3:25pm | ESPN2 will broadcast Long Beach State’s home Big West Conference men’s basketball game with UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday, February 22.
 
The game, originally scheduled to be played on December 29, is being moved to February 22 to accommodate ESPN, while two other 49er games will change dates as well. The 49ers home game with UC Irvine scheduled for February 23 (Thursday) will now be played at the Walter Pyramid on February 29 (Wednesday), and the LBSU game at Cal State Fullerton scheduled for February 29 will now take place on March 3 (Saturday).
 
The nationally-televised game between the 49ers and Gauchos will pit last year’s Big West Conference regular-season champions against the league’s tournament champions. The 49ers claimed the regular-season title with a 14-2 league record, while UCSB won its second straight league tournament title. It will also feature the last two Big West Conference Players of the Year in Long Beach State’s Casper Ware (2011) and UC Santa Barbara’s Orlando Johnson (2010).
 
LBSU swept the regular-season series between the two teams last year winning 71-55 in Santa Barbara on December 28 and 71-53 in Long Beach on February 26. UCSB picked up a 64-56 win in the championship game of the Big West Tournament on March 12 snapping the 49ers’ 11-game winning streak.
 
The two teams will return a combined seven starters from the 2011 Big West Conference Tournament championship game, with the 49ers returning four in Ware, first-team All-Big West pick Larry Anderson, second-team All-Big West selection T.J. Robinson, and honorable mention all-league honoree Eugene Phelps.
 
The remainder of the Big West Conference television package for the 2011-12 season will be released at a later date.