49ers Can Only Tune In to Madness of NCAA Basketball Tournament

March Madness has arrived, bringing with it all the hoopla college basketball junkies crave. And it’s not just for the fans.

This is also the best of times for athletic administrators at NCAA tournament schools, because of the exposure and revenue that participation brings. To a lesser degree, the same goes for bosses at schools in the National Invitation Tournament.

Then there are the outsiders.

Administrators at schools such as Long Beach State are on the outside looking in at all the fun. Watching games on TV will be their only involvement in the tournament.

“We are disappointed,” Long Beach State Athletic Director Bill Shumard said. “We all felt, we all hoped, we would have had a better year.”

Long Beach’s disappointing season ended Friday night. New Mexico State defeated Long Beach, 88-76, in the opening round of the Big West Conference tournament at Reno.

The 49ers were a popular pick of preseason basketball magazines to represent the Big West in the NCAA tournament. They never got close.

Long Beach finished 13-14, second in the Western Division at 9-7. And this was after closing the regular season with five straight victories and six in seven games.

“The players have nothing to be ashamed of,” first-year Coach Wayne Morgan said. “They had to learn a new system, they had to learn how to make plays in that system and then they had to learn to come together and win.

“They did that, and I think you can see it in the improvement they showed in the second half [of the season]. No, they have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Still, the 49ers never truly performed to their talent level, several rival Big West coaches said.

Morgan had a lot to learn. After a rocky beginning, he improved his relationship with Long Beach administrators.

The players didn’t exactly rally around Morgan either. Two players transferred from Long Beach, including standout junior forward Akeli Jackson. A team mutiny, always a possibility during the Seth Greenberg era, might have occurred after New Mexico State routed visiting Long Beach, 84-64, Jan. 30.

Morgan berated players in a halftime tirade and players believed Morgan quit on the team. He averted a team meltdown by wisely discussing the situation with co-captains James Cotton and Brian Yankelevitz. Assistant Clyde Vaughan also helped to defuse the situation.

The situation wasn’t all warm and fuzzy after that, but the team played its best basketball of the season from that point.

A rookie head coach is also going to make game mistakes, and Morgan made his share. But the 49ers appeared more prepared as the season progressed.

“He showed a real strong learning curve,” Shumard said. “I thought he adjusted to some difficult circumstances as the season went along. I felt good about that.”

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The future: Where the 49ers go from here is uncertain.

Friends of the Cotton family said James, who will graduate in May, probably will give up his final season of eligibility and declare himself eligible for the NBA draft. Cotton finished second in the Big West in scoring, averaging 23.5 points, and last week was selected first-team all-conference for the second consecutive season.

If James isn’t at Long Beach, his brother Schea probably won’t be either. Schea, a standout forward at Bellflower St. John Bosco, signed a letter of intent with Long Beach during the early signing period and has not yet received a qualifying score on the Scholastic Assessment Test.

Junior forward Marcus Johnson has said he will not return. Don’t be surprised if starting sophomore point guard Tommie Davis and promising freshman forward Greg Clark, who did not play this season because of injuries, go elsewhere, too.

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The women: The 49er women’s basketball team reached the semifinals of the Big West tournament. Not bad for a team that came close to not qualifying at all.

Freshman forward KeshaWade is one of the Big West’s rising young stars. Coach Dallas Boychuk has some talented recruits coming in, so things could be looking up.

“We felt good about what we accomplished [in the tournament],” Boychuk said. “We think we’re going in the right direction.”

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Throwing well: Ara Petrosian, a junior right-handed reliever, is emerging as one of the baseball team’s best pitchers.

In the 49ers’ last three games, Petrosian has two victories and a save and was named Big West pitcher of the week. He pitched 7 1/3 innings in those games, giving up four hits and one run.

Petrosian, who played at Fountain Valley High and Cypress College, has a record of 3-1 with a 3.09 earned-run average. He has four saves and has struck out 35 batters in 32 innings.

49er Notes

After 26 road games the softball team (18-8, 1-3 in the Big West) plays its first home game, against Pacific at 1 p.m. Friday. The team also will host Sacramento State at 1 p.m. Saturday. Senior right-hander Tammy Dietrich is 9-4 with a 1.45 earned-run average. . . . Junior right-hander Rocky Biddle broke the school’s all-time strikeout record Friday in Long Beach’s 2-1 Big West victory over Cal State Fullerton. Biddle struck out 11 Titans to increase his two-plus-season total to 266. Scott Rivette previously held the record with 260 strikeouts from 1994-95. . . . Senior pole vaulter Jason Hinkin won the NCAA title at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis Friday. Hinkin’s winning vault was 18-6 1/2. He also holds the school record.

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Coming Attractions

Here’s a look at key games this week for Long Beach State:

* Softball, at home Friday against Pacific and Saturday against Sacramento State, both 1 p.m. The 49ers are making their first home stand after playing 26 road games.

* Baseball, at UC Santa Barbara 2:30 p.m. Friday. This is the opening game of an important three-game Big West Conference series.