How About Steve Lavin?

The verdict by Athletic Director Vic Cegles to decline the restitution of Larry Reynolds' contract has caused a sundry reaction amongst students, fans and supporters of the LBSU basketball program.Some have expressed delight with the decision to go a new route, whereas others have displayed resentment and annoyance with the news that has received national attention by telecasts such as ESPN's SportsCenter and Fox Sports Net's Lexus Gauntlet. One thing that is paramount on both sides is that both parties yearn for an excellent teacher, motivator and architect of success not seen on campus since those Jerry Tarkanian teams of the 1970s to take over a team headed for rebuilding next season and turn it into a perennial NCAA Tournament team.Looking in this bird's-eye view, this description epitomizes none other than former UCLA men's basketball coach Steve Lavin. In seven seasons at UCLA, Lavin's teams won at least 20 games in six of those seasons and reached the Sweet 16 five times to go along with an elite eight appearance, ultimately displaying a substance for winning.The central ingredient in Lavin's pedigree is the same ingredient that Long Beach State basketball has minimized. That ingredient happens to be recruiting.Two times during his tenure with the Bruins, Lavin had the nation's top recruiting class, which included stars such as Jason Kapono and Baron Davis - both successful NBA players. With LBSU athletics centered around areas as rich in talent as Saudi Arabia is in oil, a 49er loyalist can only begin to imagine what kind of talent could be assembled by Lavin within three years of work. Lavin, who is currently serving as an ESPN college basketball analyst, affronted an offer made by North Carolina State to coach its basketball team this season. The thing that must be understood is that Long Beach State is a more attractive place for Lavin to pace the sidelines because of its location and marketability. Lavin is a San Francisco native and has said numerous times on ESPN College Game Night telecasts that when he coaches again, he would prefer it be in the west region, particularly California.Apparently, Cegles is not content with just getting into the NCAA Tournament, but wants to go deep in it. What better way to solve the equation than with a man who has never lost in the first two rounds of the tournament?

WWE Wrestlers involvement with steroids don't surprise me

WWE Wrestlers Edge, Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton were all implicated in the nationwide steroid manhunt si.com reported in the beginning of the week. But should this really be flabbergasting at all? When you look at the history of sports entertainment style of wrestling, you see dramatic changes in athletes bodys and even more disturbingly early age deaths. Coincidence? I think not. Just look at the following reports conducted by medical examiners on some wrestlers who have died over the last ten years as a result of steroid abuse.

• Curt Hennig, 44, died of acute cocaine intoxication in February 2003, medical records show. But his father said last year that a lethal combination of steroids and painkillers contributed to his death.
•"The British Bulldog," Davey Boy Smith, 39,died in 2002 in Canada of an enlarged heart with evidence of microscopic scar tissue, possibly from steroid abuse, a coroner said. "Davey paid the price with steroid cocktails and human-growth hormones," says Bruce Hart, a veteran trainer who worked with Smith and was his brother-in-law.
•Louie "Spicolli" Mucciolo, 27, died from coronary disease in his San Pedro, Calif., home in 1998, according to his autopsy. Investigators found an empty vial of the male hormone testosterone, pain pills and an anxiety-reducing drug. The Los Angeles County coroner's office determined the drugs might have contributed to his heart condition.
•Richard "Ravishing Rick Rude" Rood, 40, died from an overdose of "mixed medications" in Alpharetta, Ga., in 1999, his autopsy shows. In 1994 he testified that he had used anabolic steroids to build muscle mass and relieve joint pain.
•"Flyin' "Brian Pillman, 35, was taking painkillers and human-growth hormones when he died from heart disease in 1997, his widow said several years ago. Investigators found empty bottles of painkillers near his body in a Minnesota hotel room.

The thing is that steroids will never be stopped. Technology and science will always find away to beat testing, which leads to testing improving and catching users. Its a forever going cycle.

Long Beach State Football Coming Back?

