{"id":2727,"date":"2009-11-19T06:10:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-19T06:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/game-preview-49er-bball-notre-dame\/"},"modified":"2009-11-19T06:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-19T06:10:00","slug":"game-preview-49er-bball-notre-dame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/game-preview-49er-bball-notre-dame","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: 49er BBall @ Notre Dame"},"content":{"rendered":"


Come watch the game with us at Legends at 4:30pm!  It’s the only place outside of South Bend to see the game.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dan Monson\u2019s Long Beach State basketball teams have taken leaps of faith in the past.<\/p>\n

Scheduling your opening game as head coach against BYU comes to mind. So does hosting Temple. Not to mention the debacle that was facing Syracuse in the Carrier Dome.<\/p>\n

But as the 49ers prepare to face off against another quality opponent in Notre Dame tonight, it all seems a bit more real this time around.<\/p>\n

The shock value of being matched up against a national contender has worn off.  <\/span>The fear of facing one of the country\u2019s best players has diminished. But we\u2019re left instead with a realization that is at the same time more encouraging and more frightening than any situation the 49ers have faced before.<\/p>\n

Long Beach State is expected to play well tonight.<\/p>\n

Sure, we always knew that the 49ers were capable of playing well against good teams. They shut down a scorer with NBA potential in Dionte Christmas to defeat that Temple team last year. And that was after  <\/span>completely laying an egg in a loss to Montana State.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t Temple. And this isn\u2019t last season.<\/p>\n

A win like that last season was a pleasant shock, to say the least. <\/span>This year, Notre Dame is just the first of many excellent teams that the 49ers will face. Preseason All-American Luke Harangody is just the first of many pro-level players that the 49ers will face. It\u2019s the best schedule a Long Beach State team \u2013 or a Big West Conference team \u2013 has faced in more than a decade, the best thing going for a 49er team making an obvious push to be noticed.<\/p>\n

A win against the Irish would do the trick.<\/p>\n

On paper, the matchup is relatively favorable for the visiting 49ers. Notre Dame has dominated two lesser opponents in North Florida and Saint Francis, and haven\u2019t yet played on the road \u2013 so they\u2019re not exactly battle tested. And if you believe what you read in this article from the South Bend Tribune<\/em><\/a>, the Irish have not looked strong defensively in those outings, which could be good news for a Long Beach State team that is certainly capable of putting points up in a hurry.<\/p>\n

But the Irish also score and rebound with great efficiency. The senior Harangody leads his team in both categories, with intimidating numbers of 23.0 and 8.0, respectively. Senior guard Ben Hansborough is averaging 18.5 per game while junior forward Tim Abramaitis chips in 15.0.  <\/span>Keep an eye on senior point guard Tory Jackson, who has scored 9.0 per game and dished out 16 total assists to just two turnovers. Jackson\u2019s matchup with Casper Ware could be the most intriguing battle of the night (other than Harangody and whichever 49er is guarding him).<\/p>\n

Long Beach is not without its difficulties on both sides of the ball, but overall the 49ers have shown the talent and the depth that will allow them to contend with the nation\u2019s  <\/span>best. Sophomore guards Casper Ware and Larry Anderson lead the charge, with reinforcements coming in the form of T.J. Robinson and a steady barrage of other scorers.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how the 49ers match up with Harangody. Sophomore forward Eugene Phelps is the obvious choice to assign the unenviable task, with his strength and athleticism. But Phelps has been foul-prone thus far, so it may be wise to switch other players onto Harangody.  <\/span>Arturas Lazdauskas may be another option because of his size, but Harangody can score out to the three-point line and that may prove problematic for Laz. In the paint, Robinson isn\u2019t the best defender and Long Beach cannot afford to have him in foul trouble. Why not throw Larry Anderson at him for a time? He can certainly pester Harangody on the perimeter, and call for help if he\u2019s backed down.<\/p>\n

Either way, it is paramount that Long Beach State force Harangody to catch the ball away from the basket, and keep him off the boards. This is where the 49ers\u2019 rebounding troubles come in \u2013 they\u2019ll need to improve their focus on boxing out and corralling loose balls. Then they can begin worrying about minutiae like stopping one of the nation\u2019s best scorers.<\/p>\n

No matter what happens, this is where the road begins to get bumpy for the 49ers. So strap in and hold onto something secure, and don\u2019t forget to count your blessings, because no matter how wild things are about to get, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s safe to say that there\u2019s nowhere else Long Beach State fans would rather be.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long Beach State takes to the road for the first test of many, against one of the nation’s best players and a Notre Dame team with high expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2727"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}