Nick Faust stepping up for Long Beach State men's basketball

LONG BEACH >> Branford Jones was on the ground, writhing in obvious pain. The Pyramid crowd was grimacing at the sight. It was a tight Big West Conference game against a gritty Cal State Northridge team, and with a pair of point guards already on the bench injured, Jones had stepped up as a leader.

But now Jones was out and Long Beach State was in desperate need of a hero.

Nick Faust is the type of player that wants the ball in his hands when it matters the most. With no other option at point guard, the ball went to him. He never relinquished it, firming his grip over the game as it went on.

“I think Nick Faust is emerging as a leader,” 49ers head coach Dan Monson said. “He’s always, always been a talented player, but he went out after that and I said, ‘Somebody needs to make a play. Show your teammates that you’re not going to lose this game.’ ”

Faust showed Monson by knocking down a jumper and a 3-pointer. And then he pulled up for another jumper. Then, on other end of the floor, Michael Warren tipped a Matadors pass into Faust’s hands. In transition, Faust found Gabe Levin with a cross-court, no-look pass and Levin finished with a dunk.

The 49ers would never trail from that point because Faust didn’t let them. And Faust hasn’t been letting his team trail much. He’s pouring in shots to the tune of 17.3 points per game. He leads the 49ers and is second in the Big West.

Long Beach State (12-12, 6-3) continues its conference schedule tonight at 7 in Walter Pyramid against Cal Poly.

“You can just see the look in his eyes the way he plays,” Long Beach State forward Travis Hammonds said of Faust. “He puts his head down and you see a look in his eyes like it’s about to go down.”

Coming out of Baltimore City College High School, Faust was one of the top shooting guards in nation. Like many from Baltimore, Faust began his collegiate career in College Park, Maryland, committing to play for Maryland and area legend Garry Williams. But when Williams retired and Mark Turgeon was hired away from Texas A&M, Faust was forced into a team of uncertainty.

“My first season at Maryland was my best, it was my fuest,” Faust said. “I had to make a transition from being a top-five shooting guard in the country to playing a point guard, and that was my first step, first jump in college. Basketball is all about adapting and growing.

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“But at the end of the day, I still didn’t feel as though I was being used to my fullest potential.”

At times, Faust was as brilliant as he was on Saturday afteoon at the Pyramid, a dynamic scorer with great vision on the floor. But then Faust’s star began to fade. Two years ago, many around college basketball thought Faust was done. He’d lost his shooting touch and was looking for another program.

He agreed to transfer to Oregon State, but when former head coach Craig Robinson was fired, Faust decided to look elsewhere. He’d already experienced a new head coach and a rebuilding year at Maryland and wasn’t trying to relive that. He needed a coach that expressed confidence in his abilities, and he found that in Monson.

Like most East Coast kids, he wasn’t familiar with Long Beach State other than their 2012 NCAA Touament appearance. But Monson’s no-nonsense approach was attractive.

“It was a mutual respect,” Faust said. “It’s all about putting in the work, but coach having confidence in me him believing in me, that’s a big thing. Him trusting me with the ball and things like that.”

After taking a hard look at the the type of system the 49ers run and taking a look at himself as a player, Faust realized that Long Beach could be a place where he could finally be utilized the way he felt he needed to be.

“When you’re not going somewhere where you’re being used to your fullest potential, you have to go somewhere where you are being used to your fullest potential,” Faust said. “And Long Beach State is using me to my fullest potential.”

Not to mention, the weather out here isn’t half bad.

“I feel like I’m on vacation every day,” he said.

Faust used his mandatory redshirt season to lea the system. The 49ers run an offense that pushes the pace and spreads the floor. They’re small but can create space, which works well for a player like Faust. Give him an inch and he’ll take several all the way to the basket.

That shooting touch that many said was gone? It wasn’t really, Faust says. He just needed to remake his body. Once up past 220, Faust said the football player weight program at Maryland was detrimental to his shooting. Monson now has the team on a yoga program that helps him stay lean and flexible.

“I always felt like I could shoot,” Faust said. “But at Maryland, I was too big. I was too strong.”

This season, the 49ers appeared to have a void.

Former point guard Mike Caffey would routinely put the team on his back when in distress, but Caffey is now overseas playing pro ball. Sure, there’s more options for current point guards Justin Bibbins and Noah Blackwell to go to this season with veterans like Faust, Hammonds, Jones, guard A.J. Spencer and big man Gabe Levin, but what the team really needed was someone who could dictate the game and change its course when they needed it the most.

The team needed a hero, much like they did this past Saturday and the one before that.

“I saw an opportunity to fill a big role. That’s what I saw and that’s what I came to do,” Faust said. “I’m a consistent player, very aggressive with high anticipation and grit. G-R-I-T. Grit.”

The Nick Faust Revival Tour is making stops all through the Big West Conference and if all goes according to plan, its final stop will be in the NCAA Touament.

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