Long Beach State expects to challenge expectations in NCAA tournament

Long Beach State guard Casper Ware has “celebrated” playing in the NCAA tournament, reenacting the road to the Final Four in his driveway many times.

“I’d watch the tournament growing up, see the guys jumping around when they won,” Ware said. “I’d go out and mimic that, pretend I was going to the Final Four. You have that in your head.”

Dan Monson, Ware’s coach, senses a reality check coming. Long Beach (25-8) has been blessed with the bliss of ignorance as it prepares to play New Mexico (27-6) on Thursday at the Rose Garden in Portland, Ore.

“They don’t really understand that coaches spend their careers trying to get here, or there are schools like Northwestern that have never been to the tournament,” said Monson, whose Gonzaga team reached the 1999 West Regional final. “They don’t know that, and there is some good in that.”

The 49ers hit the floor as 400-1 longshots to win the tournament. Compare that with the odds on getting on an airplane with a drunk pilot — 115-1, according to casinomaze.com.

Like all teams now affectionately called “mid-majors,” Long Beach and New Mexico are confident they can shock the world — as are the Wichita State Shockers … and Murray State … and Creighton … and St. Mary’s.

“I think the pressure falls on the bigger schools now,” Monson said. “For two months, the pressure has been on us every game. We were supposed to win. The last three times we lost in the Big West [Conference], the other team’s fans stormed the court.”

Although the Lobos are also in the mid-major club, Monson said, “New Mexico is expected to win. It really helps as the game progresses, if you can hang in there.”

This is Long Beach’s first NCAA tournament since 2007, the year before Monson arrived to revive a program that had just been put on NCAA probation.

His first recruiting class — seniors now — is the core of the team. Ware, Eugene Phelps, Larry Anderson and T.J. Robinson have put the 49ers in the upper echelon of mid-major programs, going 47-20 the last two seasons.

Monson said his players at this point don’t “have any idea what stage they are on.”

“It’s just another TV game” to them, the coach said. “They don’t understand that people are actually watching this one. We have had a lot of TV games this season. I’d hate to see the ratings.”

Monson recalled being similarly unaware of the NCAA tournament’s impact even as a young coach at Gonzaga. “My first time, we didn’t realize until it was all over — and we came back to Spokane and saw 5,000 people hanging from trees — exactly how many people watch.”

Long Beach and New Mexico should make for some entertaining viewing. Both teams like to play pressure man-to-man defense and attack aggressively on offense.

New Mexico, led by UCLA transfer Drew Gordon, was co-champion of the Mountain West Conference, splitting with higher-ranked Nevada Las Vegas and San Diego State during the league season, then defeating both on its way to the conference tournament title.

Gordon, a load at 6 feet 9, 245 pounds, averages 13.4 points and 10.9 rebounds. The Lobos also have a solid point guard in Kendall Williams, who will square off against Ware, the Big West Conference player of the year, or freshman Mike Caffey.

Caffey is likely to start in place of Larry Anderson, who has a sprained knee. Anderson, a senior who was chosen as the Big West’s top defensive player, was injured during Long Beach’s final regular-season game, a loss against Cal State Fullerton.

The winner will carry the mid-major torch into the next round Saturday against either Davidson — yet another mid-major — or Louisville, champion of the mighty Big East Conference, which has nine teams in the tournament.

In recent years especially, mid-majors have been more than holding their own. Butler reached the national championship game the last two seasons, losing to Duke in 2010 and Connecticut in 2011. Virginia Commonwealth reached the Final Four in 2011 and George Mason got there in 2006.

New Mexico and Wichita State were given the highest seedings among mid-majors in the tournament. Both are No. 5 in their regionals, New Mexico in the West and Wichita State in the South. Murray State enters the tournament with a 30-1 record and is seeded sixth in the West.

“I think mid-majors have earned more respect in the tournament,” Monson said. “The Gonzaga, George Mason, VCU, Butler people have earned the right for people to say, ‘These teams can play the big boys.’ It’s not really Cinderella anymore.”

Long Beach prepared for the tournament by playing the toughest nonconference schedule in college basketball, which included trips to Kansas, North Carolina and Louisville. All but one of the 49ers’ losses are to teams in the NCAA tournament.

So it’s doubtful Long Beach will be intimidated by its opponent or surroundings.

“No one is giving us a chance in the tournament,” Phelps said. “We’ve got to make a name for ourselves.”

chris.foster@latimes.com

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