Call it the Dan Monson way.
Every year, Long Beach State basketball plays the most difficult non-conference schedule in the country. The Beach just finished its most difficult portion of that schedule - a merciless six-game road trip that went from coast-to-coast with a few stops in between and had the team facing four top-25 teams, another perennial contender and one of the top mid-major programs in the country.
There was a near upset at San Diego State, but the Beach went winless. The trip wasn't for naught, however, as Monson has a method to his madness.
"We know what we need to work on now. We play these teams and they show us our deficiencies," Monson said after the final game at Louisville. "We've got to be a better ball-handling team. Nineteen turnovers - you just can't win ball games with that. We have to handle pressure better."
The trip gives Long Beach an idea of where they're at going into Big West Conference play, which is right around the corner. Here's what we learned about The Beach in their six-games against some of college basketball's best.
Ball handling must improve
Behind Mike Caffey, we saw Branford Jones emerge as a strong ball handler through the last half of the trip but the turnovers were the undoing of the 49ers through much of the trip. Yes, they were playing against bigger and better athletes at times but as the game unraveled, so did The Beach at times. The guard play got sloppy and there were too many mistakes that resulted in turnovers. Long Beach turned the ball over only 11 times against San Diego State and only nine times against Texas, so there's no reason to think that they can't limit the turnovers once Big West play begins.
The glass has yet to be shattered
The rebounding margin was glaring as The Beach was out-rebounded by 7.6 rebounds per game during the six-game span. It's been the story all year and for a team that is already struggling on the glass, going up against some of the best rebounding teams in the country like Texas (43.92 per game) and Louisville (42.62 per game) looked like a monumental task on paper.
On the court, it looked monumental as well at times. But the 49ers matched the Cardinals with 28 boards in the final game as developing big man Eric McKnight contributed seven and forward David Samuels had a big game with five rebounds and 10 points.
But the Big West has some big bigs this season - UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge in particular - and McKnight and Samuels will have their hands full trying to defend them. Crashing the glass isn't going to get much easier in conference play, but it will still be just as important.
Mike Caffey is still really good - but he'll need help
With 23 points against Texas and 20 against San Diego State, the Long Beach State point guard showed what he can do against teams far better than UC Riverside (no offense to the Highlanders). Long Beach is effectively able to spread the floor with Caffey running the show and distributing the ball.
But the assist goes to Jones. Caffey is averaging 31.5 minutes per game this season, by far the most on the team, but down nearly four from last season. Jones is not a true point guard but when Caffey isn't on the floor, he takes control and he's effective. No longer is the weight of the entire game resting on Caffey's shoulder's. Jones is averaging 7.5 points per game, mostly off the bench, and Caffey is finally able to breath a little.
