Well, it looks like Dan Monson is going to finally clean house now. I mean, the season is already a bust, and we are going through a depression. Might as well pull out a page from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's playbook and bring out the first New Deal while you're at it, Coach.
For both these guys, it was an opportunity taken away. I don't know the details, but I reckon that when you start up a fight and badmouth the coach after you get humiliated by Bakersfield (man, that loss REALLY hurted), you gotta be gracious in defeat.
I say, though, go one step further: take all the players off scholarship and have them walk-on. Make them earn their scholarship back. Otherwise, they can always transfer if they feel like they don't want to take the initiative.
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49ers depleted, defeated at NorthridgeCSUN romps; LBSU's Gant, Porter have been dismissed. By Frank Burlison, Staff writerArticle Launched: 01/26/2008 11:21:23 PM PST
NORTHRIDGE - A basketball team with an extremely narrow "margin for error" was repeatedly pushed over that margin Saturday evening.
The Long Beach State 49ers needed to limit their turnovers and keep the host Cal State Northridge Matadors out of their transition offense but they came up well short in each endeavor and were handled, 100-61, in a Big West Conference game in front of 1,471.
A deep, quick and fast CSUN squad improved its conference-leading record to 6-0 and overall mark to 14-4, while a Long Beach squad thinner in the depth department after the dismissal of junior Artis Gant and redshirt freshman Darnell Porter, and lacking in the quickness and speed categories, dropped to 1-5 and 4-14 respectively.
Coach Dan Monson's decision to dismiss Gant and Porter (who were averaging 7.4 points apiece) wasn't made public until LBSU sports information director Steve Janisch distributed a one-paragraph release approximately an hour before the game's 4 o'clock tipoff Saturday.
Afterward, Monson refused to disclose many specifics about the dismissals, other than to say that the players were informed of their dismissals on Thursday - the day after the team dropped an 80-77 decision to Cal State Bakersfield in the Walter Pyramid - and to acknowledge that the decisions were made independent of one another.
"They were dismissed for attitudes detrimental to the team," he said, echoing the reasoning in the release. "I will say that they are good kids and I hope they stay in school (spring semester classes begin Monday) and make the most of it and get an education. Their scholarships will be good (honored) until the end of the (school) year."
Even before Monson dismissed Gant and Porter - who, despite Gant missing eight games with a knee injury, had combined to start 15 games - he knew coach Bobby Braswell's team, because of its ability to pressure opponents, defensively, and score in spurts in transition and via a multitude of quality jump shooters, was going to present a litany of issues for the 49ers.
But after the first television timeout, with 15:07 to go in the first half, and despite five Long Beach turnovers, the Matadors held a 3-1 lead.
"We have athletic limitations and we were playing a team that wanted to get the pace going (fast)," Monson said. "During the (first) timeout, I told our guys, 'This is great!"'
And when Brice Gallow, a walk-on junior who scored a career-best 17 points, hit a 3-pointer from the left wing the 49ers were still within six points (at 22-16) of the hosts with 8:44 to go in the first half.
But the Matadors, who ultimately got double-figure scoring from five players - led by former Cabrillo High and Long Beach City College standout Deon Tresvant with 19 off the bench - outscored the visitors 25-10 the rest of the half.
Donovan Morris scored 13 of his game-high 25 points for the 49ers after the intermission when only the final margin was in doubt.
frank.burlison@presstelegram.com
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And another thing: Shame on you, Artis Gant. You could have been a senior leader next season, had you not shown your lack of charisma, your lack of composure. You wasted a good opportunity to lead this team. I put a damnatio memoriae on what you did after the game.
You not only disappointed your team, and Coach Monson, but you disappointed me. For shame.
