long beach state basketball

UH Manoa men’s basketball hoop against Long Beach State tonight

The Rainbow Warriors are hosting Long Beach State in tonight’s game hoping for a comeback after a loss during last week’s away game.

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Acker, Montgomery and Long Beach State prepare for Hawaii reunion at Sheriff Center

HONOLULU — When first-year Long Beach State head coach Chris Acker encountered his old boss Eran Ganot and ex-program Hawaii in December, it was possible to treat it more or less as business as usual within the familiar geometry of the Walter Pyramid.

But when Acker and John Montgomery, two former Hawaii staff members, got off the plane and outside the terminal at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Wednesday, it hit a little different.

“The only thing we said was, ‘man, this is about to be weird,’” Acker told Spectrum News in a phone interview Wednesday.

Acker and his assistant Montgomery were part of Ganot’s first staff that guided the talented 2015-16 team to a program-record 28 wins, a Big West championship and first NCAA Tournament victory in program history.

Final sequence for #HawaiiMBB 67-65 win at UC Davis pic.twitter.com/NVXbwRCxOB

On Thursday night, they will sit on the opponent’s sideline as two desperate teams vie for a win at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Both UH (13-11, 5-8 Big West) and LBSU (7-18, 3-10) are in a precarious spot with seven games left. UH is clinging to seventh place having dropped five of six while LBSU has lost eight straight since a 3-2 league start and sits in 10th of 11 teams.

Only the top eight make it to the Big West championships in Henderson, Nev., next month.

“I think we’re both in a challenging situation, because we’re in a really good league,” Acker said. “And any given night, any team can beat you as we’ve been on both sides of that.”

Acker was with Ganot for two seasons before taking an assistant job at Boise State in the more prestigious Mountain West. He latched on with mid-major power San Diego State under Brian Dutcher and was on hand for the Aztecs’ run to the national championship game in 2023. With that shiny bullet point on his resume, he was hired to take over at LBSU following the Beach’s swan song run to the NCAAs under Dan Monson in 2023-24.

Montgomery, meanwhile, remained with Ganot for nine years, rising to associate head coach before citing family reasons last summer for his move to California to join Acker.

Hawaii remains a treasured place for Acker, a former Chaminade player who got his first D-I coaching job with UH.

He said he recalls fondly the challenge it was to take a largely inherited roster and apply the new staff’s schemes. The camaraderie of postgame meals have stuck with him.

“I’m looking forward to see a lot of the faces that I haven’t seen in a very long time,” Acker said. “And to try to come out with a victory. But it’ll be surreal for sure, just coaching on the other sideline. I’ll get all the flashbacks of our first open scrimmage against each other when I first took the (UH) job. All of those things, driving up and down the highway, being in Waikiki, will come back at some point.”

Ganot, for his part, has remained consistent with his sentiments about facing colleagues who’ve either worked under him, alongside him or above him in his Division I stops at Saint Mary’s and Hawaii.

“You get a little more immune to it over the years,” he said this week. “We talked about before, whether it’s (fellow former Saint Mary’s assistants) Kyle Smith or David Patrick. … When you’re in the heat of battle, once the ball gets tipped, you’re not really thinking about that. I know we appreciate all those guys have done for us, great coaches, great people, and we always root hard for them. And then in the game, you’re kind of focused on the task at hand.”

UH will be focused on minimizing its turnovers, something it has rued repeatedly during its backslide over the last three weeks.

In the eight-point loss at the Pyramid on Dec. 7, an early Big West game to balance out the rest of the Thursday-Saturday schedule from January to March, the Beach got a stat-stuffing performance from guard Devin Askew. He had 28 points, seven assists, six rebounds and seven steals.

Unlike many of its other games, LBSU was able to work the ball inside and have success.

Askew (18.5 points per game, 4.5 rebounds per game, nearly five assists per game) remains the key player to watch for LBSU.

UH was led by Marcus Greene and Gytis Nemeiksa with a combined 31 points at the Pyramid. But Greene and Nemeiksa have been bit players of late, with sporadic (at best) floor time and production.

The scoring mantle has fluctuated from player to player, but on Saturday center Tanner Christensen had one of his most productive games of the season with 23 points and eight rebounds in a four-point loss at UC Santa Barbara.

“The guys are in a great place. Our team is very united,” Ganot said. “We just got to get better. We’ve had a couple of close losses in that stretch, too, two, one possession game to Santa Barbara, one possession game at Davis, so you’re not as far off.”

He acknowledged that Montgomery, with his recent experience at UH and knowledge of much of the roster, has an advantage in knowledge.

“I love Mont, he was one of my favorite coaches when he was here,” forward Harry Rouhliadeff said this week. “Still got a lot of love for him, and that sort of lights a lot of fire in me, like with this game on Thursday. I’ve got a lot of determination to prove them wrong, since we went down (at) their place it gives me a lot of motivation.”

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.

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Long Beach State Takes On Hawai’i in Key Big West Showdown

Long Beach State’s men’s basketball team is set for a pivotal road matchup against Hawai’i on February 13. This game marks their only action of the week and is crucial for both teams, especially as the Beach looks to regain momentum in the Big West Championship race. Despite encountering a recent losing streak, Long Beach State remains determined, fueled by strong performances from star player Devin Askew, who leads the team in scoring and assists.

While the team has been close to success with narrow losses, they still face a significant challenge in overcoming their recent struggles to assert themselves in a competitive conference landscape.

A win against Hawai’i could revitalize Long Beach State’s season as they aim for a strong finish in the Big West Championship, with upcoming opportunities to improve their standings.

The outcome of the game against Hawai’i is crucial for Long Beach State’s chances in the Big West Championship, underscoring the importance of overcoming recent setbacks and leveraging their player strengths, particularly through Devin Askew’s leadership.

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