Last Saturday Long Beach State beat UC Davis 74-70 in the Big West tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Beach had a rough end to the regular season by losing each of their final 5 games and firing their coach…but somehow won 3 games in 3 days to make their 1st NCAA tourney since 2012. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Long Beach State SR G Marcus Tsohonis about his team’s wild week.
You grew up in Portland, OR: why did you begin your career at Washington? Growing up I had seen guys from the area go through that Huskies program. I had a lot of connections via my AAU program and some friends of mine went there so it felt like the perfect fit.
There are several other guys from Portland in the NCAA tourney (including Montana State’s Robert Ford III/Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad/Vermont’s Aaron Deloney): do you know any of the other guys, and will you be cheering for them if they are not facing the Beach? Definitely: I will root for them regardless. Jackson is a little bit younger, but I knew Aaron/Rob and we played both with/against each other. Those are my guys and I talk to them daily about showing out.
In 2021 you transferred to VCU and ended up beating Princeton in the NIT before losing at Wake Forest: what did you learn from that postseason run that you think will help you this week? That was a tough season for me personally but learning how to win was pretty good, I saw how locked in/focused you must be if you want to keep winning.
You play for Coach Dan Monson: what makes him such a good coach, and what was your reaction when you learned he was being fired last week? He is a great coach: he understands us on a personal level and lets us play as long as we help the team win games. Whether it is ugly or pretty he just wants us to get it done. That news was heartbreaking (which is partially why we went on a 5-game skid), but he still has great hopes for us and did not turn his back on us…so I love him.
In January of 2023 you scored a school-record 46 PTS in 54 minutes in a 2-PT 3-OT win at UCSD: what are your memories of that marathon game? It was crazy! We had a lot of guys sitting out that night so we were down to just 7 scholarship players, although we had some walk-ons make some big plays down the stretch. It was 1 of the highlights of my life.
You had a roller coaster of a season over the past 6 weeks by winning 5 in a row in February before losing 5 in a row to finish the regular season: what the heck happened, and how were you able to get back on track last week? There were some lineup changes and I got injured so we were trying to figure out our flow. They were close games, but a couple of little things went wrong so it did not really feel like a 5-game skid. We felt locked in and got rolling in the conference tourney with the belief that we could get to March Madness.
In the Big West tourney title game on Saturday night you scored 25 PTS/4-9 3PM in a 4-PT win over UC-Davis: what did it mean to you to win a title, and what was the reaction like in your locker room afterward? I had never made it to the Big Dance before so there was a lot of emotion after everything that we have been through. I tried to soak in the moment but it still does not feel real. This is what we have been looking forward to since the beginning of the season.
Over the past 3 years your FT shooting has increased from 60.9% to 70.3% to 76.8%: what is the secret to making FTs? Just focus and not changing up your routine. I have been able to get to the line a lot this year and I have a better feel for it after getting up plenty of reps, which is also important.
You are 1 of 2 senior starters (along with Messiah Thompson): how much pressure is there on you to be a leader? There is a lot of pressure on us as the older guys: the younger guys put their trust us so we just have to show them that we have their back and then they will have our back.
How do you feel about being a 15-seed in Salt Lake City, and what do you know about your former Pac-12 rival Arizona? I do not look at the seed numbers too much because March Madness often involves a lot of upsets. Arizona is a great team with a great coach, and I am looking forward to facing a former Pac-12 opponent.