You might have thought that the scholarly-looking head coach of the men’s basketball team at California State University Long Beach was talking to one of those pre-med classes that are in such renown on the 324-acre pastoral place that athletically is known as Long Beach State. Daniel Monson’s postgame commentary included words such as “contagious” and “virus” to explain the anomaly of losing their coveted NCAA invitation.

Translated: the sudden decline in offense was contagious and eventually turned into a virus. And at the worst time.
 
When I was chair of the CSULB graduate program in public policy and administration, the reading list included a small book entitled “How to Lie With Statistics.” Those would be stats like beating UCSB twice, 71-55 and 71-53. Having four starters back from the BWC finalist team of last March and all five starters averaging in double figures. Oh yes, and all five landing on one of the All-Conference teams. And why not have them play a team that sent them to what their coach called “the dark place” last year, in the form of Santa Barbara who came into the tourney as the No. 5 seed with a modest 15-13 overall record. Final score: SB 64, LB 56 = ticket punched and more lying stats.

Sunday night, the Gauchos made travel plans for the NCAA Tournament as Gator Bait for the University of Florida in their hotbed of Tampa, and the Forty Niners had earned a Wednesday trip to Washington State University to play their men’s basketball team (19-12) in the NIT. The Cougars are the No. 2 seed in the Boston College region and this will be their fifth all-time NIT bid, and second in three years. WSU is 4-4 all-time in the NIT, appearing in 1992, 1995, 1996 and 2009. The Coogs have won at least one game in three of the four tournaments they have appeared in and are 3-0 at home in the NIT. The location, of course, is not new to Dan Monson, who played football at nearby Idaho, coached at nearby Gonzaga and has been to Pullman many a time. None of his six previous NIT appearances however have been in front of the famously spirited Cougar crowd.

BWC/NIT NOTEBOOK—The 49er fandom was puzzled about Saturday’s snake bit session against Santa Barbara but nearly all feel that there is a distinct need for a deeper rotation next season. One loyalist summarized by saying that he enjoyed, “Just playing in the postseason after so many years of frustration… Sure, we need to improve to get to the next level, but right now, let’s just enjoy how far we have come from that 6-win season just a few years ago.” The head coach was not much into the enjoyment mode, still frustrated that, “Santa Barbara trusted each other more than we trusted ourselves.”
 
The All-Tourney team had two ‘Niners (Ware and Anderson) and three Gauchos. All five guys are juniors so expect a rematch two or three times next year. Both teams have some good talent in the cupboard but the Gauchos went nine deep this season and the Beach, sort of six or seven.

LBSU finished the season 22-11 but beyond the wiry and muscled Casper Ware bring back Larry Anderson (first-team All-Big West Conference and second-team All-District 9 by the NABC), T.J. Robinson (second-team All-Big West) and Eugene Phelps (honorable mention All-Big West).

For Long Beach, this will be its sixth all-time appearance in the NIT Tournament, and its first since 2000. The 49ers are 2-5 all-time in NIT games. Their first appearance was in 1980 when they beat Pepperdine 104-87 in the first round, and then lost to UNLV 90-81 in the second round. The 49ers lost to Stanford 80-77 in 1988. Long Beach State beat Arizona State 86-71 in the first round in 1990 before losing to Hawaii 84-79 in the second round. LBSU got beat by TCU 73-61 in the first round in 1992, and lost to California 70-66 in the first round in 2000.

The ‘Niners and Washington State have played twice–the Cougars winning 79-69 on Dec. 1, 1962, and LB beat WSU 58-55 on Dec. 19, 1975. The NIT semifinals and finals are on March 29 and March 31 in Madison Square Garden in New York City. ESPNU will broadcast the game.