Move to Long Beach State Winning One for McNaull

Turnovers to the left of him, bruised backboards to his right, clanked free throws all around--Thursday night, the Long Beach Pyramid was an absolute mess.

Joe McNaull had seen this act before, many times during the three years he spent at San Diego State as the tallest janitor west of the Rockies, cleaning up after the Aztecs. It is the reason he left San Diego in its polluted state and hiked north to Long Beach State, known in relative terms as Shangri-La, where McNaull had heard of such strange sightings as victory celebrations and point guards who dribbled to the hole rather than off their heel.

Improving his environment, so to speak.

Yet there McNaull stood Thursday, hovering nearly seven feet above a grimy floor where Long Beach and Nevada “set the game of basketball back 10 years” in the words of 49er Coach Seth Greenberg--or maybe invented a new game.

Indoor rugby?

Full-court dodgeball?

After 20 minutes, two teams of student-athletes, many of them on full basketball scholarships, had combined to turn the ball over 26 times and score 54 points. Halftime score: Nevada 30, Long Beach 24--and, the 35-second clock was functioning.

Alas, the same could not be said for the four 49ers who accompanied McNaull in the Long Beach starting lineup.

Juaquin Hawkins and Terrance O’Kelley, the first-string forwards, were a combined 0 for 5.

Rasul Salahuddin and Tye Mays, the starting backcourt, went 1 for 10.

As a team, the 49ers were shooting 31% from the field, and that included McNaull’s 83% (5 of 6).

Sounds like San Diego State all over again.

McNaull laughed at the suggestion.

“No,” he replied, “we were never that good.”

Sad but true. At San Diego, six-point halftime deficits were a thing of fantasy. And the second half Long Beach put together--43 points, overhauling the Wolf Pack for a 67-64 triumph--would have pretty much dominated any postseason Aztec highlight film.

“That’s why I left,” McNaull said. “The losing. That was the main reason--the only reason.

“It’s frustrating. You talk to anybody who played on those teams. Losing all the time, getting no respect. Now, when I walk in a gym, we get instant respect. That’s what I want.”

It took McNaull a while to earn it from Greenberg, even though he came to Long Beach as a two-time All-WAC center. Greenberg hardly played McNaull during the 49ers’ first seven games, and it wasn’t as if Greenberg had depth to burn at the center position. Often hammered on the boards and riddled underneath, Long Beach scrambled to go 4-3 in those games.

Now, the 49ers have won their last three, are 10-6 overall and in second place in the Big West, and McNaull is a mammoth reason why. In a 79-70 victory at Cal State Fullerton last Saturday, McNaull paired 16 points with 16 rebounds. Monday night on national television against Nevada Las Vegas, McNaull had 17 points and seven rebounds. And Thursday, with no help from his mates for minutes on end, McNaull finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and this assessment from Greenberg:

“Joe was the Rock of Gibraltar for us. He kept us in it in the first half. You always know what you’re going to get from Big Joe--eight or nine rebounds minimum, 12 to 15 points, keep the ball high, hit some jump hooks, put some big pressure on the defensive end . . . He’s as good a big guy as there is in the West.”

So why did it take Greenberg so long to play him?

“Basic stupidity,” Greenberg quipped. “I made a mistake. I make a lot of mistakes.”

Hearing this, McNaull moved in to bail out his coach, for the second time this night.

“I don’t know that it was stupidity,” McNaull said. “I don’t know if I was ready then . . . I’d sat out a (redshirt) year, I wasn’t in great shape. I wasn’t going to come right back and put up the same kind of numbers. There’s always going to be a transition.”

McNaull asserted himself when Long Beach most sorely needed him Thursday--under the basket and in front of the home rooting section. After hitting a key basket in the second half, McNaull pumped both fists and skipped in front of the 49er section, exhorting them to turn up the noise.

“They were sitting on their hands all night,” McNaull said. “I thought this place was supposed to generate some excitement, but it was dead. I tried to remind them that we like to play with some noise. It makes it more fun.”

This isn’t San Diego State, for goodness sake. Once McNaull reminded his teammates of that Thursday, everyone else sitting inside the Pyramid fell into line.