October 2006 Archives

Anyone who grew up watching the NBA in 1960s (and I’m one of those), whether you were a Boston Celtics’ fan or not, had to feel at least a tinge of sadness at the news that Red Auerbach died early this evening.

He had a lot of great individual parts to work with while winning nine championships (eight of those in a row), including some of the greatest players in the sport’s history: Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Bill Sharman, K.C. Jones and Sam Jones.

A titanic, it wasn’t.

But Cal Poly’s 3-0 victory over Long Beach State all but wrapped up the Big West Conference volleyball title for the Mustangs Friday night.

I’ve covered every Final Four since 1986, along with several NBA championship series.

And I was at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4 when Texas took on USC in one of the great college football games of this or any other generation.

And now I’m in Mott Gymnasium in San Luis Obispo, less than an hour before the Cal Poly-Long Beach State Big West Conference volleyball showdown. I’m looking for a knife to cut the tension in the air.

Long Beach State basketball coach Larry Reynolds is about to begin his fifth and, possibly, final season at the school.

Despite having a team that won 18 games last season and was just one victory short (in the Big West Conference Tournament championship game against Pacific) of the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid since 1995, Reynolds didn’t receive a contract extension after Vic Cegles was hired as the school’s athletic director early last summer.

I caught the second half of the Long Beach State men’s basketball scrimmage Saturday morning and early afternoon in the Walter Pyramid.

I’d have watched the first half, as well, if I hadn’t screwed up and arrived an hour later than I should have. Oh, well.

Well, I just watched the Poly High Jackrabbits play as well over 12 minutes and four seconds as any football team in history.

OK, maybe I’m getting carried away.

Anyway, Ricky Johnson’s 3-yard run on the first play of the second quarter and Jonathan Heinze’s conversion kick gave the Jackrabbits a 29-0 lead over the Millikan Rams Friday night at Veterans Stadium.

The statistics in that stretch were just as one-sided: Poly 166 yards and nine first downs, Millikan six yards and no first downs.

The start of the 2006-07 high school basketball season is still the better part of two months away.

Not to worry, though, if you have a hankering for some hoops.