lbsubasketball Last year, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team came within one victory of a trip to the NCAA playoffs—a loss to UC Santa Barbara in the finals of the Big West Conference Tournament—and a 23-member panel of sports reporters expects more or less the same outcome this season.

In a pre-season poll released Thursday, Santa Barbara was chosen to repeat as conference champs, followed by Long Beach State and the University of the Pacific.

Santa Barbara received 20 first-place votes for a total of 204 points, while Long Beach State got two first-place votes and 180 total points and Pacific received one first-place vote and a total of 161 points.

All five starters return from Santa Barbara’s 2009 team, including junior guard Orlando Johnson, who led the Big West in scoring (18.0 points per game) to earn Big West Player of the Year and first team all-conference honors.

Long Beach State’s strength lies in a a trio of juniors—T.J. Robinson, Casper Ware and Larry Anderson—who have started 150 games among them in their first two seasons.