Terrible Finish Overshadows Successful Basketball Season

They finished short of their ultimate goal. They didn’t defend their title, so they aren’t in the NCAA tournament and they weren’t invited to the NIT.

The faces of the Long Beach State players told the story of the season’s final moments Saturday night. Utah State defeated Long Beach, 86-73, in the Big West Conference tournament in Reno, knocking out the top-seeded team. San Jose State defeated Utah State in the title game Sunday and earned the conference’s automatic NCAA tournament bid.

“It shouldn’t have ended this way,” said Juaquin Hawkins, team captain. “All season long this is all we thought about, winning the [Big West] tournament. We’re a better team than this.”

Despite their final performance Saturday, Hawkins is correct.

“We had a good season,” Coach Seth Greenberg said. “We’re disappointed with how it ended, but we also accomplished a lot.”

Greenberg guided Long Beach, which finished 17-11 and 12-6 in the Big West Conference, to its first regular-season championship since the 1976-77 season. It was Long Beach’s first outright title since the 1974-75 season.

“That’s pretty special,” Greenberg said. “That’s something that hasn’t happened here in a long time.”

Long Beach had its fifth consecutive winning season, its second-best stretch in school history. And the 49ers were ahead of the pack in several key Big West statistics.

The 49ers led the conference in scoring margin at 5.4 and steals, averaging 9.8. They were second in scoring average at 74.8 points and in field-goal percentage at 46.2.

Sophomore guard James Cotton led the conference in scoring, averaging 19.5 points. Cotton is the first 49er to win the conference scoring championship since Rickey Williams did in the 1978-79 season.

Cotton, the conference freshman of the year in the 1993-94 season, was a medical redshirt last season. Greenberg said he made great progress toward becoming a future pro.

“James had a good season,” Greenberg said. “Any time you sit out as long as he did, you wonder how you’re going to react in game situations.

“You can work hard to get back, but it’s not the same thing because you can’t duplicate games. But James showed he’s back.”

Senior point guard Rasul Salahuddin was the 49ers’ best player. He averaged 13.5 points and finished third in the Big West in assists at 5.1.

Salahuddin led the Big West in steals with 101 and finished fourth in the nation. He set a Long Beach single-season record and had the third-highest season total in Big West history. Greg Anthony set the record with 106 steals in 39 games for Nevada Las Vegas in the 1989-90 season.

For the second consecutive season, Salahuddin was selected the Big West’s best defensive player in a poll of conference players. Salahuddin waiting at midcourt in his defensive stance was the biggest fear of opposing Big West point guards.

“Rasul just plays such tough on-ball defense,” Greenberg said.

The high-leaping Salahuddin was invited to participate in the national slam-dunk championship in New York in conjunction with the Final Four. Greenberg believes Salahuddin should have been selected the conference player of the year.

“He held us together,” Greenberg said. “He hit so many big shots . . . it was tough to get angry at Rasul.”

Cotton and Salahuddin were selected first-team all-conference. It was the first time two Long Beach players made the first team since 1980, when Francois Wise and Michael Wiley were selected.

And then there is Hawkins.

He averaged 9.1 points, four rebounds and finished second to Salahuddin in the conference with 60 steals. Hawkins was selected honorable mention all-conference.

But statistics alone can’t measure Hawkins’ contributions. The fifth-year senior earned his degree in black studies--with honors--last season. Greenberg couldn’t have asked more of his on-court leader, who sacrificed throughout his career for the good of the team.

“Hawk is just so tough,” Greenberg said. “Juaquin Hawkins is a special player, a special person, that’s why I’m so disappointed our season ended the way it did.”

Long Beach was seeded first in the conference tournament and won its final two regular-season games. So what happened?

Many things. The biggest problem was center.

Joe McNaull starred for Long Beach last season, and his replacements didn’t come close to that level. Senior Gerry Branner, sophomore Marcus Johnson and junior Brian Yankelevitz shared the position but produced little.

Branner just doesn’t have enough ability and the burly Yankelevitz is really a forward. Talented sophomore forward Akeli Jackson averaged 10.9 points and 7.5 rebounds but his focus wasn’t always where it should be.

Also, Long Beach was in an unfamiliar role. Winning the conference title made Long Beach the hunted team. Over the past 20 years, Long Beach has usually been the hunter.

“We’ve never come into the tournament as the No. 1 seed,” Greenberg said. “Maybe the pressure from that contributed [to their tournament loss]. Maybe we needed to get used to that.”

49er Notes

The baseball (14-9) team opens Big West Conference play Friday against UC Santa Barbara at Blair Field at 7:05 p.m. . . . The softball team (11-11, 4-2) is in the UC Santa Barbara tournament beginning Saturday at 1 p.m. . . . The women’s tennis team (9-2) plays host to Colorado State today at 2 p.m. . . . The men’s volleyball team (13-4, 9-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) . . . The track teams at Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and USC are scheduled to compete in the 49er Collegiate Classic on campus all day Saturday. . . . The women’s golf team competes in the San Diego State tournament Monday. The men are in the University of San Diego Invitational Monday.