No. 2 seed Arizona (25-8) vs. No. 15 seed Long Beach State (21-14) Delta Center, Salt Lake City | 11 a.m. Thursday | TBS | 1290-AM, 107.5-FM
Probable Starters
ARIZONA
G Kylan Boswell (6-2 soph.)
G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)
F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)
F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)
C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)
LONG BEACH STATE
G Marcus Tsohonis (6-3 senior)
G Messiah Thompson (5-8 senior)
F Jadon Jones (6-5 junior)
F Aboubacar Traore (6-5 junior)
C Lassina Traore (6-10 junior)
How they match up
How they got here: Long Beach State lost its final five games of the Big West season to finish 10-10 in the conference and 18-14 overall but beat UC Riverside, UC Irvine and UC Davis to win the Big West Tournament and capture the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
Arizona went 15-5 to win the Pac-12 and finished 24-7 at the end of the regular season, then beat USC in the Pac-12 Tournament quarterfinals and lost to Oregon in the Pac-12 semifinals. The Wildcats received the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s West Region as an at-large participant.
Series history: Arizona has won all eight previous matchups against Long Beach State, with all games at McKale Center starting in 1987-88. LBSU coach Dan Monson took the Beach to McKale five times during the Sean Miller era, when Arizona won by 15 or more points each time.
Long Beach State overview: As always, Beach players are no strangers to high-major competition. Annually playing one of the toughest schedules among low- or mid-major schools, Long Beach State began this season with five road games and a neutral site event in Florida before it even played a single home game. It picked up a 94-86 win at Michigan and then, after a pair of home games, pulled off an 84-79 upset win at USC on Dec. 10, during which LeBron James sat courtside to watch his son Bronny play his first college game.
The Beach then challenged early for the Big West Conference regular-season title, winning 10 of its first 15 games, but lost its final five to finish 10-10 before sweeping through its conference tournament.
Long Beach State is experienced, with a roster that includes former Pac-12 players Marcus Tsohonis (Washington) and Isa Silva (Stanford), and returned all five starters from last season. Tsohonis is the Beach’s leading scorer, particularly effective at getting to the rim, drawing an average of 6.0 fouls per 40 minutes and hitting free throws at a 76.9% rate.
Ivory Coast natives Aboubacar Traore and Lassina Traore (no relation) are both rugged rebounders, with the 6-10 Lassina averaging a double-double and Aboubacar also averaging 4.5 assists per game.
LBSU isn’t a great shooting team, averaging just 31.3% from 3-point range and 49.7% from 2, but can score in multiple ways. They make up for it somewhat on the glass and by getting to the free-throw line, ranking 53rd in offensive rebounding percentage (33.3) and also rank 53rd in ratio of free throws to field goals taken (38.1). They hit free throws at a 71.0% rate overall.
He said it: “They’ll probably play a little bit of everything. They play man, they play a variety of zones, so I expect them to use a lot of their defenses and change it up.
“There are different styles (between Monson and Lloyd). In terms of how they play, it’s different than a little bit than the way we play. They don’t use the ball screen as much, but they are certainly capable of doing that.
“Right now in my mind all of (their players) are dangerous enough. Tsohonis is certainly a good player, a scorer. Traore, both of them, can put points on the board. (Small forward AJ) George has been playing well, shooting well from the outside. So they have a lot of different areas they can attack and you have to defend.”
— UA assistant coach Steve Robinson, who scouted the Beach
Key players
ARIZONA
Kylan Boswell
Both USC and Oregon threw off Arizona’s starting point guard over the past two weeks, and he’s entering the NCAA Tournament on a shooting slump. But Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd continues to support him and Boswell says he is rested and ready.
LONG BEACH STATE
Aboubacar Traore
The versatile all-Big West point forward is on a roll, having led the Beach to the Big West Tournament title by averaging 13.0 points and 10.7 rebounds over three games — while posting the first triple-double in Big West Championship history with 12 points, 11 rebounds and a tournament-record 13 assists in the semifinals against UC Riverside.
Sidelines
Monson Comedy Hour
With Long Beach State having announced last week that coach Dan Monson would not return after this season, the coach entered his podium press conference Wednesday noting that he didn’t have to answer anything because “I’m working for free today.”
Monson wasn’t just coaching for free. He was also delivering stand-up comedy for free.
“Did you see the ‘Seinfeld’ when George was trying to get fired and couldn’t lose his job, still going to work every day?” Monson said, beginning his remarks. “That’s me. I’m a ‘Seinfeld’ episode going on right now in real life.”
Monson asked, “is there a storyline here? I haven’t noticed.” Then, later in his presser, Monson was asked how much pride he takes in helping bring Gonzaga to a nationally competitive level, coaching the Zags to the Elite Eight in Phoenix in 1999 before leaving for Minnesota the following summer.
“The Zagfather, the Dogfather, I got to have a name for that. That’s my claim to fame,” Monson said. “I can’t be known as the only guy to get fired and work in an NCAA Tournament for free.
“That’s got to be my legacy, starting that (at Gonzaga). I’m super proud of it. My only regret is that Elite Eight run was the second year of my career as a head coach. I didn’t realize just how special it was, just how hard it is.”
Five-star guard commits
Just a day before beginning the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats pulled out a victory that could help them win games next season: Five-star wing Joson Sanon told ESPN he committed to Arizona and plans to reclassify in order to join the Wildcats next season.
A reclassification also would make Sanon eligible for the 2025 NBA Draft, in which ESPN projects him as the No. 28 pick in an early mock released last month.
Rated No. 12 overall in the class of 2025 by 247 Sports, Sonon next season would join forward Carter Bryant, shooting guard Jamari Phillips and center Emmanuel Stephen, who all signed with the Wildcats in November, and potentially keep Arizona from having to dip deeper into the transfer portal this spring.
“I love the fit, the way they score, how they get you open,” Sanon told ESPN of Arizona. “They play at a fast pace, and being in the center of a high-powered offense was attractive. I wanted to get locked in before things really get going with the transfer portal.”
A 6-foot-5 wing, Sanon led Vermont Academy to a New England prep school title earlier this month, and ESPN’s Jonathan Givony wrote that he “is considered one of the best shooters and overall scorers in the high school game.”
Boswell re-focused
Boswell may have had a rough time of it last week on and off the court, but the Arizona point guard expressed the same sort of confidence Wednesday as he has during his two-year career with the Wildcats.
Boswell said he learned from the efforts of USC and Oregon to disrupt him over the past two weeks, while he said the Wildcats have moved on after a photo of him at a gambling table (at age 18) surfaced on social media during the Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas.
“We already talked about as a the team, my teammates. I talked to coach Lloyd about it. That’s pretty much it.”
Boswell said the Wildcats have taken advantage of the extra time following their Pac-12 Tournament semifinal loss to Oregon on March 15.
“We’ve gotten some extra rest, practice,” Boswell said. “It’s been nice to get home. Chill, relax a little bit, but mentally and physically prepare.”
Numbers game
7: Long Beach State’s national ranking in Kenpom “minutes continuity,” a measure of what percentage of a team’s minutes are played by the same player from last season to this season.
9: Arizona wins in 11 NCAA Tournament games played at Salt Lake City, including two wins at the Delta Center in the 2017 event.
11: Times a No. 2 NCAA Tournament seeded team has lost to a 15-seed in tournament history, with Arizona the only program to do it twice.
41: Years since Long Beach State won an NCAA Tournament game.
— Bruce Pascoe
Huge furniture store, warehouse to open north of Tucson
