It’s a crosstown showdown tonight as the Long Beach State 49ers travel to UC Irvine to face the Anteaters in the first conference matchup for both teams.  We had a chance to sit down with former teammates in LBSU’s senior guard Mike Caffey and UCI’s redshirt junior guard Dominique Dunning.  The two graduated from Centennial High School (Corona, Calif.) in 2011 where they played three years of varsity on the same squad (Dunning played his freshman season on Santiago High School’s (Corona, Calif.) varsity team).  The two also played their final travel ball season with Compton Magic before beginning their collegiate careers.  Here’s where what the two had to say:

On their seasons so far:

Dominique Dunning: “We’re 7-7 but I don’t think that really reflects how well we’ve been doing.  We’ve played a few tough opponents and had a few tough losses.  Not just that, but we’ve been missing a few key players in those losses.  I think so far, even though we’re .500, we’ve made a lot of strides and we’ve gotten a lot better.

Mike Caffey: “Coach told us at the beginning of the season that this is our year to restore order.  Coming in as a freshman, we kind of owned the league so we’re just trying to get back to that where teams have to fear us so we just want to restore order and put a big mark on this league.

On how their team’s makeup will get them to the tournament:

DD: “I think we’re deep at every position.  We’ve got Alex [Young] starting point guard, Luke [Nelson] when he gets back.  Since then, Jaron [Martin] has stepped into the role and has been the starting shooting guard, Travis Souza and I at the starting forward position.  And obviously we have some of the tallest bigs in the country.  We’re really deep at every position.  Our bench guys can step in for our starters and get the job done as well.”

MC: “I feel like we’re more deep this year, we’ve got a lot of guys that can score the ball.  We’ve kind of been struggling with that a little bit these past couple of games, but I feel like in conference we’ll be able to defend like we’re supposed to and score the ball like we’re supposed to.”

On how their teams get pumped up before games:

DD: “It’s snack time, it’s time to eat.  Spencer Rivers and Jonathan Galloway always say that.  They’re both redshirts so they come in here and they show all of their energy on the bench.  It’s snack time right when the game starts, we’re about to eat.”

MC:  “We always chain up before a game, after practice, after a game… we listen to the coach and what he has to say.  It’s basically chain up, be a team, be a family and talk about what we’re going to do.”

On what is it like to play in the Black and Blue Rivalry:

DD: “It’s very important to us.  It’s relayed to us by athletics, people that have been here before, Coach Wilder who used to be my teammate.  You can feel the intensity of the games when we play.  If neither of us had won a game and we played each other, I think we’d play like there’s a championship on the line.  It’s different than any other game.”

On their most memorable Black and Blue Rivalry moment:

DD: “When I was a redshirt I couldn’t travel to the [Big West] Tournament with the team, but I was in the stands when we beat Long Beach State in 2013 and we were a low seed and we were down the whole game but came up at the end to beat them.  That was pretty big.”

MC:  “My freshman year.  I know I had 12 points in the first half or something like that, at Irvine.”

Dominique Dunning on playing with Mike Caffey in high school:

DD: “Mike didn’t talk that much back then, but he got the job done.  To have somebody on the team like that… no drama, he never complained about anything, and not to mention he was really good.  It was really easy to play with him.  You knew that Caffey was going to bring it every night, and those are the type of people that you need on your team.  He came to work everyday.”

“He’s a dynamic player.  Mike can do it all, he’s real athletic.  He can jump, he can rebound, he can shoot, he can do it all.”

Mike Caffey on playing with Dominique Dunning in high school:

MC: “He was our best player on the team.  He did everything: score, he was the top assist guy, rebounding… he was basically our glue guy for the team.”

Dunning on playing against Caffey:

DD: “It’s odd seeing him on a different team because I played with him for so long, but to actually get a chance to play against him is going to be fun.”

Caffey on playing against Dunning:

MC: It’s different, it’s our fourth year, we’ve played against each other every year.  We’ve kind of gotten used to being opponents, but we’re still family.”