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La Verne would beat Cal Tech by 20. They looked like a below average DIII squad. Cal Tech looked high school.

De Anthony walked by shook hands then sat down at a courtside seat, seemed to me he was in a great mood.
Rock Lloyd sat near me to cheer on his son and had a nice quick conversation with him, super cool dude.

Saw Grant Stone in the sand bar last game v Cal Tech.

562 Game Report here https://www.the562.org/2024/11/04/long-beach-state-mens-basketball-wins-season-opener/

V S Dakota State will be live on the Summit Network. I can't watch it unless its a replay later, so I nominate anyone else to give a game report. I don't expect a win just hope we look decent.

La Verne acted like a team and had a strategy which was refreshing, and had a few decent shooters and guys who could do something with the orange ball. They zoned us a lot which limited the offense at first. Teams will zone us to death the way we shoot from 3. Gotta get much better, we improved from 20% last game to 32% I guess thats a positive. Early on the team was mostly doing the right things it seemed, just not executing well against the zone. The defense was stingy then got a bit lax. Acker liberally takes timeouts, often to pull a guy who made a lazy effort. You won't see too many lazy efforts any more.

Askew and Wainwright took control of the game midway through the 1st half and it ignited the team some. Feels like they gave good effort 95% of the time, executed well 50% of the time on offense, and played good team defense 80% of the time. Effort and defense are the strengths right now. Next is the guard play.

I'll be sold on the surprisingly good inside play of DMX, Richardson, Johnson, Nagy and Denson when we play a team with skill and size. Probably our next game. Or I won't be sold. But the way they play is pretty relentless and at worst our team rebounding will be equal to any BW opponent. We crushed La Verne on the boards, 57 to 27. I call that impressive even against a weak DIII team.

One thing is this team doesn't lack focus, isn't allowed to. Acker is the alpha dog but he's pretty calm on the sidelines. Gotta see how he is in a tight game vs a rival. He is working the refs well, respectful and friendly. They seem to like him.

As a team we need massive improvement in 3 pt shooting, FT shooting, executing a half court offense against a zone.

Strengths
Guard play. Askew and Wainwright will keep us in games against like competition. Curtis got just enough minutes to be hopeful he can be a insta bucket getter off the bench. Kam Martin is a huge surprise he's got great confidence and a lightning fast first and second step. Slithery player. Ramel struggled he needs some time but he's got a big upside. Hart when healthy is solid enough.

DMX is fun to watch. His 3 pt shot is an oddity, a corkscrew rainbow but he takes it confidently, hope he can make enough to stretch a defense then dump it into Richardson who has a really good soft hook not too many defenders have the length to deal with. Also has a decent left side baseline back to the basket move. Both guys are super active inside. Throw Nagy in, has a Kurt Rambis like attitude always hustling and banging inside, and the leadership and steadiness of Austin and Denson and we have enough bigs to get it done.

This team right now probably isn't connected enough to beat any good nonconference foes on the road. I wouldn't bet on us to win at SDakota or USF they both usually field solid teams. If we win one I'll be impressed. If we just play well and improve at this point good deal.

Low expectations for a while. I like what I'm seeing and think we'll all be happy to see a disciplined team that usually does the right things. No divas apparent on this team, no ball stopper guards, very little one on one, lots of passing, just not enough good execution.

GO BEACH!!!