.  He has 431 career assists and leads teammate Larry Anderson by 161.  Ware leads Anderson in career steals by 10, 159 to 149, and has played 301 more career minutes than Robinson.  Phelps and Anderson also rank among the active leaders in points and blocked shots, while Anderson is also among the leaders in rebounds, field goals made, free throws made and minutes played.  Robinson also ranks in the top five in free throws made and minutes played.