Washington accepts NIT bid, to host Long Beach State

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The Washington Huskies men?s basketball team did not end its NCAA Tournament drought this season, but they will at least continue playing.

The 32-team National Invitation Tournament selected the Huskies on Sunday as a No. 3 seed, and they will host No. 6 seed Long Beach State in a first-round game at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. The game will be televised by ESPN2.

This is the Huskies? first NIT appearance since 2013, when they lost 90-79 at Brigham Young in the first round. The year prior, Washington won three games to advance to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York before losing to Minnesota.

Long Beach State holds a 20-14 overall record and finished in third place in the Big West standings with a 12-4 league record. The 49ers lost to Hawaii, 64-60, on Saturday in the Big West Tournament championship game. Hawaii earned the league?s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament with the win.

LBSU is led in scoring by senior Nick Faust, a 6-foot-6 guard who averages 17.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, and the 49ers have two other players who average double-figure scoring. KenPom.com, the popular basketball analytics site, ranks LBSU 100th nationally, and ranks the Huskies 61st. At No. 79, the 49ers actually have a stronger RPI rating than the Huskies, who check in at No. 84.

If the Huskies (18-14) beat Long Beach State, they would face the winner of No. 2 seed San Diego State vs. No. 7 seed IPFW in the second round. UW would only host a second-round game if IPFW beats San Diego State.

Washington is 4-0 all-time against Long Beach State, beating the 49ers in the 2007-08, 2010-11, 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. The 49ers are coached by former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson, who holds a 155-139 record in his ninth season at Long Beach.

 

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Nick Faust gets another shot with Long Beach State men?s basketball in NIT




After Long Beach State?s quarterfinal win at the Big West Men?s Basketball Championship Tournament over the weekend, Nick Faust, in true Nick Faust style, made made a bold proclamation. In the semifinal round, Faust promised that the UC Irvine Anteaters were seeing, ?A whole new Long Beach, baby.?

Why? Well, because, ?It?s tournament time. Come on now.?

And he was right: This Long Beach State team fought tooth and nail until the very final buzzer of the championship game sounded. It found the hole in the Anteaters? 2-3 zone defense that it never quite seemed to find before in order to get to that championship game. The 49ers never backed down, even when down on the scoreboard. This team had another level of mental toughness that teams of Long Beach past had lacked. They?ll get another chance to play together tonight in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. The 49ers (20-14) are a No. 6 seed and will be in Seattle tonight to face No. 3 seed Washington at 6 p.m. in Hec Edmondson Pavilion. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

?It?s been a process of mental toughness. It didn?t start that way, but it?s turned out that way,? head coach Dan Monson said. ?The one thing I?ve always said is that this team cares. And when guys care, you get better. And they?ve really gotten better mentally with trusting each other.?

Part of that toughness can be attributed to Faust. Long Beach State had a quality leader in point guard Justin Bibbins. He made them better on the floor and off. Rarely rattled, he stayed calm under pressure, helping keep his team?s composure in tight moments.

But Faust added another level of toughness and maybe more importantly, an element of swagger. Faust was more than equipped to play a brutal schedule like the one Monson annually schedules. He had played all of those teams prior, when he began his college career as a heralded shooting guard at Maryland.

Faust never backed down to any challenge. During the nonconference slate, he was tasked with defending some of the best players in the country. He didn?t back down to the officials either, buddying up to them when the opportunities presented themselves.

Faust was entertaining, with a high-flying style that often benefitted the risk-taking that he never shied away from. And there have been risks: A bad impression of a Kareem-like skyhook in the championship game didn?t turn out well and he had Monson in his ear all the way back to the locker room.

?The thing I?ve always said about Nick is that you?ve got to give him some freedom,? Monson said. ?His good plays outweigh the bad ones.?

While his skyhook didn?t work out, his game-tying 3-pointer later in the game sure did.



?I like to pick my spots and try to make the right play and the best play for the team,? he said.

After fouling out, he was seen hyping up his teammates in a timeout. He consoled the nearly inconsolable Travis Hammonds when he picked up his fourth foul. In his final season of college basketball, Faust looked nothing like the player Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon once called ?selfish.?

So where does he go from here? At one point, Faust looked as though he could have been a one-and-done headed to the NBA. Then he was projected to go in the second round. And then, he lost his shot and his place in the Terapins? lineup. He transferred and fell off the college basketball radar. Until this season, that is.

At 6-foot-6, 205 pounds, Faust can shoot, make plays and distribute. He has an NBA size and build with quickness and plays the game with a ton of aggression. He?s got at least one more game to impress scouts as Long Beach plays in the NIT. It?s likely he?ll get a few NBA looks, if not a spot on a D-League roster.

The 49ers will remain mostly intact next season and they?ll look to Evan Payne to replace much of Faust?s scoring contribution this season. Faust averaged 17.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game this season. Payne was Loyola Marymount?s leading scorer as a sophomore, averaging 16.7 per game. It would also benefit Long Beach to get a little bigger inside, which it will with Temidayo Yussef and LaRond Williams. Khadim Gueye, a 7-1 center from Bradenton, Fla., also has interest in Long Beach State.

The program won?t see any drop off without Faust, but what they will miss is the entertainment factor, because Faust made basketball fun.