Next opponent - Long Beach State

[Ulchiro5ga]

Men's BB play the Beach on Thurs 1/30. Long Beach is 7-12 (3-2 Big West). They played a tough schedule with losses to Missouri, Arizona, LMU, Kansas State (twice), Michigan, VCU and Washington. They beat USC and Nevada. Best players statistically: #5 Caffey, 16.5 PPG, 4.3 Assists per G, 29 total steals; #1 Lamb, 16.1 PPG; and #35 Jennings, 10.2 PPG, 7.7 Reb per G, 22 total blocks.

[Ulchiro5ga]

Defense let down last night. #5 Caffey was two steps faster than any UH guard they put on him. Even when Fotu was able to slide over, he either had to foul him, or he would duck under for a reverse layup. Scouting report was the Beach had poor shooting % and even worse 3-pt %, but they lit it up last night. Was very frustrating to watch. Full-court press and zone trap didn't work, so they went with light pressure just to try and slow down the game. First half the zone was packed in and Christian could find space. A couple of times on the double team, they cut off the angles, and Issac couldn't get the pass back out. Although in the 2nd half with about 6 or 8 minutes to go, I think he scored inside about 3 times in a row, but they couldn't make stops. Nothing seemed to work consistently so each trip down the floor, UH had to try something different. Long Beach seemed to be able to adjust defensively so UH could not string together enough offensive success to make a sustained run. UH had some nice lobs & backdoors, but they missed 2 or 3 with bad passes (one to Roztis - maybe tipped, and one bad timing for Fotu). Nevels had a monster slam on a lob to really get the crowd going, but Beach scored right back, and on a steal UH drove it to the hoop and on the kick out UH missed the 3-pt that really killed the buzz....

[reignjah11]

heartbreaking loss tonight. I only caught the end of the game, uh gave up a lot of 2nd and 3rd chance shots it was frustrating to watch. Did we have a timeout left or was that a mistake on the tv because I couldn't believe we didn't take the timeout after the 3 at a the end.

[Ulchiro5ga]

On the radio after the game, Bobby asked Gib about that. Gib said in the TO, they discussed what to do. If LB made the shot, and UH took the ball out, they were suppose to call TO if it was 8 sec or less. More the 8 secs, they were suppose to break down court. LB was just too fast and smothered Shamburger, it was suppose to be a dribble kickout. They trapped him and he forced a shot and got blocked and then threw up a prayer. Again down the stretch when it counted they could not make an outside shot.... just like the Irvine game at home....