Soon after being named Long Beach State’s head basketball coach in April, Chris Acker hit the fast-break lane.

“We had a month and a half to pretty much do it all,” said Acker, who had to replenish the roster, including finding replacements for all five starters, and assemble a coaching staff. “It was challenging, for sure, but I think we had the philosophy down in terms of what I knew I wanted to do.”

Acker said the priority was to emphasize local recruiting, pursue players who would be around for more than a year, and hire experienced coaches.

“All that sounds pretty good, but to actually get it done in a month and a half was much more challenging to do,” Acker said. “It was definitely something I would never want to do again on such short notice. But I’m happy for the most part how everything turned out.”

The Beach lost eight of their first nine games, then walloped Cal State Fullerton in Thursday’s Big West opener. Acker is hopeful the Beach have found their groove entering today’s matinee against Hawaii at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach. Tip-off is at 11 a.m.

It will be a reunion of sorts for Acker and LBSU assistant coach John Montgomery. Both were on the staff of the Rainbow Warriors’ 2015-16 team, Eran Ganot’s first as UH head coach. That team won 28 games, including defeating California — and future NBA star Jaylen Brown — in the opening round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament. It was the ’Bows’ first NCAA Tournament victory.

“When we made the run we made, and we were 28-6, and we did something that had never been done in program history, it was just an amazing experience,” Acker said.

The following year, the ’Bows were under the shadow of an NCAA investigation into alleged wrongdoings that occurred under the previous coaching regime. The ’Bows were not deemed to have committed any major infraction.

Montgomery remained with UH, eventually elevating to associate head coach, before joining Acker in April.

Acker, who played basketball at Howard and then Chaminade, joined Boise State in 2017, then San Diego State in 2019. Acker succeeded Dan Monson, who was told he would not be retained in March. Six days later, the Beach won the Big West Tournament, earning an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Inheriting only two holdovers, Acker attacked the transfer portal, adding point guard Devin Askew (from California), off guard TJ Wainwright (Robert Morris), 6-10 forward Austin Johnson (North Carolina A&T) and post Derrick Michael Xzavierro (Grand Canyon). Askew is averaging 16.7 points. Wainwright has hit all 20 of his free throws.

While Monson’s Beach ran an accelerated offense, Acker has slowed the pace with more half-court sets.

“It was more so adapting to the team that we have, game by game, practice by practice,” Acker said. “And try to figure out how these guys can flow and function together offensively. We’re slowly building our foundation on how we want to run in transition. It’s trying to marry the two styles and put it together and really have some sort of identity and continuity on offense.”