As we start the new year, the growing pains continue for CSUB's men's basketball team. The talent is fairly equal with most of the Big West Conference teams I've seen (CS Fullerton was the only one that appeared to have a significant talent advantage). Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount, picked to be at the bottom of the West Coast Conference, are teams that I see as having inferior talent to CSUB, even with LMU's 72-69 win over CSUB last weekend.

The biggest challenge -- I've heard this from others and I agree -- is CSUB learning how to win, learning how to hold onto leads late; learning how to put teams away. The team was 8-21 last season and is currently 4-12. I've seen some progress this year, most notably the improved play by juniors Trent Blakley and Santwon Latunde and sophomore Alex Johnson. They must continue to improve, and CSUB needs to get some stepped-up play by some others if they are going to reach double-digits in wins.