Long Beach State vs. Gonzaga Preview
Former Gonzaga head coach Dan Monson and Long Beach State (1-3) received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament last season.
That came despite him being fired before the start of the Big West Tournament but still lead the Beach to a title.
Monson then moved back to the Pacific Northwest to be the head coach of Eastern Washington.
Chris Acker was his replacement in Long Beach and has had to create a new roster from scratch essentially.
The Beach lost their entire starting five from the 2023-2024 historic team.
Marcus Tsohonis graduated, AJ George transferred to SMU, Jadon Jones transferred to Oklahoma, Aboubacar Traore transferred to Louisville, and Lassina Traore transferred to Xavier.
It was time for a fresh start and Acker started with one of the oldest players in college basketball.
Player to Watch For: Devin Askew (senior, guard) - 17.3 PPG, 5.5 APG, 4.5 RPG, 1.5 SPG Hes one of those names that you still cant believe has college eligibility after stops at Kentucky (2020-2021), Texas (2021-2022), Cal (2022-2024), and now has made his way to Long Beach.
Askew is having the best start to a season in his collegiate career but the key for him is if he can stay healthy.
He struggled with a foot injury that cut his season to only 6 games played with the Golden Bears and only played 13 games in the season before that.
#3 Gonzaga (4-0) is the hottest program in the country right now.
After taking care of business in San Diego on the defensive end, The Zags have moved up to #22 in KenPoms adjusted defensive efficiency at 95.2 and #2 overall.
Its nice to now come back to the Kennel for one more tune-up before Gonzaga has to head to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis over the Thanksgiving holiday from November 27th-29th.
Graham Ike had his confidence boosted up as he was easily getting positioning in the post against the Aztecs, using his footwork and that patented shot over his right shoulder over and over again.
Same goes for Huff off the bench along with his ability to pop out and stretch the floor which makes him tough for anyone to guard right now.
It should be another night where these two bigs have a massive night in the stat sheet but dont get used to it.
The competition will be much taller and stronger next week against the likes of West Virginia, possibly Indiana/Louisville/Arizona.
The success of those two comes off the facilitating from the best point guard in the country, Ryan Nembhard.
Its pretty much impossible to stop Nembhard and Ike when they get in the pick-and-roll together.
The duo feeds off one another's skill-set.
This insane stat is courtesy of Greg Harvey from Stats Perform and OptaSTATS.
Only two players this century across the NBA, WNBA & D-I (Mens and Womens) have recorded 50+ points, 40+ assists and 5 or fewer turnovers over their teams first four games of a season: Ryan Nembhard with the Gonzaga Bulldogs in 2024-2025 and Chris Paul with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014-2015.
Thats it.
Something to be paying attention to in tonights matchup is that Nolan Hickman is just 17 points away from joining the 1,000 point club.
Hes had a wildly up-and-down career with the Zags but he deserves every bit of recognition for this amazing accomplishment whenever it does hit.
Arden Cravalho is a Gonzaga University graduate from the Bay Area...
Follow him on Twitter @a_cravalho.
This article has been shared from the original article on slipperstillfits, here is the link to the original article:
https://www.slipperstillfits.com/2024/11/20/24301834/long-beach-state-vs-gonzaga-preview