How Long Beach State prepared for Bronny James' debut, and won - ESPN

Long Beach State tried to stay cool.

The Beach were about to play the biggest college basketball game of the weekend, thanks to Bronny James, who was set to make his Division I debut for USC five months after suffering cardiac arrest during a workout in July.

The lines outside Galen Center — where the school announced a sellout on Friday once the freshman star's debut was announced — snaked down the street. Tickets on the secondary market had sold for hundreds — and in some cases, thousands — of dollars. LeBron James, Bronny's dad, was rumored to be attending. Still, the Beach believed they had settled down by the time tipoff approached.

As the national anthem echoed through the speakers in the arena, however, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar entered the building, and the entire roster turned their heads.

«LeBron is about 6-foot-9, 240 pounds.… Of course we all noticed him,» LBSU junior Jadon Jones, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds after LBSU upset USC 84-79, told ESPN. «The crowd erupted as soon as his face was on the jumbotron. We saw Rich Paul there.»

When Bronny entered Sunday's game early in the first half, the crowd cheered. The USC fans rose to their feet whenever he touched the ball. And they roared after his chase-down block on Jones. He followed the play with an assist to Vincent Iwuchukwu, his USC teammate who had also suffered cardiac arrest in 2022 during a team workout.

Bronny James does his best impression of his father, LeBron, with a chasedown block for the USC Trojans.

And just like that, the Trojans fed off the energy and entered halftime with a double-digit lead.

Facing Bronny & Co. in that building was going to be more difficult than Long Beach State had imagined.

«We just didn't fight