<\/div>\nCSULB Men’s Basketball head coach Dan Monson may have said it best, in a press release accompanying the upcoming season’s schedule for his squad: “We know this schedule is a challenge for us. Maybe even a little bit too much for where our program is at right now. But, to get to where we want to go, we need to play teams like this.” Amen, Coach, and kudos for having the honesty to admit this might be a bit much for next season’s squad—that’s the kind of forthcomingness that comes from job security. And challenge may prove to be an understatement: there’s no doubt it’s one of the most ambitious in the program’s history.<\/p>\n
Five teams the Beach will take on were in the NCAA Tourney last March, and they’ll play four of them on the road. The nonconference schedule includes four of those NCAA tournament opponents, as well as tough squads like NIT competitors Syracuse and UCSB, and a New Mexico State team that just barely missed a trip to the dance, falling in the WAC final to Boise State in triple overtime.<\/p>\n
Key additions to the roster as well as the continued development of Donovan Morris mean that they’re likely to be competitive in conference play, as the Big West Conference looks wide open this year. They’ll be coming off a tough nonconference schedule, though, and will have to close the season with three consecutive conference road games. Time will tell if the 49ers rise to their schedule’s level or are crushed under its weight, but there are sure to be some memorable contests in the ‘Myd this season. The home opener, against a beatable Weber State, will be November 22nd. Other home highlights include Pepperdine, Temple, and another ESPN Bracket Buster in February. The 49ers will be lighting up the holidays, too, with home games on Dec. 20th and 22nd, and January 2nd and 4th. Hopefully those early January games will signal not just the start of a new year, but the beginning of a new era in Long Beach State basketball. This schedule is the first step in that direction.<\/p>\n
Here’s the full schedule, mark your calendar!<\/p>\n
2008-09 49er Schedule<\/span>
Nov. 8 vs. Exhibition Game, Walter Pyramid, 4 pm
Nov. 14 at Brigham Young, Provo, Utah, tba
Nov. 16 at Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc., tba
Nov. 22 vs. Weber State, Walter Pyramid, 4 pm
Nov. 25 at Idaho State, Pocatello, Idaho, 6 pm
Nov. 30 vs. New Mexico State, Walter Pyramid, 4 pm
Dec. 3 vs. Pepperdine, Walter Pyramid, 7 pm
Dec. 6 at San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif., tba
Dec. 11 at Weber State, Ogden, Utah, 6 pm
Dec. 13 at Syracuse, Syracuse, NY, 11 am
Dec. 20 vs. Montana State, Walter Pyramid, 3 pm
Dec. 22 vs. Temple, Walter Pyramid, 7:30 pm
Dec. 29 at Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 7 pm
Jan. 2 vs. UC Santa Barbara, Walter Pyramid, 7 pm
Jan. 4 vs. Cal Poly, Walter Pyramid, 4 pm
Jan. 8 at Pacific, Stockton, Calif, 7 pm
Jan. 10 at UC Davis, Davis, Calif., 7 pm
Jan. 17 vs. CS Northridge, Walter Pyramid, 4 pm
Jan. 24 vs. UC Riverside, Walter Pyramid, 4 pm
Jan. 29 vs. CS Fullerton, Walter Pyramid, 7 pm
Jan. 31 at UC Irvine, Irvine, Calif, 7 pm
Feb. 5 vs. UC Davis, Walter Pyramid, 7 pm
Feb. 7 vs. Pacific, Walter Pyramid, 4 pm
Feb. 11 at UC Riverside, Riverside, Calif., 7 pm
Feb. 18 at CS Fullerton, Fullerton, Calif, 7 pm
Feb. 21 vs. ESPNU Bracket Buster, Walter Pyramid, tba
Feb. 26 vs. UC Irvine, Walter Pyramid, 7 pm
Feb. 28 at CS Northridge, Northridge, Calif., 7 pm
Mar. 5 at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Calif, 7 pm
Mar. 7 at UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif., 7 pm
Mar. 11-14 at Big West Tournament (Anaheim Convention Center)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/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-5732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5732","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=5732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5732"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5732"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}