49ers Earn Respect of Foes, Poll Voters : Basketball: Cal State Long Beach is ranked 25th by the Associated Press. Jerry Pimm, whose UC Santa Barbara team defeated the 49ers, holds them in even higher regard.

The Cal State Long Beach men’s basketball team won praise from opposing coaches during its recent trip, which resulted in two victories in three games.

The 49ers, who play host to Cal State Fullerton at 7:30 tonight, led from the start in beating Nevada, 84-75, came from eight points behind to defeat Utah State, 65-59, then blew a 22-6 lead and lost Monday night at UC Santa Barbara, 61-60.

The most complimentary of the three opposing coaches was Santa Barbara’s Jerry Pimm.

“They are definitely a top 25 team,” Pimm said of Long Beach. “In the poll I vote in, I have them as a top 20 team.”

The 49ers, who are 12-2 overall and 5-2 in the Big West Conference, are in the Associated Press top 25 poll for the first time in 18 years. They are 25th.

Pimm thought the teams looked tired in the game, which was on national cable TV. It was the third game in five days for both. UC Santa Barbara (9-4, 2-3) lost at Nevada and Utah State last week.

“I felt very fortunate to win this game,” Pimm said. “We made some plays that weren’t winning plays.”

Utah State Coach Kohn Smith said the 49ers are playing better than he has seen them play in recent years. “They are physically strong, quick and have jumping power inside,” he said. “They’re a very good defensive team and they make it very hard for you on offense to guard.”

Said Nevada Coach Len Stevens: “We just don’t have the bodies when we go to a man-to-man defense to match up with them.”

In his first season (1990-91), when the 49ers finished 11-17, Cal State Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg was known for having a hot temper. Never was that more evident than on his first trip to Utah State, where he was tossed out of the game, which the 49ers lost, 90-89.

More reserved last season, when the team was 18-12, Greenberg still almost blew a fuse at Utah State when Long Beach squandered a five-point lead in the last 13 seconds and lost, 76-75.

There were no such outbursts in Saturday night’s 65-59 victory over the Aggies in Logan, although the 49ers suffered through their worst shooting half of the season, hitting 28.5% of their field-goal attempts.

“I got thrown out of here my first season, and last year we blew a lead like that and it drove me crazy, so this year I figured I’d just come in here and cool it,” Greenberg said.

His temper flew just once--when he asked the Aggie mascot to behave after forward Rod Hannibal injured his right ankle following a jump shot. As Greenberg and trainer Dan Bailey attended to Hannibal, who was in great pain, the mascot got down on its knees and mimicked Hannibal’s cries.

Greenberg snapped at the mascot: “Try not to be such a (jerk), please.”

Greenberg appears to be more and more comfortable with after-game interviews. At Utah State, one of the questions dealt with his past performances in the Spectrum. Linda Hamilton of the Deseret News wrote later that Long Beach and their coach were “older, better and wiser than a year ago.”

One reason that Greenberg has chilled out, according to his players, is that he has had very few attitude problems to deal with this season. In the past, even when Greenberg was an assistant to Joe Harrington, there were problems concerning chemistry--how well the team blended together.

Not this season.

“We get along very well,” senior guard Lucious Harris said.

Hannibal, who may be out four to six weeks, was hurt in a different way Monday afternoon during the 49ers’ shoot-around in the Santa Barbara Events Center.

Hannibal approached ESPN broadcaster Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for an autograph.

The former Lakers star refused, reportedly telling Hannibal that he does not give autographs. Abdul-Jabbar also declined to be interviewed on tape by Scott Galetti, who broadcasts Cal State Long Beach games for KORG-AM.

Hannibal said he was stunned by Abdul-Jabbar’s refusal.

“I think of him as one of the greatest basketball players ever, an idol,” the former Poly High player said. “I lost a lot of respect for him.”

Abdul-Jabbar arrived at the Long Beach shoot-around when it was nearly over and surprised onlookers when, informed about the exploits of Lucious Harris, said he had not heard of him.

“His attitude was pompous,” a 49er staff member said.

Harris, who missed a driving layup with two seconds to play against Santa Barbara, continues to draw rave reviews. He is averaging 24.2 points a game and ranked 11th in the country before Monday’s game.

“He’s just so good,” Nevada Coach Stevens said.

Harris, who made five of seven 3-point attempts, scored a season-high 34 points in the 84-75 victory in Reno. After a slow start in which he scored five points in the first half against Utah State, Harris teamed with center Chris Tower to score 16 of the 49ers’ first 18 points in the second half. He finished with 22 points.

“He has improved a lot,” Utah State guard Jay Goodman said. “He’s taken over the team more this season. In past years he used to lay back at times. This season he’s more aggressive.”

Harris played the first two games of the trip with sinus congestion that was aggravated by three feet of snow and the 4,600-foot altitude in Reno and Logan. He looked sluggish in the first half of the Utah State game when the Aggies banged him around, often double-teaming him.

“My chest and head were very tight,” a sniffing Harris said after the game.

He scored 16 points at Santa Barbara, the first time he had been below 22 since Dec. 29.

Harris, a four-year starter, is 52 points short of becoming the 49ers’ career scoring leader. He needs 216 more to rank No. 1 in Big West Conference history.

He is expected to be a middle to late first-round pick in the NBA draft.

Jerry West, the Lakers’ general manager, has visited the campus gym to watch Harris on several occasions. Last Thursday in Reno, scouts from the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks were in the stands and representatives of the Clippers and Atlanta Hawks were on hand Monday.

Greenberg’s assessment of the trip: “I was pleased how our kids handled the altitude (at Nevada and Utah State) and how hard we played. We were focused for all three games.”

As for the loss Monday night, Greenberg said, “Nine out of 10 times we win that game on that last shot (by Harris).”

Concerning the team’s appearance in the Top 25, he said, “I’m very happy for our three seniors (Harris, Tower and Bryon Russell), who went through that tough first year. But my major concern is the end of March.”

The 49ers go into tonight’s Fullerton game having won 19 consecutive games in their campus gym in Long Beach, including last season’s 85-71 win over the Titans. Fullerton, which beat UC Irvine, 61-59, Saturday, has won only three of 15 games in Long Beach.

The Titans (8-4, 3-2) are led by Bruce Bowen, a 6-foot-7 forward who is averaging 19.1 points and 7.3 rebounds a game.