Local basketball teams prove tough to pick
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So the last shall be first in the Big West Conference, at least for the moment.
Long Beach State and UC Riverside -- picked in the preseason coaches’ poll to finish eighth and ninth in the nine-team league -- are at the top of the standings.
A season after going 6-25 and winning only three conference games, Long Beach is 8-7 and first in the Big West at 3-0 after its 74-64 victory at Pacific on Thursday. The 49ers’ best victory is over Temple, a team that upset Tennessee.
Riverside, 9-21 and 4-12 last season, is 9-5 and 2-1, tied for second with Cal State Northridge.
Looking for a common denominator?
Both teams are in their second seasons under coaches who have been around the block: Long Beach Coach Dan Monson took Gonzaga to the Elite Eight in 1999, landing at Long Beach after failing to turn around a troubled Minnesota program.
Riverside’s Jim Woolridge, an assistant to USC Coach Tim Floyd when Floyd coached the Chicago Bulls, is a former Kansas State coach.
Elsewhere in Southland college basketball, the battle of the bleak between Loyola Marymount (1-15) and Pepperdine (3-13) is at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu at 8 p.m. Saturday.
--Robyn Norwood