November 13, 1998
Morgan 'optimistic'
Men's basketball: L.B. coach vows team this season will be more successful - or else.
By GORDON VERRELL
Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram
Wayne Morgan, the men's basketball coach at Long Beach State, has already promised one and all, "We'll never have a year like we had last year." He even tossed in this little addendum: " . . . as long as I'm the coach."
Good. Nobody wants another 10-19, least of all Morgan, who's embarking on his third season as the coach of the 49ers. From all appearances, he's far more upbeat, totally in charge and, for sure, more confident than at any time since hiring on after a dozen seasons assisting at one of college basketball's more formidable bastions, Syracuse University.
Otherwise he certainly wouldn't be giving his critics any more ammo by saying things like "as long as I'm the coach" or, as he remarked the other day at the Big West Conference media day, telling reporters if the 49ers don't win more than 10 games this season than "someone different will be standing up here next year."
Not that the 47-year-old Morgan is overly concerned what his critics might think anyway.
"I don't listen to other people," he said. "People outside of our family have no idea what problems we might have here . . . who's hurt, who's having girlfriend problems, who's having problems in the classroom, whatever . . . Everyone thinks they're a basketball coach. They're not. The same as me trying to tell Bill Parcels how to coach the New York Jets. I'm not qualified to do that."
In two years, Morgan has withstood back-to-back losing seasons, his first two as a Division I head coach; he's had problems on and off the court, resulting in suspensions, dismissals, even defections, involving, perhaps, a half-dozen players; last season he virtually had to scrape together a team that didn't even have a true point guard, and now, he says, confidently, "I believe it's turned around.
"I feel everything is in place," Morgan added, "except the won-loss record, and this year that will improve. I feel that in time this will be a good basketball team . . . and next year, a very good basketball team, a top 40 team, with 11 guys coming back . . . "
Bill Shumard, the 49ers' athletic director - who was interim A.D. when he hired Morgan in April, 1996, upon the recommendation of a search committee - has let Morgan know that things had better improve.
"We need to get back on top, we need to compete, we need to qualify for the postseason," Shumard said. "Interest has waned, and there's no question we need to regain our rightful spot as having a dominant role in the Western Division. Long Beach State has a very good basketball tradition. I don't apologize to anyone that we have to win."
Shumard insists he hasn't given Morgan a magic number for this season - "Win X number of games or else!" - but he has made it clear what he does expect.
"For sure, we need to play well at home," Shumard said, noting Morgan's so-so two-year Pyramid record of 16-10, made worse by home losses last season to Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly SLO, St. Francis (N.Y.) and Norfolk State - the latter by the staggering sum of 19 points.
"I was disappointed in the way we played down the stretch," Shumard went on, pointing to a run of nine losses in the final 11 games. "If we'd won one more game in that stretch we wouldn't have been playing (eventual champion) Utah State in the first round of the tournament."
Morgan knows all this, and he knows the pressure is there, but he refuses to get caught up in outside speculation, saying, "Like most basketball coaches, I put more pressure on myself. I try to be the best that I can be.
"There's only one way to win," he said, "and that's to win.
"We definitely have more depth this year, and more balance. We have good kids, kids who are doing much better academically. They want to win. I want to win. And I want us to win for Dr. (Robert C.) Maxson (university president), who's been so supportive."
Said Shumard: "We have considerably more talent than we had last year. It's Wayne's job to take that talent and put together a cohesive unit. A year down the road this could be a very special group.
"I think that with a winning record, and with our schedule - I've heard people say it's the most difficult non-conference schedule we've had in 20 years - it will convince fans that the program has turned around.
"I know this," Shumard added, "Wayne wasn't afraid to play that kind of a schedule."