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SoCalHoops College Basketball Report

Long Beach State Pre-Season
Preview--(September 5, 1998)

As we reported last month, Long Beach State lost point guard Charles O'Neal for at least the first semester after he failed to become eligible. It therefore looks like Long Beach will play Ramel Lloyd or Ron Johnson at the point, and possibly might use Tommie Davis who has been reinstated to the team after taking a year off. If neither of them can handle the point chores until about Mid-December when it is anticipated O'Neal can become eligible, something we think is unlikely, the speculation is that Antrone Lee, a forward, might again play the point, at least that was the speculation by ESPN.com's analysts. And even if things aren't looking that good for this season, Wayne Morgan did manage to get LeSean Howard (6'-6" Jr. F) from Syracuse, who will be eligible in a year.

We hope there are no more no-shows or ineligible players. For now, here's what the roster sorta, kinda, looks like:

Antrone Lee ( 6'-7" Jr. G/F)--a forward who will play forward, huge wingspan, great shot blocker and offensive threat.
D'Cean Bryant (6"-6" Sr. F)--a great three point shooter and huge perimeter threat
Ramel "Rock" Lloyd (6'-4" So. G)--a highly recruited player out of high school, he recently transferred from Syracuse
Mate Milisa (6'-10" Jr. F/C)--a fairly unknown quantity, will have some big shoes to fill at Betts' position
LaSean Howard (6'-7" Jr. G/F)--redshirt transfer
Grant Stone (6'-8" So. F)--had foot surgery in early June and may miss the season
Richie Smalls (6'-8" Jr. F)--good size, has ability to play wing, strong forward or center, very versatile player
James Deleon (6'-3" So. G)--mostly a practice player, he will have to fight for playing time on this team
Ron Johnson (6'-1" Fr. G)-- recent signee from San Diego Helix High where he was All-City
Jared Frey (6'-5" Sr. F)--a very tough defender, not much on offensive output, but great rebounder
Allan Gomez (6'-4" Jr. G)-- a recent signee from East Los Angeles City College, he's a great perimeter shooter and defensive player;
Ian Milley (6'-10" So. C)--attended the Pete Newell big men camp last month, and hopefully he will be improved from last season, where he was unsteady and erratic; Tommie Davis (5'-8" Jr. G) a great penetrator with a tremendously quick first step
Charles O'Neal (6'-2" Jr. G)--ineligible--when he returns expect him to take over at the point

The Long Beach season gets underway in a little under two months, with a couple of exhibition games on November 3 and 11 at the Pyramid, and then things really get rolling as on Tueseday November 17, the 49er's will play at Loyola Marymount at 7:00 p.m.. Then on Saturday the 21st of November at the Pyramid, the 49er's will meet Pepperdine, a tough game against Lorenzo Romar's Pepperdine team featuring David Lalazarian (6'-7" Jr. F), from Tustin, Jelani Gardner (6'-6" Sr. SG/WF) from West Covina, Tommie Prince (6'-5" Sr. F) from Compton, Kelvin Gibbs (6'-6" So. F) from Bellflower High, Marc McDowell (6'-7" Sr. F) and Cedric Suitt (6'-11" So. C).

Then on Tueseday, November 24 Long Beach will take on USC (Auyso, Bluthenthal, Wilder, Augustine, Trepagnier, Spanich, et. al) at the Sports Arena, and it should be really fun to see if USC can really put it all together this season. USC will be coming off of games with San Diego State (Nov. 18 at the Sports Arena) and UNLV at Las Vegas on Saturday the 21st.

On Saturday the 28th of November, Long Beach will square off against San Diego State, a team which will make most Pac-10 coaches pretty green with jealousy when you consider they could just have one of the best freshman classes, if not the best, in all of SoCal, quietly assembled by Coach Trenkle last season without much fanfare or attention. The Aztecs will feature David Abramowitz (6'-0" Fr. PG), one of the most exciting point guards in SoCal and on the entire West Coast, Walter Small (6'-4" Fr. SF), a small forward tough-guy from Compton Dominguez, Joe Mann (6'-11" Fr. C), a smooth and powerful post man from Poway High in San Diego, Vincent Okotie (6'-7" Fr. F) a high scoring and rebounding great from Grossmont High in San Diego, Jeffrey Berokoff (6'-3" Fr. SG) who averaged 18 ppg as a senior, Jackson Jones (6'-7" Fr. F/C) from Iowa, and Myron Epps (6'-6" Fr. F) from Tulare Union High, near Fresno. And as if the freshman class wasn't good enough, the Aztecs also feature transfers Donte Wilson (6'-3" , Julian Sarmonte (6'-5" Fr. G/F) from France via Milford Academy). The team will also feature Brady Trenkle (5'-11" Sr. G), the coach's son, but he may not be able to play, having been diagnosed with a heart problem which kept him sidelined for the entirety of last season. The Aztecs also return Josko Visnjic (6'-10" Sr. F) from Zagreb, Croatia, David Kaplansky (5'-10" Sr. G) from Hollister, CA, Matt Watts (6'-3" Sr. G/F) from Dallas, TX , Fred Ross (6'-4" Sr. G) from Riverside, Marcelo Correa (6'-10" Sr. C) from Franca, Brazil and Stephen Clark (6'-8" Jr. F) from Monterey, CA. That game will be played at the beautiful new Cox Arena at San Diego, so you won't want to miss it. The game starts at 7:00 p.m., so if you're not going to fly down for the game from LA, you'd better start driving by at least 3:30 p.m. to beat the traffic.

On Tuesday, December 1st, the 49'ers will meet Cal State Dominguez Hills at the Pyramid at 7:35 P.M. CSUD will feature some new faces, including Reggie Williams (6'-7" Jr. F) from San Jose City College, Joel Steele (6'-10" Jr. F/C) from Diablo Valley College, Jermel Bradley (6'-4" Jr. G) who transferred from Long Beach State, Emanuel Brown (6'1" Jr. G) from Cerro Coso, Harold Shevlin (6'-4" Fr. SG) selected to the Daily News' All-Area Valley All-Star team with an average of 16.1 ppg last season, Mike Newton (6'-0" Fr. G) from LB Jordan H.S where he was a tremendous defensive player, and Alvin Taylor (5'-9" Fr. G) from LA Trade Tech . Returning to the team this season will be Art Cleveland (6'-3" Sr G/F) from Chicago, IL/LA who played at Valley College for two years, Corey Jones (5'-11" Sr. G) from Anaheim who formerly played at LA Southwest CC, a player with the greatest name (next to "Scientific Mapp") Fantasia Johnson (6'-0" Sr. G) from Los Angeles who formerly attended Trinity Valley CC in Texas, Raymond Sims (6'-7" Jr. F/C) from Los Angeles' Fremont HS, Israel Plaza (6'-0" Sr. G ) from Los Angeles' Fairfax HS, Kevin Polk (6'-1" Jr. G) from Compton who attended Gardena HS, Jair Fray (6'-5" Sr. F) from Fairfax, John Dolan (6'-10" Jr. C) from Boulder Creek, James Wade (6'-3" Sr. F) from Los Angeles who formerly played at LA Trade Tech, Brian Seals (6'-7" Sr. F/C) from West Los Angeles CC, Lee Stewart (6'-3" Sr. F) from Hawthorne who attended San Pedro HS.

Finally, on Saturday, December 5, Long Beach State will take on the Utah Utes at the Pyramid in a 7:05 P.M. game. That one we won't even begin to predict, but if you want to be on the safe side, we'd bet on Utah. Just sort of a feeling, you know.