LONG BEACH — The Long Beach State men’s basketball program is hitting reboot in more ways than one this season.
Last season ended awkwardly. Dan Monson, LBSU’s head coach for 17 seasons, and the school agreed to part ways following a five-game losing streak before the Big West Tournament, but Monson was allowed to coach until his team’s season came to an end. Fourth-seeded Long Beach then won three games in three days, including victories over top-seeded UC Irvine in the semifinals and second-seeded UC Davis in the title game, to grab the conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Monson and the school parted ways after LBSU’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Arizona – Monson is now the head coach at Eastern Washington – and Long Beach handed the reins to first-time Division I head coach Chris Acker, a longtime assistant at San Diego State.
As with any coaching change, especially in the NIL era, roster turnover was inevitable.
Acker’s first LBSU roster features 12 newcomers – including six Division I players via the transfer portal and three JC transfers – and just three returning players, after four key contributors were among seven players who departed via the portal: Aboubacar Traore (Louisville), Lassina Traore (Xavier), Jadon Jones (Oklahoma) and AJ George (SMU).
“It’s been exciting. It’s one of those deals where, you know, you wanted everybody to come back, of course, but when you have the opportunity to coach a brand new group, there’s really cool things involved with that,” Acker said during the Big West’s season preview show on the Field of 68 on YouTube last month. “You get to impose your culture and your element of what you deem is toughness, and you also get to articulate to the guys the opportunity that they have.
“It’s a very similar opportunity that I have. Some of these guys have been counted out. They haven’t had an opportunity to play in other places like they wanted to. We get to instill what we believe to be a culture to win championships as far as how we defend and rebound and take care of the basketball, and you get tremendous buy-in.”
Acker has a true rebuild on his hands, as Long Beach returns less than 5% of its scoring, rebounding and minutes played from the 2023-24 team, some of the lowest returning numbers in the nation. The combination of new faces and a new coaching staff is sure to result in a learning curve (LBSU was picked to finish eighth in the Big West coaches preseason poll), but there is proven talent.
Senior guard Devin Askew might be the most high-profile newcomer. One of the top recruits in the nation coming out of high school in Sacramento, Askew started 20 games as a true freshman at Kentucky in 2020-21. Getting a year back due to the COVID pandemic, Askew then played one season at Texas before landing at Cal. Askew was effective with the Golden Bears when healthy, averaging 15.5 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game as a junior but both of his seasons in Berkeley were cut short by injuries.
“Dev is a competitor. He is a winner, and he wants to be really good,” said Acker, whose team hosts Division III program La Verne in its season opener on Monday at 7 p.m. “He’s competed at the highest level, so he knows what that needs to look like. It’s just about us giving him the opportunity to be himself, but also teaching him how to run a team and how to be an impact guy in a program. It’s a much different state of mind when you’re a guy fitting into a role. Here, we’re expecting him to be an impact guy, a guy that can come in and pretty much run the show, but understand how to pick and choose his moments, when to score, when to get others involved.
“He’s been healthy, and I think he’s excited. I think that’s the most important thing, is to keep him excited, keep him motivated, and continue to encourage him, but hold him accountable to what he says at the end of the day he wants to accomplish, which is being a professional basketball player.”
Graduate transfer Austin Johnson played three seasons at rival UC Irvine and averaged 5.8 points and 6.0 rebounds as a junior while leading the Big West with 2.4 blocked shots per game. Johnson then spent one season at North Carolina A&T, before returning to the Big West with LBSU.
Compton native Cam Denson is a versatile, stingy defender who spent the past two seasons at Pacific, where he averaged 8.5 points while leading the Tigers in rebounding and blocked shots last season.
TJ Wainwright joins Long Beach after two successful seasons at Robert Morris, where he averaged 10 points as a sophomore.
The first Division I scholarship player from Indonesia, Derrick Michael Xzavierro transferred in from Grand Canyon. Xzavierro (who also goes by DMX) suffered a significant injury with a collapsed lung just before his first season, costing him his 2022-23 campaign and affecting his time with the Antelopes last season as well. Xzavierro played 14 games for the GCU team that reached the NCAA Tournament.
Long Beach native Ramel Lloyd Jr. returns to the Long Beach area after a pair of redshirt seasons at Nebraska. A Top 100 recruit nationally coming out of Sierra Canyon High, Lloyd redshirted during his first season at Nebraska before suffering a season-ending injury prior to his first game with the Huskers last year. His father, Ramel “Rock” Lloyd Sr. was a star for LBSU under Wayne Morgan. Lloyd Sr. still ranks eighth in career scoring at LBSU, averaging 17.4 points over his 88 career games.
“I wanted guys that had played in high-major programs, or at least were on the floor and had opportunities to play in programs,” Acker said. “You know, they’ve been through the battle, they’ve been in elite practices. Rommel Lloyd’s a good example of that. They (Nebraska) went to the NCAA Tournament. He didn’t play, but he knows what it needs to look like.”
The three JC transfers include a rim protector in 7-foot-1 Christian Richardson, who spent two seasons at Butler College in Kansas. Averaging more than 1 blocked shot per game in each of his two seasons at Butler, Richardson averaged 7.0 points and 4.6 rebounds while shooting over 70% from the field as a sophomore.
Cory Curtis Jr. had a breakthrough season (23.2 ppg) as a sophomore at Independence College in Kansas. Curtis scored 30 points or more five times and averaged 4.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals. Grant Martin played two seasons at Citrus College, averaging 5.4 points and 4.9 boards as a sophomore.
Filling out the roster are three freshmen who come directly from high school: Kam Martin, Andrew Nagy and Zach Buley.
Martin originally signed with the prior coaching staff during his final year at Blue Ridge School, and the freshman recommitted to Acker and his staff. He averaged 10.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists as a senior.
Nagy played at Orange Lutheran High before playing in the Nike EYBL with Veritas Academy, averaging 11.9 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.
Buley was a two-time Desert Empire League MVP at Palm Springs High, where he averaged 23 ppg as a senior.
Redshirt sophomore Jason Hart Jr. is the elder statesman of the returners, coming back for his third season at LBSU. Varick Lewis appeared in 31 games as a true freshman, and redshirt freshman Eli Djordjevic played just minute in Big West play before receiving a medical redshirt.
“We’re not going to reinvent the wheel,” Acker said. “We’re going to do what we do and do it at an elite level, and only hope to come close to being as good defensively as San Diego State. I think we’ve set the tone this year on where we want to be when it’s all said and done. We want to try to put ourselves in position to be great.”
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