UCLA Basketball: Long Beach State Game Thread -- A Test for the Guards

The Long Beach State 49ers (LBST), led my senior guards Mike Caffey and our old friend Tyler Lamb, 2-2, visit Pauley Pavilion tonight with tip-off set for 7:05 PM PT. You can catch the game on PAC-12 Networks. J.B. Long and Don MacLean will be calling it. You can also listen on Tunein Radio or 570 AM. Follow along with the live stats here.

Read the BN preview and the official guide at uclabruins.com (from which you can click to their exhaustive guide).

UCLA is favored by 12 at this writing, but LBST is coming off a 69-60 win over Kansas State Friday night. Kansas State was a tournament team last year, and is rated ahead of UCLA in some polls. However, LBST is strong where the Bruins are light: guards and bench. Mike Caffey is pre-season All-Big West and the two others starting guards are 6'5" each. They play both zone and man, and in man the guards like to overplay the passing lanes and help down low with a double-team. LBST played 11 guys on Friday -- scary compared to our lack of depth. This looks to be a good test of our perimeter shooting and passing. The Bruins better be on their toes.

Congrats to the football team! Now beat Stanford!

Meanwhile, enjoy the game thread with your fellow BNers and Bruins.