This is your weakly, or is it weekly, report on what was and will be in the life and times of Forty Niner athletics.

We start with a look back where Men’s Basketball (9-8, 4-0 BWC) roasted a pair of Pyramid visitors, Cal State Northridge, 85-71 and UC Irvine, 86-78. The news was less cheerful for women’s basketball (3-14, 1-3 BWC) that did get their first Big West win when they romped over Cal State Northridge, 64-50 but then saw the other side of a rout losing to UC Irvine, 77-59. The young ‘Niner Men’s Volleyball (1-2) squad opened their weekend in Goleta beating #2 ranked UC Irvine, 3-1 but then lost to #5 BYU, 3-0 and #9 UCLA, 3-2.

The line-up this week gives the Beach men’s b-ballers a chance to extend their four-game win streak playing woeful UC Davis Wednesday night at 8:00pm in the ‘Myd and on the telly, ESPNU. Pacific, not woeful, is here Saturday at 8:00pm with the game carried on FS WEST/PRIME TICKET. Check out the threads worn by the head coaches, a sartorial battle.

 Ticket takers passed out a small flyer to fans coming in Wednesday night with this message, “Help Us Emphasize Defense: Please remain standing at the start of the game until CS Northridge Scores a Point.” Result: CSUN’S Rashaun McLemore got an offensive rebound and made a layup in  the first 26 seconds. The medics standing by for the mass fainting of 49er’s senior citizen followers could relax. Northridge left not overly impressed with the LB defense, they scored right on their conference average of 71 ppg but when the evening was done Long Beach State beat CSUN handily and won 86-78 over UC Irvine. The stat line that best explains the resurgence of the Monson men is in the small type at the bottom of the box score.  “Points in the paint – UCI 28, LBSU 46. Points off turnovers – UCI 10, LBSU 14 and 2nd chance points – UCI 2, LBSU 13.”  Good numbers.

The hot stove chatter for the Dirtbags is the high hopes the Nationals have for shortstop/second baseman Danny Espinosa. Last fall the ex-Dirtbag smacked three homers and had 10 RBIs in his first five games, including a dramatic grand slam, getting the home crowd pumped for the future of an Ian Desmond/Espinosa double-play combination in the middle of the Nationals’ infield. Aaron Fitt of Baseball America said Espinosa comes from a solid college pedigree.

“(Long Beach State) is a shortstop factory with Troy Tulowitzki, Bobby Crosby and Evan Longoria played shortstop for a year when he was there,” Fitt said. “Espinosa is the next guy in that progression. He is a good ballplayer. The instincts play up. He has got surprising pop for a smaller guy because he has really quick wrists.”

Danny’s chief rival for 2011 fame in Washington is the journeyman infielder Stephen Lombardozzi who has a slightly less impressive glove than Espinosa but has more pop, translated inyo home run power.  Espinosa followed up his September to remember debut with an impressive run in Puerto Rico during the winter, hitting .281 with six doubles, two triples, three homers and eight RBIs in 22 games. Let the spring games begin.

Say what you like about the big buck programs in the SEC, they do help baseball quite a bit. In the top ten NCAA attendance list five of the first six are LSU, Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi and Mississippi State. CSUF in the second 20.

Not on a list of any sort is the item that F. King Alexander does NOT have a sign in his office that reads, “Three can keep a secret if two are dead.” (That’s an old mafia folk tale.) That disclaimer aside, it is 2011 and the rumored LBSU athletic fee increase is still a presidential state secret. It’s not a secret to the trustees (with blessing from the state legislature) since they have raised fees for all CSU students and accordingly the costs of each of the nearly 200 athletic scholarships.
 
The new super dean at the U, Ken Millar, runs the college of health and human services which is the actual landlord for the Pyramid, which formerly housed the Frogs Fitness business. Frogs croaked but the space will be divided up next month between a wellness center for seniors and the handicapped and, maybe if but… a new and improved athletic weight training space (possibly in the summer).  Details are still in flux.
 

Even more diamond dusting, there are many intriguing match-ups to kick-off the 2011 campaign on Friday, Feb. 18. At the top of the list is Stanford playing a three-game set at Rice. Both teams were #2 seeds in the 2010 NCAA Tournament and both hope to be in consideration to host this year.  Barring suspension, FIU junior shortstop Garrett Wittels will have a chance to break the NCAA Division I hit-streak record against Southeastern Louisiana… too bad Garrett doesn’t play at Ohio State, any penalties there would be served later during Bible Study or his aerobics class.
 
Looking in our backyard, Vanderbilt will head to the West Coast to face San Diego and San Diego State and in our town the first key series includes Cal State Fullerton against Long Beach in the beginning of the Troy Buckley era.
 
Ending with hoops, as schedule scholars will note, there is a TBA game on February 19th but the intriguing sub plot is that one of the possible visitors is LBSU-East, otherwise known as Virginia Commonwealth. The connection, former ‘Niner second in command David Benedict is not only raising tons of funds and fans for VCU, he even has the Cegles brothers in his staff meetings.  Vic Jr. is the baseball guy and brother Casey the footballer. There are a bunch of possible Bracket Buster visitors but if the VCU visit comes through I wonder if the Cegles boys will bring laundry with them for their mom to wash, fold and press?