Written with staff resources.

Taking a page from the twenty-something’s love of social media, Long Beach State athletics decided to tease the season ticket buyers with a release of their men’s basketball schedule via Facebook. The home opener is on November 10 vs. North Alabama, followed by legitimate challenges with USC, North Carolina, Arizona, Fresno State, LMU, Syracuse, Ohio State, BYU-Hawaii and on December 18 at UCLA’s remodeled Pauley Pavilion.

A major feature of the upcoming season is the home game against national power North Carolina on November 16 in the Pyramid. The 49ers and the Tar Heels played the last two years at North Carolina but the home fans have been anxious for a named opponent on their home court, especially after winning the Big West last season. It will be the Niners first ever at home against a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference. The UNC stop in Long Beach is part of the Tar heels trip to Hawaii and despite the visitors losing four players to the NBA draft (in the first 17 taken) experts figure that the team will reload and not rebuild.

Overall LBSU will face three of last year’s top six teams in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, as well as three schools from the Pac-12 Conference. In addition to playing North Carolina, ranked No. 6 in the final poll last season, the 49ers visit Syracuse (No. 5 last year) on December 6 and Ohio State (No. 3 last season) on December 8.

“We are excited again this year, as we have done in the past several seasons, to announce arguably the toughest preseason schedule in the nation,” Monson said. “The schedule is highlighted, of course, by the opportunity to host the North Carolina Tar Heels at the Pyramid, one of the premier programs in the country. This schedule should give us a great opportunity to grow as a team and improve throughout the preseason in hopes of being ready to defend our Big West championship.”

Long Beach State begins its Pac-12 adventure with a game at USC on November 13, before traveling to Arizona on November 19 and UCLA on December 18. Arizona, USC and UCLA all qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2011, with Arizona advancing to the Elite Eight.

The 49ers’ schedule has five non-conference home games. In addition to the North Carolina game, LBSU will host a Mountain West Conference team (Fresno State on December 3), while also hosting an ESPN BracketBuster game in February.

After Long Beach State opens its season at home the 49ers then hit the road, playing four of their next five games away from Long Beach, with three of those five games against teams that qualified for one of the postseason tournaments last season.

LBSU starts the streak playing at USC, before hosting North Carolina. After the Tar Heels come to town, LBSU plays the next three on the road against Arizona, Fresno State (November 25) and Loyola Marymount (November 29). The 49ers return home for the back end of the home-and-home series with Fresno State, but then hit the road for the Syracuse-Ohio State road trip. LBSU wraps up its pre-conference season with a home game against BYU-Hawaii (Dec. 15) and the game at UCLA before opening Big West play against Pacific in the Walter Pyramid on December 29.

In the past Monson has used the non-conference toughies to prepare his team for the Big West season and improve the program’s rep plus bank some good game guarantees playing prestigious road teams in big arenas. The BWC tourney is March 14-16 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Monson’s teams at Long Beach State have headed into the conference season the last three years with the top ranked non-conference schedule in the country. During his five seasons at the helm of the 49ers, Monson’s teams have played 30 teams that have advanced to the NCAA Tournament, including 26 non-conference foes. Of those 26, one won a national championship (Duke 2010), two played for the title (Duke and Kansas 2012), four qualified for the Final Four (Duke, Kansas, West Virginia 2010, and Louisville (2012), seven advanced to the Elite Eight and 10 made it to the Sweet 16. The 49ers played eight NCAA Tournament teams last season and in 2009-10, seven in 2010-11, five in 2008-09, and two in 2007-08.

*= home games

PRE-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Nov. 10 Saturday North Alabama TBA*
Nov. 13 Tuesday at USC 7:00pm
Nov. 16 Friday North Carolina 7:05pm*
Nov. 19 Monday at Arizona 6:00pm
Nov. 25 Sunday at Fresno State 1:00pm
Nov. 29 Thursday at Loyola Marymount 7:00pm
Dec. 3 Monday Fresno State 7:05pm*
Dec. 6 Thursday at Syracuse 4:00pm
Dec. 8 Saturday at Ohio State TBA
Dec. 15 Saturday BYU-Hawaii 4:05pm*
Dec. 18 Tuesday at UCLA 7:00pm

BIG WEST CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Dec. 29 Saturday Pacific 4:05pm*
Jan. 3 Thursday at Cal Poly TBA
Jan. 5 Saturday at UC Santa Barbara 7:05pm
Jan. 10 Thursday Cal State Northridge 7:05pm*
Jan. 12 Saturday Hawaii 4:05pm*
Jan. 17 Thursday at UC Riverside 7:00pm
Jan. 19 Saturday at Cal State Fullerton 6:05pm
Jan. 26 Saturday UC Irvine 4:05pm*
Jan. 31 Thursday UC Santa Barbara 7:05pm*
Feb. 2 Saturday Cal Poly 4:05pm*
Feb. 7 Thursday at Hawaii 9:00pm
Feb. 9 Saturday at Cal State Northridge 7:05pm
Feb. 14 Thursday Cal State Fullerton 7:05pm*
Feb. 16 Saturday UC Riverside 4:05 pm*
Feb. 20 Wednesday UC Davis 7:05 pm*
Feb. 23 Saturday ESPN BracketBuster TBA TBA*
March 2 Saturday at UC Irvine 7:05 pm
March 7 Thursday at Pacific 7 pm
March 9 Saturday at UC Davis