LONG BEACH STATE NOTEBOOK / JASON REID : Greenberg Satisfied With Team’s Play in Season’s First Exhibition Game

One exhibition game does not a season make, so men’s basketball Coach Seth Greenberg is understandably neither giddy nor dejected following Saturday’s 102-94 victory over High Five America at The Gold Mine.

Like most teams in early November, the 49ers didn’t look especially polished in their exhibition opener. Overall, though, Greenberg is satisfied.

“I thought we played hard and unselfish,” Greenberg said. “We did a good job extending our defense. I thought our defense was great for 30 minutes.”

Long Beach led by as many as 18 points in the first half and 17 in the second. The 49ers often beat High Five America’s pressure defense, leading to many layups and open jump shots.

Their success against the pressure is a big reason the 49ers shot so well. Long Beach was 68.3% from the field--including a sparkling 80.8% after halftime.

“We handled it well,” Greenberg said. “We’ve only worked on our pressure offense for about 10 minutes in practice so far.”

Individually, point guard Rasul Salahuddin and forward Juaquin Hawkins, both juniors, stood out, Greenberg said. Salahuddin (6 feet 3) scored nine points and tied Hawkins (6-6) for the team lead in assists with seven. Hawkins also scored four points.

“Rasul was pretty solid when the game was undecided,” Greenberg said. “Juaquin played exactly the way I want him to.”

Long Beach did commit an eye-popping 35 turnovers, but Greenberg said he didn’t lose any sleep over those miscues.

“We were playing combinations out there that we won’t be playing together during the season,” he said. “We made some stupid passes when we were up by 17, but most of the turnovers were the result of some unique lineups.”

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Waiting game: An NCAA decision on the eligibility of senior point guard Tyrone Mays is expected within the month, said Mary Ann Tripodi, Long Beach director of compliance and student services.

Mays, a starter for the men’s basketball team last season, is academically ineligible for the fall semester because Long Beach officials incorrectly counseled him about selecting the proper courses in order to remain eligible under NCAA guidelines. Long Beach filed an appeal with the NCAA eligibility committee, seeking to restore Mays’ eligibility immediately.

If denied, Mays (6-1) would become eligible at the end of the fall semester if he maintains satisfactory academic progress.

Greenberg said Mays needs only six classes to graduate. At worst, Mays, who is practicing with the team, should miss only five games. Tripodi said he should regain eligibility in time to play with the 49ers in the Michigan State tournament (Dec. 29-30) at East Lansing, Mich.

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To the wire: Hawaii’s split with the 49ers last week keeps the Big West Conference women’s volleyball race going.

Hawaii (21-3, 14-2 in conference), ranked fifth in the nation by Volleyball Monthly magazine, closes its conference schedule by playing two matches against No. 11 UC Santa Barbara (22-5, 11-3), the conference’s fourth-place team, on Thursday and Friday at home.

No. 8 Long Beach (19-4, 13-2), which is tied for second with Pacific, will play seventh-place Irvine (6-17, 5-10) tonight at The Gold Mine, and closes its conference schedule at fifth-place San Jose State (12-10, 8-7) on Friday and at No. 6 Pacific (20-3, 13-2) on Saturday.

Notes

The Long Beach water polo team will play host to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, beginning Friday at 2 p.m. on campus. The tournament continues Saturday and Sunday, starting at 8 a.m. both days, at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach. Stanford is seeded first in the nine-team field, followed by USC, California, Pepperdine, Pacific, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and Long Beach. Injuries have wrecked the season for Long Beach (5-16, 0-8 in federation), but a strong showing would make things a little brighter around the 49ers’ pool. “With the problems we’ve had,” Coach Ken Lindgren said, “anything would be a plus.” . . . Elated 49er athletic officials said approximately 10,000 people toured The Pyramid Saturday in conjunction with The Brewster’s Long Beach State Tip-Off Celebration Dinner. What’s more, officials said the school has sold 1,429 season tickets--nearly tripling the previous record of 500 established during the early 1970s. Many season-ticket packages also have been sold. “We set aggressive goals coming in and and we’re exceeding them at this point,” said Bill Shumard, assistant athletic director/administration and development. “The public’s response to The Pyramid has been nothing short of tremendous.” No need for worry, though. Shumard said several hundred tickets will be available for every game at the 5,000-seat facility. . . . A game between the women’s basketball team and 49er alumni is scheduled Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at The Gold Mine.