……or are reporters piling on a ( Rothstein) report? I don’t doubt it’s true, and Smitheran pretty much telegraphed his direction, if not the exact candidate. Assuming SDSU bows out this week I’ll assume there’s a presser some time early next week. I’m curious if the timing is more dictated by hiring /interview req for the CSU system, or SDSU not wanting this announced. I don’t think it’s without precedent a hiring like this gets announced even with the current team still alive. The chances the players / staff at SDSU don’t know what’s going on is probably zero.
More reports coming out + an interesting rumor that St. Bernard HS coach Tony Bland could be joining Chris Acker's staff at LBSU.
* From the gents at 562: https://www.the562.org/2024/03/27/reports-long-beach-state-hiring-chris-acker-as-next-basketball-coach/
* https://hoopdirt.com/report-long-beach-state-finalizing-deal-with-sdsus-acker/
* West Coast Elite Basketball: https://twitter.com/RyanSilver1/status/1772988940699791811
First-year LBSU athletic director Bobby Smitheran came to the Beach after more than a decade at San Diego State, where he worked “intimately” with the basketball program there as it rose into a national power, per an interview with Smitheran after the university parted ways with former men’s basketball coach Dan Monson.
Acker was immediately thrown out by the national college basketball media as Smitheran’s likely target. He’s an assistant coach with the Aztecs, who are currently in the NCAA Tournament preparing for a Sweet Sixteen game tomorrow.
Acker is in his fifth year at SDSU and has been considered to be a rising star. He’s been an assistant at Boise State and Hawaii after coaching at the Junior College level in Southern California. Acker is an LA native and has recruited or coached a few Long Beach natives in his rise through the coaching ranks; he recruited Drew Buggs from Long Beach Poly to Hawaii after Buggs didn’t receive an offer from his “dream school,” Long Beach State.
Buggs went on to set the career assists record at Hawaii in just three years. Acker also coached Poly point guard KJ Feagin at San Diego State, when the Aztecs were the top team in the country before COVID-19 shut down the NCAA Tournament.
When Smitheran was asked if being in the athletic department at SDSU affected his decision to move on from Monson and what he’s looking for in a coach, he had the following to say last week:
“I think we’re all guilty of being products of our environment,” he said. “The one that I just departed last year reached the national championship game. That was long term work and a process that took many years to achieve. There were baby steps and hard steps and commitments from the community and institution to achieve that. That’s how I’m viewing this next hire. Someone who wants to engage the community, represent Long Beach State University in a way that people get excited about, that recruits see a future in terms of their growth and development and that we’re going to position ourselves to compete for championships. It would be dishonest to say that (coming from SDSU) doesn’t have an influence. I spent 15 years at San Diego State watching that program grow. There’s a lot of lessons that I learned that will mold how I approach this hire.”
GO BEACH
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