6:00am | The seismic realignment that had its’ epicenter in Stockton was about the only sporting drama of last week for the 49er faithful.Most of the home teams waited until last weekend before breaking from their spring break. 
 
Oh basketballer Casper Ware was in New Orleans shooting and passing as part of the college senior prom that was held just in front of the Final Four. A good number of Beach coaches and Admins made it to the Big Easy but the headline of import was the return of the University of the Pacific to the West Coast Conference beginning in 2013-2014. 
 
Were the Tigers beginning to be toothless? Opinion is divided.  Venerable basketball coach Bob Thomason had his days in the past but as of late UOP looked like a program in need of a heart transplant. Enter stage left perhaps the finest AD in west, Ted Leland, who started in Stockton, went on to a distinguished career as the sports leader of Stanford, and then agreed to come back to bucolic-ville for a couple of years. Now with the WCC life ahead of them, Leland has agreed to stay on at UOP indefinitely. 
 
The Stockton area media is supportive. Columnist Bob Highfill expounded, “By joining the WCC, Pacific will be aligned with like-sized, private universities that share similar academic standards, have religious-based origins and are grouped geographically. Best of all for area sports fans; the Tigers will welcome men’s basketball stalwarts Gonzaga University and Brigham Young University each year to Stockton and rekindle rivalries with Santa Clara University, the University of San Francisco and Saint Mary’s College. Even the other universities in the WCC – the University of San Diego, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine and the University of Portland – are more attractive opponents than most in the Big West.”

Civic leaders see their town as “event-oriented” which makes them swoon at the arrival of the name programs at BYU and Gonzaga filling up the arena on campus and the shops and bars on main street. Clearly UC Riverside and CSU Northridge didn’t bring that buzz although I always felt they like Long Beach but maybe I am delusional. Surely Gonzaga and BYU have nice NCAA Tournament resumes and Stockton does like to identify with the almost nearby Bay Area universities. The UOP price, well increasing scholarship dollars throughout their sporting menu and trying to find a way to stay legal in softball which most o the WCC members don’t play.  Stay tuned.

So where does that leave the Beach who got a budget infusion (all of it not yet programmed) from an “Excellence Fee” signed off last year by CSULB president F. King Alexander. Two projects in the works for a while, a new softball scoreboard and lighting for soccer games on George Allen field are done. The Bickerstaff family recently added to their charitable legacy with a $2 million gift for team and locker room enhancements in the Pyramid. Edifices aside, coaches are privately worried about the rise in scholarship costs and operating expenses while alums in the various chat rooms figure that students will willingly pay more in tuition and fees for more competitive success in athletics.  Stay tuned, and yes, win the lottery.
Scoreboard Dusting
 
Baseball stays on the road this week at Riverside after winning their opening Big West series on the road at Cal Poly. The headline act came on Sunday. Shawn Stuart dominated the host with a complete game one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and inspiration for outstanding defense behind him, and in front of him, if you saw the standout catching of his fellow senior Kellen Hoime. After week one the Beach is in the top pack of the BWC and raising eyebrows after beating the team with the Big West’s best overall record now. Buck and his boys now gas up for a weekend at Riverside. Last add diamond news, my parent pal Stan Metzger keeps me up to date on one of my favorite stats, hit by pitch. So far his kid has 46, just eight short of the all time mark. 

Men’s volleyball is still in the hunt for a spot in the eight team Mountain Pacific Sp[ort Federation tourney after saying Aloha to Hawaii winning both ends of the pineapple express, 3-0 on Friday and 3-1 on Saturday. Next up is more road work at Stanford and at Pacific.

Their recent win over top 4 BYU was unsettling to the Cougars. “We’ve talked about winning all week,” said BYU head coach Chris McGowan. “The guys were chapped after Long Beach and so were the coaches, to be honest. Before this match we said that in this last third of the season we’ve got to win. This was the night we wanted to start a different mental attitude, different emotion and different energy. I thought the guys were great coming out and executing that plan.”

For sport historians the beleaguered Big West Conference was started in 1969 and before UOP quit has members such as: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; CSU, Fullerton; CSU Northridge; Long Beach State University; University of California, Davis; University of California, Irvine; University of California, Riverside; and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Coming soon the University of Hawai’i becomes a member effective July 1, 2012 followed by San Diego State University on July 1, 2013.  

More on The Bickerstaff’s…long-time supporters of the Long Beach State campus the couple provided the gift that allowed LBSU to create the Bickerstaff Center for Student-Athlete Academic Services which helps 49er athletes excel in the classroom.

As far as the facility upgrades, the dean of LB coaches weighed in. “To be adding something of this quality to a tremendous facility like the Walter Pyramid is beyond my expectations,” LBSU women’s volleyball coach Brian Gimmillaro added. “We’re very grateful to the Bickerstaffs for being so involved with the community and this university.”
 
News from the web world, this poster has a dollar idea for the Niners. “The Beach should reach out to Alumni Steven Spielberg and ask if he can make a donation for the video score board and we can call it Spielberg Vision. He’s a big basketball fan and I’ve seen him wear his LB State cap at a Laker game before. “
 
Ran across our home grown sports psych guy Don Peters at sand volleyball and he has a new address, the CSULB library where he is dedicated to finish his dissertation. “Dr. Peters singing our national anthem” — that works for me.