Donovan Morris isn't play for Long Beach State in its game at UC Irvine tonight.
I just walked into the Bren Center and was told that Morris, along with a sore right foot, is suffering from an "intestinal virus" (aka, "the flu") that he woke up with, as did LBSU assistant coach Eric Brown.
Freshman Larry Anderson will start in his place, meaning three frosh (Anderson, Casper Ware and T.J. Robinson, replacing Cornel Williams tonight) will start for the 49ers.
January 2009 Archives
The 33rd edition of the Press-Telegram's Best in the West football team will be published on Tuesday.
It will include charts with the 20 first-team selections of the top college prospects among the players in the senior class, as selected by seven of the most regionally and nationally respected recruiting analysts exclusively for the Press-Telegram, along with the honorable mention choices as the other players receiving votes.
Don't miss it the day before the NCAA's national letter of intent period gets under way!
Long Beach State women's volleyball coach Brian Gimmillaro has hired a former 49er, Erika Chidester, to join his coaching staff following the losses of full-time assistants Debbie Green and Melissa Ohta.
Chidester was an all-Big West Conference selection as a senior in 2005 and spent three seasons as an assistant at the University of La Verne.
Matt Ulmer, a volunteer assistant for Gimmillaro, was promoted to full-time status.
UCLA's football program got a couple of commitments from Moore League players of late.
Saying they plan to sign letters of intent with the Bruins were Poly safety Stan McKay and Jordan linebacker Taniela Maka (who had committed to Arizona last summer).
Feb. 4 is the first day of the national letter of intent signing period.
Virginia Tech, coached by former Long Beach State coach Seth Greenberg, knocked off host and top-ranked Wake Forest in Winston-Salem tonight, 78-71.
It was a stunner but not quite as shocking as when Greenberg's 49ers went into Lawrence 16 years ago and stunned another No. 1 team, Kansas.
Dan Monson's Long Beach State 49ers' remained a No. 14 seed in ESPN.com's latest version of "Bracketology" which was just posted on the website.
But the 49ers' projected No. 3 seed, first-round opponent has changed from Texas (for the past two weeks) to Syracuse this week.
For those with short memories . . . the Orange handled the 49ers, 79-55, when the teams played in the Carrier Dome on Dec. 13.
Apologies to all UC San Diego Tritons, past and present.
I referred to UCSD's volleyball team as the "Toreros" in my Saturday game story of the Long Beach State-UCSD Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match Friday night in the Walter Pyramid, won by the 49ers, 3-0.
As several e-mailers pointed out, the "Toreros" is the nickname of the University of San Diego, whose basketball team upset Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament last March.
I wanted to post this earlier after writing my game story Wednesday night:
Derrick Williams of La Mirada High was even more impressive than I anticipated he would be as I watched him score 33 points and dominate the game from start to finish in the 83-67 Suburban League victory over Mayfair.
The 6-foot-7 Williams (he's listed at 6-8; I doubt he is that tall) is much, much improved since I watched him play a bunch in July.
He'll played immediately and a lot for USC as a freshman.
Another player in the game who signed a national letter of intent in November, Mayfair's Kyle Richardson, played only about three minutes in the first half because of foul issues (he had three before halftime).
The game was already out of hand by the time he got untracked offensively but the future Long Beach State 49er scored 17 points in the second half.
Getting his signature is another example of why Dan Monson and his staff are doing such a solid job of recruiting at Long Beach.
Doesn't it seem like every basketball game played between the UCLA and USC teams these days transpire exactly the one that just ended did?
Both teams play very good half-court defense and both teams tend toward the "methodical" on the offensive end.
In the ends, Darren Collison and Jrue Holiday made enough "plays", offensively and defensively, Nikola Dragovic -- starting in place of James Keefe, undoubtedly, for this very reason -- gave the Bruins a nice offensive boost in pick-and-pop situations with Collison.
So the Bruins open 3-0 in Pac 10 play . . . and have yet to play a conference game in Pauley Pavilion. Ben Howland has to be pleased and he turns his focus to Arizona (Thursday) and Arizona State (Saturday) this week.
USC is really struggling to score against the Bruins' half-court defense.
But the Bruins' are basically grinding it down deep into the shot clock themselves, which isn't always a bad thing when the ball is in Darren Collison's hands.
UCLA scored the first four points of the second half but USC has run off 10 in a row to go up by four points and convince Ben Howland to call UCLA's third timeout.
Compton High graduate DeMar DeRozan has 15 points for USC. And why does everyone seem to insist that's been a "disappointment" or is "overrated"?
Amazing . . .
