Randy Youngman is a former page 2 columnist with the Orange County Register
ANAHEIM - It somehow seems fitting that the winningest coach in conference history will take the court first at Honda Center when his Pacific Tigers play the opening game in this week’s Big West Men’s Basketball Tournament at high noon on Thursday.
Bob Thomason knows it also could be his last game
“I sure hope I’m not on a bus going back to Stockton at 3 o’clock,” Thomason joked Monday during a media conference call.
If Pacific loses to UC Santa Barbara in the first tournament quarterfinal game, it won’t just be the end of the season for Thomason. It will be the end of his record-breaking, 25-year coaching career at Pacific, coinciding with the end of Pacific’s tenure in the Big West as it prepares to join the West Coast Conference for the 2013-14 academic year.
Because he has known for almost a year that he would retire after this season, Thomason, 63, said he hasn’t been fighting with his emotions as the season winds down.
There’s no time to get sentimental when there’s still another game on the schedule. At some point, he will miss the game and coaching young men, but . . .
“We’ve got one more game,” Thomason said. “Trying to get ready (for it), enjoying the process.”
Surprisingly, there weren’t even any tears during a pregame tribute at Spanos Center this past Saturday, on what essentially was Bob Thomason Appreciation Night, or after his Tigers had routed Big West regular-season champion Long Beach State in his final home game on the Stockton campus.
“I enjoyed it, but I didn’t really get too emotional,” Thomason said of the ceremony honoring him for his quarter-century of coaching excellence. “It was great for my family, and it was a great postgame celebration. It’s always better when you win.
He said he was proudest that so many of his former players and teammates came back to campus for the game, many flying in from out of town for the occasion.
“It was great seeing those guys and catching up with them,” he said. “It was a great evening. “But when you get to Sunday, you have to get ready for the next game. We’re trying to get ready for Santa Barbara.”
Thomason has had months to deal with the realization that this is his last roundup. The reflection started long ago.
“When the decision was made last year to retire after this year, you kind of go through all those thoughts,” he said. “Once you get through those thoughts, now you’re just coaching basketball. And it’s been a great experience for me, because I don’t have to worry about some things, like recruiting or what’s going to happen in the future or this or that.
“I’m just concentrating on the team and trying to get our team to play as well as we can. We’ve had a lot of issues, of ups and downs and not playing consistent, and we’re working on that.”
The Tigers (19-12, 13-5 in the Big West) might be peaking at the right time. They won their last four regular-season games to grab the No. 2 seed in the tournament, one game behind top-seeded Long Beach State (18-12, 14-4).
But Thomason knows the past is irrelevant now. It doesn’t matter that Pacific and Santa Barbara split their two regular-season meetings. It doesn’t matter that his career record at Pacific is 433-321 and that he passed Jerry Tarkanian in December to become the Big West’s all-time winningest coach -- with 248 victories and counting – and that he’s a five-time Big West Coach of the Year with four NCAA Tournaments on his resume.
The only game that counts now is the one Thursday, and he remembers that the Gauchos eliminated his team the past two years en route to the tournament championship game.
“I know we have our hands full,” he said. “We know Santa Barbara is in our way. We gotta play well, no secrets about it. . . . But if we share the ball, take good shots, play fundamentally sound and play good defense . . .”
If all of that happens, there’s a good chance Bob Thomason hasn’t coached his last game.
Dubious favorite?
Long Beach State became the first school to win three consecutive Big West regular-season titles outright since UNLV won seven in a row from 1982-89.
Dan Monson won Coach of the Year honors for the third consecutive year.
Senior swing man James Ennis became the third consecutive Long Beach player to win Big West Player of the Year honors, following in the squeaking sneaker steps of departed two-time POY Casper Ware.
But for the first time in three years, the top-seeded 49ers do not enter the tournament with an aura of invincibility or as an overwhelming favorite. Unlike a year ago, when Long Beach went wire to wire to win the title with a 15-1 league record and then swept through the tournament, there are four teams who knocked off the 49ers.
And they just happen to be the next four seeds in the eight-team field: No. 2 Pacific, No. 3 Cal Poly, No. 4 UC Irvine and No. 5 Hawaii.
“I can’t remember a more open situation,” Monson said, alluding to the four league losses and naming four victories in one-possession games. “This team has never dominated.”
In fact, the 49ers might be the least dominant conference champion in years. They won seven games by four or fewer points and won another in overtime over a 6-21 UC Riverside team. Then again, good teams find a way to win close games.
And Monson said he isn’t concerned that his team lost three of four to close the regular season, including the 71-51 blowout at Pacific.
“With this team, I’d be concerned if we were winning,” he said. “This team doesn’t handle success very well.”
