The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2026-27 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The Long Beach State men’s basketball team was already going to look different this season as third-year coach Chris Acker reshuffled the deck in search of stability within the program. Add in a handful of injuries to some of the Beach’s projected starters, and the team faces yet another big question mark to open the season.
Only two of the team’s 15 rostered players are returning from last year, reflecting a broader challenge for Long Beach State in retaining talent in the current landscape of college athletics. The Beach has actively worked to combat that challenge, but now the goal is to put it all together once again, and Acker believes he has the right pieces to give Beach fans something to be excited about.
“Everyone understands what we’re up against as a program, and I think that once they see this team and get to know these guys, everyone is going to be excited about the product that’s on the floor,” Acker said. “It’s going to be very exciting getting this group on the floor, but we have a lot of work to do. It’s three years in a row that we’ve had a new basketball team, and the last two teams got better as the year went on. If everyone stays the course and continues to grind, we’re going to have a team that clicks a lot sooner.”
The Beach has already opened the season with a two-game road trip, which included a narrow loss to Utah in their opener before falling to Montana State on Saturday. So far, the Beach’s starting lineup has remained constant, led by junior guard McCaden Adams, who had 21 and 14 points respectively to open the season.
Adams is joined in the backcourt by French native and 6-foot-5 point guard Yohann Sissoko, who has been the only other player with double figures through two games. 6-foot-6 senior Jack Payne is another starting guard, meanwhile the rest of Acker’s ideal starting lineup enters the season injured.
Once his team gets healthy, Acker plans to insert Grand Canyon transfer and 6-foot-10 power forward Kaleb Smith into the starting lineup. The Beach is also awaiting the debut of 7-foot-2 center Noah Amenhauser, who joins Long Beach State as his fourth school in four years of college basketball.
While the Beach awaits the return of its starting big men, the good news is that the team still has size with other players stepping up. Six-foot-7 guard JJ Gray has earned a starting role amid the absences, while 6-foot-10 forward Max Vanlaningham has handled duties inside the paint through two games.
The Beach will also have a core group that’s set to come off the bench. Six-foot-10 senior Grgur Brcic will be the leading big man off the bench, along with 6-foot-7 junior Brett Wright. Jaden Tengan will also be one of the team’s leading reserve guards, and the senior had 15 points in the Beach’s last game against Montana State.
Part of the challenge in recent years hasn’t just been replacing a roster, but also replacing the emerging stars from each team. Last year, it was standout freshmen Gavin Sykes (TCU) and Petar Majstorovic (Syracuse), who led the team in scoring, but Acker says it won’t just be one or two players getting the bulk of the attention this year.
“People are going to watch us play in general as a whole,” Acker said. “We’re evolving as a whole, and it’s a much more fun brand of basketball. It’s not a ball-dominant system this year because we recruited a bunch of guys that know how to play off one another, which is going to create a lot of scoring opportunities for our team.”
Acker expects that brand of basketball to be a bit different from the past two years. The Beach’s roster is composed of just four underclassmen, which should also make the learning curve a bit easier.
“We have guys with a lot of things that we’ve been searching for and in need of as a program in terms of toughness and attitude across the board,” Acker said. “We have guys that want to go out there and play tenaciously with some energy. We were able to do that recruiting-wise, and we also got older and more mature in the sense of understanding how hard we have to play and practice.”
Last year, the Beach finished 10-22 overall and one spot from the bottom of the Big West standings with a 6-14 conference record. Of course, those results are no indication of what to expect this year, especially considering how new the team is, which was a popular point of discussion among fans on social media as the Beach began signing players in the offseason. Long Beach State was also picked to finish last in the Big West preseason coaches poll.
“They’re all new, so they don’t know what they don’t know, but I think they do carry a little bit of the Long Beach chip on their shoulder in terms of being picked to finish 12th in the conference,” Acker said. “For all the coaches in our conference to make that choice, I think that comes with some animosity as a player. I think they feel that a little bit, and it’ll be interesting to see how much better this team gets as the year goes on.”
The Beach have also shuffled around its staff this year, which includes the recent hiring of Ken Ammann, who’s in a new role as Associate Athletic Director of Basketball Strategy & Revenue and General Manager of both basketball programs. The Beach also added former Arizona State assistant Greg Howell and promoted Jacob Eyman to the program’s first fourth assistant coach. Cole Aubin is stepping into Eyman’s former role as Director of Player Development.
Long Beach State will have its home opener on Wednesday when it hits the court at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid to face Pacific. The Beach will then travel to UCLA next Monday before heading to Florida for the FIU tournament, followed by its Big West opener at home against Utah Valley on Dec. 3.