UCLA was up 11 points early but USC, despite having Taj Gibson on the bench for about 15 minutes with three fouls, managed to get to within 33-31 at intermission.
Trojans' Coach Tim Floyd has to feel pretty good about only being down by two points, all things considered.
The Bruins' offense got very sluggish after that initial 19-8 burst and their defense broke down a bit, as well, most notably in the closing seconds when 6-10 Keith Wilkinson, of all people, beat them off the dribble from about 15 feet away and scored on a left-handed layup for the final points of the half.
Apparently (I say apparently, because my head was down, writing, when it occurred) UCLA's Drew Gordon hit USC's Daniel Hackett with an inadvertent elbow during a dead ball.
The officials must have deemed it inadvertent because, after reviewing the situation on the replay monitor, they didn't eject Gordon or even hit him with a technical foul.
The game has gotten a bit sluggish and USC is still just five down, with 7:37, and the Trojans hope to get into halftime close as Gibson stays out with three fouls.
Taj Gibson just picked up his third foul for USC, six minutes into the game. That could be crucial. He's on the bench but the Trojans just trimmed their deficit from 11 to nine points and have possession of the ball.
The teams are warming up and the fans are filing into the Galen Center for the UCLA-USC hoops clash, which should under way in 12 minutes or so.
Lots of NBA types on hand, including Kevin O'Connor (general manager of the Denver Nuggets), Mike Dunleavy (coach of the Clippers), Tony Ronzone (assistant GM of the Detroit Pistons; he's a Long Beach State grad) and Scott Howard (assistant GM, Charlotte Bobcats).
The Big West Conference mens' basketball coaches, as part of the conference's media day in October, projected the Long Beach State 49ers to finish eighth in the nine-team race.
I don't think the 49ers are going to finish eighth, guys.
Coach Dan Monson's team improved to 4-0 in conference tonight with its 86-78 victory at UC Davis.
The 49ers led by 23 points late in the first half before the Aggies cut their deficit to six points with about six minutes to go in regulation.
Shabby free-throw shooting continues to hobble the 49ers. They were just 18 of 33 fron the line tonight and 28 of 49 in the road sweep of Pacific and UC Davis.
Poor free-throw shooting is going to cost them a game or two -- and maybe a conference championship -- if they're not careful.
Anyway, it's back to the Walter Pyramid next Saturday for a 4 o'clock game against Cal State Northridge, the team that was projected (by the coaches and that throng of "media" that turned out at Media Day) to win the conference.
Were the Gators the best football team for the 2008 season that wrapped up Thursday night with Florida's 24-14 victory over Oklahoma in the BCS final?
They looked the part while dispatching the Sooners.
So, after watching Florida knock off Oklahoma, Utah beat Alabama and USC topple Penn State, who is my choice as the "best team in the country"?
I'll go with the Gators. They have the best leader, hands down, in the college game in quarterback Tim Tebow (I still say it should have been a repeat winner of the Heisman Trophy) and Tenbow and Percy Harvin are the best 1-2 punch, offensively, on the college level.
I think USC has the best defense but the gap between the Trojans' defense and Florida's and Utah's is a lot slimmer than I thought before the bowl games.
My final ratings . . 1. Florida; 2. Utah; 3. USC; 4. Oklahoma; 5. Texas; 6. Alabama; 7. Penn State; 8. Ohio State; 9. TCU; 10. Boise State.
Do you happened to remember which team the Big West Conference men's basketball coaches projected to finish eighth in conference play?
In case you don't, it was Long Beach State . . . that's right, the same team that is 3-0 in Big West play after its 74-64 victory in Stockton tonight against the University of Pacific Tigers.
I don't think the 49ers are going to finish eighth in the conference, do you?
It's the first time in nine years that a Long Beach team has won its first three games in conference. The 1999-2000 team, coached by Wayne Morgan, finished 15-1 in Big West play but didn't go to the NCAA Tournament because it lost in the conference tournament.
it was only the third road victory in the two seasons that Dan Monson has been the program's coach and only the second Big West win away from home in that stretch.
Saturday night they play at UC Davis, the only play the 49ers won on the road last season.
All in all, when one considers that UOP had probably become the favorite to win the conference, it was a huge win for the 49ers.
In the final game of the Dream Classic that wrapped up about two minutes ago, No. 1-ranked (in SoCal, in California and the U.S. of A) coasted past Gahr, 90-66.
North Carolina-bound David Wear led the Monarchs (14-0) with 26 points while junior Tyler Lamb, a transfer from the Colony who has committed to UCLA, added 18.
Senior Devon Golston led Gahr with 22 points while 6-6 sophomore Jarion Henry added 14.