Though Monson said the late-season stumbles helped improve his team’s focus in practice, it sounded as if he expects more close games in Anaheim, which he noted are “great for spectators” but not for coaches.
What does concern Monson about postseason play?
“You always feel like you’re one 10-minute stretch away from losing,” he said, adding that his team has a “very small margin for error for a No. 1 seed.”
More opinions
A sampling of Big West coaches on challenging Long Beach State in the tournament:
UC Irvine’s Russell Turner: “I do think the tournament is open, not to take away anything from Long Beach. . . We’re one of eight teams; we have a 12.5 percent chance of winning the tournament. If we win a game, we have a 25 percent chance. Win another game, we have a 50 percent chance.”
Hawaii’s Gib Arnold: “I think it’s wide open. These teams are very, very evenly matched. There will not be a surprise winner this week. Everybody has a shot.”
Cal Poly’s Joe Callero: “Any time you’re the No. 1 seed, you got to feel like you earned it. They’re the favorite, because they’ve played the most ‘A’ games. At the same time, each team in the tournament feels pretty confident that on a given night any one of us can rear our heads up and play our ‘A’ game. But somebody is going to have to play well three nights in a row. Can (Long Beach) be the most consistent for three straight days?”
Titans ailing
With all due respect to Big West coaches, if No. 8 seed Cal State Fullerton defeated top-seeded Long Beach State in Thursday’s 6 p.m. quarterfinal, it would be a major upset. That’s because Andy Newman’s Titans (14-17, 6-12 in the Big West) are decimated by injuries.
After starting the season without three injured post players (John Underwood, Steven McClellan and Darius Nelson) and losing a fourth (Marquis Horne) after six games, Fullerton later lost two of its three leading scorers to injury: Sammy Yeager (back) and D.J. Seeley (fractured toe).
“They are both very doubtful for Thursday,” Newman said Monday. “I don’t expect them to come back. . . . I think what we’ve got is what we’ve got. We’re down to four scholarship guys and three walk-ons.”
And one prayer.
Perfect at home
Four Big West men’s teams won all nine of their conference games at home: UCI, Pacific, Cal Poly and Long Beach State.
UCI (12-1) lost one home game, to LSU.
Cal Poly (13-1) lost one home game, to Fresno State.
Pacific (13-2) lost home games to Oral Roberts and Santa Clara.
Long Beach (11-3) lost home games to North Carolina, Fresno State and Stephen F. Austin.
It will be interesting to see if the Anteaters, the closest Big West school to Honda Center next to Cal State Fullerton, can lure a sizeable contingent of fans to Anaheim to sustain its homecourt advantage. UCI plays the last quarterfinal game Thursday night (approximately 8:30 p.m) against Hawaii.
“We did have a great turnout for our last home game against Long Beach,” UCI’s Turner said, hopeful that the 3,035 who showed up on Senior Day at Bren Center will find their way to Anaheim. “We play well in Orange County.”
No. 3 seed Cal Poly (17-12, 12-6) plays No. 6 seed UC Davis (14-16, 9-9) in the second quarterfinal Thursday at approximately 2:30 p.m.
Statistical quirk
The No. 7 seed has upset the No. 2 seed in men’s Big West Tournament play the past five seasons and six of the past seven.
Didn’t have the heart to mention that to Thomason, whose second-seeded Tigers open play against No. 7 seed UCSB. It’ll be our secret.
Big West women
Two of eight Big West women’s teams who advanced to the conference tournament are guaranteed berths in the Friday afternoon semifinals at Honda Center: No. 1 seed Pacific (24-6, 14-4) and No. 2 seed Cal Poly (19-10, 13-5).
That’s because the top two seeds receive double byes and the No. 3 (Hawaii) and No. 4 seed (UCSB) receive a first-round bye.
The bottom four women’s seeds opened play Tuesday at UCI’s Bren Center: No. 8 Cal State Fullerton defeated No. 5 Long Beach State, 54-48, and No. 6 Cal State Northridge was a 61-40 victor over No. 7 UC Davis.
The Titans play Hawaii and the Matadors tangle with UCSB on Wednesday night at the Bren Center, with those winners advancing to play Pacific and Cal Poly in Anaheim on Friday.
Interestingly, the coaches of the top two seeds had differing opinions on the double-bye format.
Cal Poly’s Faith Mimnaugh said she “appreciates the position” but would rather have her team play than sit for three days.
Pacific’s Lynne Roberts: “I like the double bye. You do want to protect your highest seeds (for NCAA Tournament seeding).”
Parting shot
From UCSB coach Bob Williams, joking about the unenviable task of possibly hastening Thomason’s retirement in the tournament’s first game: “Coach Thomason has had a great career. He’s gone on long enough, don’t you think? He’s coached enough games; he doesn’t need any more.”
Yes, Williams was laughing.