Big West Countdown, #10 Long Beach State
It is a clean slate in the Shores
Quick Bite: After dancing last year, Long Beach State faces one of the biggest rebuilds in the country while starting off with a brand new coaching staff. After a disappointing regular season, Long Beach fired long-time coach Dan Monson right before the Big West Tournament. Monson proceeded to lead them to the tournament title and the Big Dance making them one of the best storylines of the tournament. Following their 20 point loss to Arizona was a predictable mass exodus of players; either graduating or heading to greener pa$$tures, leaving the cupboard bare. New head coach Chris Acker has a clean slate to work with.
2023-2024 Record: 21-15, 10-10 (5th in the BWC)
Head Coach: Chris Acker has become the 17th head coach in LB program history. He is leading a D1 program for the first time after a successful career as an assistant coach at Mountain West schools SDSU and Boise St. Prior, he was an assistant for Big West foe, Hawaii. He has head coach experience, leading programs at the JC level at West LA College and Citrus College. He is well respected for his recruiting and has had lead responsibility for both offense at SDSU, and defense at Boise.
ROSTER OVERVIEW
Probable Starters
Guard TJ Wainwright
Guard Devin Askew
Guard Ramel Lloyd Jr
Wing Cam Denson
Forward Austin Johnson
Key reserves: Guard Varick Lewis, Forward Derrick Michael Xzavierro
Key Departures
Wing Aboubacar Traore Senior, 12 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 4.5 apg, All BWC 1st Team. Transferred to Louisville
Guard Marcus Tshonis 17.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 3 apg. All BWC HMGraduated
Guard Jadon Jones Senior 12.1 ppg, 3 rpg Lead team in three point makes, 38%. BW Defensive POY in 2021-22 season. Transferred to Oklahoma
Forward Lassina Traore Senior, 11.9 ppg, 10.3 rpg, All BWC 2nd Team, lead the conference in rebounding, averaged a double-double. Transferred to Xavier
Guard AJ George RS Junior 10.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg Transferred to SMU
Point Guard Messiah Thompson 5.8 ppg, 1.9 apg. Graduated
Key Returnees
None.
Key Newcomers
Guard Devin Askew #9 6’5”, 190 lb Senior, Transfer from Cal. 6.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg Played just 6 games before the plug was pulled due to injury, had averaged 15 ppg the year before. Also has had stops at Kentucky and Texas.
Guard Cory Curtis #55 6’5”, 175 lb Junior, Transfer from Independence CC (Kansas), 23 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.7 spg. From L.A.
Forward Austin Johnson #0 6’10”, 235 lb, Graduate. 5.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg (2022-2023). Sat out last year, played previous season at North Carolina A&T. Familiar with the Big West as he originally played for UCI.
Wing Cam Denson Junior #13, 8.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg. Transfer from UOP
Forward Derrick Michael Xzavierro #1 6’10”, 235 lb, RS Sophomore. Transfer from Grand Canyon. Missed 1st season due to injury, played 14 games last year.
Guard TJ Wainwright #10 6’3”, 190 lb Junior. Transfer from Robert Morris
10 ppg in the 6th man role.
Other Players
Guard Varick Lewis #11 6’3”, 190 lb Sophomore.
Guard Jason Hart #5 6’2”, 175 lb RS Sophomore.
Forward Eli Djordjevic #8 6’8”, 186 lb, Sophomore, from Canada.
Guard Ramel Lloyd Jr. #22 6’6”, 215 lb Junior, Transfer from Nebraska. Enters his 3rd year of college but has yet to play. RS his first year, Medical RS last year. Highly recruited out of HS so a bit of an unknown, could end up being a major contributor. His dad was a great player for the Beach
Forward Andrew Nagy #44 6’9”, 225 lb, Freshman. Veritas Academy
Guard Kam Martin #2 6’4”, 175 lb Freshman. Blue Ridge School in VA. He is from Maryland
Center Christian Richardson #15 7’1”, 230 lb, Junior. Transfer from Butler CC.
By the Numbers
Long Beach 2024-2025 Non Conference Schedule:
Now that Monson is no longer the coach, Long Beach’s schedule is starting to look more similar to the other schools in the conference with a lot less travel and fewer heavyweights. They do travel to Spokane to take on heavyweight Gonzaga, a bit ironic as that was Dan Monson’s old team. They have a heavy dose of WCC schools with Portland, USF, Pepperdine and USD also on the slate, all of these games on the road with the exception of Portland. Smartest scheduling move on their part is participating in the Ball Dawgs Classic in Henderson, Nevada at the arena that hosts the Big West Tournament.
Thoughts
No team in the BW comes remotely close to Long Beach in terms of lost production. I haven’t checked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they return the least in the entire country. Averaging just about 5% in returning production across all the different metrics, and with a brand new coaching staff and system, Long Beach will be starting from scratch.
What might keep them out of the cellar is a fairly solid recruiting job by Chris Aker. If healthy, Cal transfer guard Devin Askew will be one of the best players in the conference and he has solid talent and experience at the wing in Pacific transfer Cam Denson and at forward in Austin Johnson. As a long time assistant at SDSU which has consistently been one of the best defensive teams in the country, it is probably safe to expect Long Beach to be focused on that part of the game. Still, it is a big ask for a group of players that haven’t played together before to learn a new system and to make it all work. The talent on this team gives them more upside than some of the others in the bottom tier but they have the most work to do to learn to work as a team. I am picking them 10th but they have the talent to make that pick look foolish.
Upside 8th, downside, last
Predicted record (overall, BWC): 10-22, 5-15
Home Digs: The Pyramid opened in 1994 and seats 4,000. It has room to add temporary additional seating and the record crowd is 6,912 in 2012 vs. North Carolina. Beautiful, unique construction with great sight lines throughout, it is personally my favorite among all the other Big West Arenas. Unfortunately, design flaws in the roof material have resulted in major leak issues in the roof and games have had to be moved into the old Gold Mine Gym. Given the steep costs to replace the roof, the Pyramid’s days may be numbered.
A bevy of options for pre-game fun with Belmont Shore near-by though leave some time to drive to the arena. If short on time, the Mid does serve beer, another bonus. A good option that is closer than the Belmont area bars is Port City Tavern on E. Anaheim St.
Official Site: https://longbeachstate.com/sports/mens-basketball
Message Board: https://members5.boardhost.com/49erHoops/
While it hurts to see a LBSU MBB team picked this low for Big West conference play, it's difficult to argue against. As written, the cupboard was bare after they lost their top five players to graduation or transfer and it's not simply a case or reloading, especially with an all new coaching staff. Even with the typical weakness in the BWC following the top two-three teams, I think this will be a VERY rough year for LBSU.