If you’re a hard-core fan of high school basketball, let’s hope you’re reading this blog in time to get to Gahr High by 3:15 this afternoon.
Here are the quarterfinal match-ups in the “Gold� division of the Cerritos/Gahr Tournament (again, all of these games are at Gahr High):
Friday night was a great evening for Poly High's football team, and not strictly because of what happened at Veterans Stadium.
It's too early to say that this UCLA basketball team is "better" than the Bruins' squad that advanced to the 2006 national title game before losing to the Florida Gators.
But, at the same stage, it's not even close: This is a much better UCLA team than the one that was lost to Memphis in the NIT a year ago.
If was a little more ambitious, I would have posted this blog entry a little earlier today.
Oh, well . . . here come my thoughts on the CIF Southern Section football action that took place Friday night:
The second half is just beginning and, after watching the first 30 minutes of high-definition action on my Panasonic 42-inch plasma screen, the Ohio State Buckeyes look every bit the best team in the country.
It would almost take multiple turnovers on OSU's part to lose to the Michigan Woliverines, I think. That's because the Troy Smith-led offense looks almost impossible to stop.
By the way, Ron English, the defensive coordinator for Michigan, was a pretty good basketball player (along with his twin brother, Don) at Ganesha High in Pomona in the middle 1980s.
Where else can you get information like that?
From what I've seen so far (I haven't taken any kind of guided tour, if you will), the Galen Center is a pretty cool place to watch basketball. All the seating appears very "fan friendly".
I'm surprised there wasn't anytning approaching a capacity crowd for the "men's basketball debut" in the place (announced attendance was 7,512; capacity is 10,258).
But, hey! It's football season and this USC is a football school!
As for the basketball team. . .
Courtesy the texting ability of Chris DeConna, I just heard that the Long Beach State volleyball team won at Cal State Northridge in four games.
That means that with a 49ers' victory Saturday night at the University of Pacific, LBSU Coach Brian Gimmillaro will have 600 college wins.
Go BG . . .
It's halftime in the Galen Center and it's USC 34, USC 31 (the Trojans are winning).
The building appears to be maybe 2/3 full. It's definitely late arriving.
But the Trojans have put on a very nice and touching tribute to the late Ryan Francis, the Trojan point guard who was shot to death in his hometown of Baton Rouge, La., last May.
This is a pretty impressive place.
But where are the people?
The USC vs. USC game is about to tip off and there might be 4,000 in the stands right now.
On second, thought: I'm sure much of the crowd is still mired on the 110 Freeway.
Evaluation of the Long Beach State men’s basketball team, almost two hours after its 69-68 loss to the Air Force Academy:
· It was a very “winnable� game for the 49ers, impressive in itself in that the Falcons are a very good team coming off a 24-victory, NCAA Tournament-bid season and is expected to make a strong run at a Mountain West Conference.
· The 49ers were much too often their “own worst enemies� on offense, rushing shots at times and committing careless (are there really any other kind?) turnovers.
· Aaron Nixon and Kejuan Johnson were a combined 0-for-15 from the field in the first half? How often is that going to happen this season?
· There is much positive to be taken from the game but it will be very interesting if the team plays with the same defensive focus Wednesday night in the consolation game with San Jose State that it did (for the most part) Tuesday night.
Long Beach State's basketball team jumped out to a 14-9 Tuesday night against Air Force at Stanford during the College Basketball Experience.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the 49ers trail at halftime, 30-25, largely because of a 15-0 run by the Falcons.
I'm wide awake in my hotel room near Stanford University, where Long Beach State's men's basketball team opens its season tonight against the Air Force Academy.
I just checked out my Tuesday column via www.presstelegram and discovered a blunder on my part.
The CIF Southern Section released the Pac-5 Divison football pairings earlier today and at least one of the first-round match-ups probably startled a lot of folks as they glanced at the pairings sheets:
Poly vs. Mater Dei.
Wow!
I just read my Long Beach State-Cal State Fullerton volleyball story on-line this morning and I realized I was a little hazy in my lead.
The match that produced "arguably its (Long Beach's) most disappointing performance (15 nights ago)'' was the 49ers' 3-0 loss to Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo on Oct. 27.
In case you were wondering . . .
OK.
As promised, here is my prediction for the 16-team bracket of the CIF Southern Section’s Pac-5 football playoffs. The “real� match-ups will be unveiled at the section’s Los Alamitos headquarters Sunday.
Hopefully this will be more accurate than some of my final regular-season games projections earlier in the week, when I forecast Millikan over Wilson in the Moore League (wrong!), Los Alamitos over Edison in the Sunset (wrong again!) and, in a game that just wrapped up a half-hour ago at Saddleback College just a couple miles away from my Laguna Niguel abode, Santa Margarita over Servite (wrong once more!).
The Servite Friars really helped themselves, going from being projected wild card entrant to the top seed from the Trinity League and the No. 4 overall seed.
Ready, set . . . here we go:
The Air Force Academy’s men’s basketball team opens its season at home Friday night with a home game in Colorado Springs against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
But its coach didn’t mind talking about his team’s Tuesday night opponent.
“Playing Long Beach State is going to be a huge challenge for us,’’ Coach Jeff Bzdelik said Thursday morning about the 49ers, the Cadets’ first-round opponent at Stanford Tuesday night in the College Basketball Experience Classic, during a teleconference for the event.
Do you want to know the match-ups in the first round of the CIF Southern Section’s top football division nearly 24 hours before they are released at the section’s Los Alamitos office Sunday?
This will be the place, if my projections of a year ago are an indication.
Last season, on the Saturday before the Division I pairings were unveiled, I projected what proved to be exactly the 16-team field, including individual match-ups.
Can I do the same thing this time around for what is now called the Pac-5 division?
Come back here Saturday to find out.
OK, it's halftime in the Walter Pyramid and the Long Beach State men's baskeball team is beating Chapman University 54-32.
What are we to gather from the first 20 minutes?
For all of you who have been eagerly anticipating the news (and for those of you who will respond "Huh?"), the 28th edition of the Press-Telegram's Best in the West basketball team is going to be published in Monday's edition.
So, are there still any folks out there who want to question the scouting wisdom of the Lakers for selecting then-17-year-old Andrew Bynum with the No. 10 choice in the 2005 NBA Draft?
Bynum, who turned 19 last week, went for 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists in 23 minutes in the Staples Center during the team’s season-opening victory over Phoenix Halloween night.