Amid much prattle the campus of Long Beach State will not have a football team returning in a prompt manner and ultimately will not be ending a 15 year absence from college football. In the late 80's Long Beach State was facing the juncture of having to relinquish their football program because the wins were not piling up, which meant that the money made was less than adequate, once again proving the old cliché right that if it don't make dollars it don't make sense. The University was desperate for help and attempted to find a remedy to save its struggling program, in former Washington Redskins Coach George Allen. Allen was a proven winner and had the credentials to back it up. In fact, Allen had coached the Redskins to a Super Bowl. However, Allen could not duplicate his preceding success and the program suffered more than a dilapidated house with an average record of 3-9 the last four seasons of the university's program. With it came an end to the Cold War and a plethora of lucrative defense contracts that followed. Many of those contracts were in California, and contributed to a state tax base of $4 billion that gurgled down to the Cal State University system and, ultimately, to its athletic departments. According to former Senior Account Executive Casey Boggs, Long Beach State's athletic director at the time Dave O'Brien was told to disencumber nearly a million dollars from the budget in 1992. The options were to make cuts from every sport which would include salaries, equipment, recruiting, and operations. The other alternative was to cut one sport and leave the rest of the department alone. The football budget was at $1.3 million and Long Beach at the time was competing for the Southern California sports dollar against two major colleges, two NFL teams, two NBA teams, two pro baseball teams and an NHL team. The football team's attendance was around 4,000. "I do not realistically believe that football will ever come back at Long Beach State," said Long Beach State Media Relations Administrator Steve Janisch. "It would be a waste to try and come back at Division I-AA (smaller scholarship limits) because there is no money in that division and very little national publicity or interest and it needs to be done the right way or not at all." Many advocates of a resurrection of football at Long Beach State feel that it could potentially cause a great boon to the school. For example, bringing in large donors financially, especially if the team won and was selected in a bowl game. Benefits could include enormous publicity and get the school's name out in the national media eye. Schools associated with the Bowl Championship Series annually can conjure up revenues from network television contracts. According to the NCAA website the Pac 10 Conference schools made average $6 million each. A berth in the Rose Bowl is worth $13million distribution to the team's conference. "I'm not buying into all that it would cost this it would cost that crap", said alumnus Marc Yoshihara. "Long Beach is a gold mine for athletic talent especially with perennial powerhouse Poly High five minutes away." Opposers of a collegiate football return have documented that the school does not have a 25,000-plus seat stadium to play in (the minimum required by D1 standards). There would be a need for huge amounts of money over a long period of time to get the process of a stadium going. In addition, equipment and an entire football coaching staff would have to be brought in which means more money. Even if this was executed more trainers, academic support, compliance personnel, marketing personnel, and more sports information personnel would be needed. "Yes, there would be interest in the community, but would there be enough to fill a 25,000 seat stadium on a Saturday if a USC or UCLA were playing at home as well," said Janisch. "We would have to move to another conference since the Big West doesn't sponsor football and surviving as an independent is next to impossible unless you're Notre Dame." The hugest obstacle in the path of a return to collegiate football for Long beach is the Title IX gender equity regulations. The regulations stipulate that there must be a balance between your overall student population (55% women at CSULB) in regards to your athletic aid and participation. Many financial analyst and local sports writers believe that this is the reason why Long Beach State 49er football and other campuses through out California such as California State University, Fullerton (1992) Santa Clara University (1992), California State University, Hayward (1994), San Francisco State University (1995), University of the Pacific (1995), and ST. Mary's (2004) jettisoned their football programs and why they will remain extinct. For example, If Long Beach State adds 95 more males to athletics for football, then the university must either add money and scholarships and bodies to the women's side, or cut some men's sports to try and balance. Despite this blow to die hard football fans in the city of Long Beach and high school students who would yearn to play football at home if a football team was implemented, there remains optimism because some universities have been successful in putting a pulse back in football at their university such as Lincoln University of Missouri, who reinstated their football team in 1999 after a 20 year hiatus. "The reason it worked for us and continues to be successful now is because the students were very active in bringing it back," said 8 time NFL Pro Bowler and current defensive coordinator Lemar Parrish. Other universities that have followed suite include Edward Waters College (Florida) which watched its program dissipate in 1967 and reincarnated in 2001. After an immense gap of time of being supersede, the football programs at St. Augustine's (North Carolina), St. Paul's College (Virginia), Shaw University (North Carolina), Stillman College (Alabama) and Paul Quinn College (Texas) are once again in play. And the Central State University (Ohio) program, which was disbanded in 1996, joins the ranks of those to be reinstated later this year. Even though a football team is not on the priority list at Long Beach State, some in the sports department hierarchy could be swayed to reconsider their position on the matter since Onye Ibekwe, who played two seasons for the Long Beach State Men's Basketball team was given a two year contract a day after the NFL Draft in April by the San Francisco 49ers despite never playing a down of football in college.

Long Beach State's Sterling Byrd gets snubbed (March 6, 2007)

A crime was committed by the voters of the Big West Men’s basketball All Conference Team. Sure I commend them on naming Aaron Nixon the Big West player of the year and naming the LBSU starting backcourt of Kevin Houston and Kejuan Johnson to the All Conference teams; however one name was astray from that list. The name of Sterling Byrd. Byrd led the Big West Champions in scoring eight times this year, second only to Nixon on the team and made clutch plays throughout the season. Whether it was sinking the dagger against the rival Pacific Tigers on ESPN or scorching 26 against a resilient Pepperdine team, Byrd soared high. Byrd averaged 14 points and six rebounds and was in the top 10 in the conference in steals. Despite having the numbers and being on the conferences most paramount team, voters still affronted him and elected to select Anthony Brown of Pacific and Chris Devine of Santa Barbara over Byrd. Brown averaged 14 points and seven rebounds and Devine averaged 14 points and six rebounds. Yes it is a fact that all three players virtually had the same numbers, however it is fiction that they are better than Byrd. In two head to head meeting against Brown, Byrd was the more palpable player. In the first meeting Byrd scored 22 points six rebounds, while Brown scored 18 points and six rebounds and the victory in a 92-64 route telecasted by Fox Sports. In the second meeting Byrd registered a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds on ESPN while Brown failed to reach double digits in scoring and once again Byrd’s team recorded a victory. In fact, last time I checked it was Brown who tried to guard Byrd during the dagger ending three in that game. In comparison to Devine the story was the equivalent. Byrd’s team won both matchups including a 101-65 route and Devine was outscored, out rebounded, and outplayed by No. 15 of the Beach. Despite the travesty by the Big West voters one thing is for certain is that Byrd won’t lay his head low and the success of the team for him outweighs the individual accolades. This is why this Byrd will continue to fly high.