Gill Coliseum Paint Photos Update

I stopped by campus this weekend and took a few photos of the front of Gill Coliseum this time.









I can't wait to see how the logo and other stuff looks!

OSU Beavers Basketball Team Given Some Love from ESPN's Doug Gottlieb

Doug Gottlieb posted an article identifying teams on the outside of Dick Vitale's Top 40 list. Two of the teams listed are Oregon and Oregon State. Unfortunately, only ESPN Insiders can see the article.


Here's what Doug has to say about the Beavs:

These teams have the goods to contend (Part II) - ESPN

"Oregon State won the College Basketball Invitational this past season and returns its top four scorers. In the disciplined Princeton system of Craig Robinson, Roeland Schaftenaar found a perfect offense for his face-up game. In addition, the Beavs landed Rhys Murphy, an Aussie who is 6-7 and long and can really shoot. Incoming freshman Roberto Nelson is a thin but very capable 2-guard who will stretch defenses and make those cuts more open. With Gill Coliseum set to be finally redone and the energy of the biggest turnaround in college hoops at OSU's back, do not be surprised to see it in the NCAA tourney discussion."

This season is shaping up to be very similar to David Lucas' senior year. Lots of returning key players, a few good newcomers, and a go to guy down low.

Go Beavs!

Gill Coliseum New Paint Photos

I haven't seen any photos of the Gill Coliseum paint job recently, so I thought I'd head over a check out the progress myself.

Here are a few photos I took with my phone:









I'll be posting future photos in this Flickr Set in the future:


Gill Coliseum Paint Job - Flickr

Robinson Wants To Stay

Not only did the Beavs beat Stanford last night to move on to the CBI finals against UTEP (first game at Gill on Monday), but according to Cliff Kirkpatrick's postgame blog post we got another win:

Robinson’s thanks fans again
Robinson thanked the fans again after the game. He was surprised that the crowd could be that loud. He said: “the fans are bringing basketball to Oregon State.”

For those worried about him leaving after one season, don’t. He not only said he doesn’t want to and his family doesn’t like moving around a lot, but he’s really enjoying this season.

I really hope Craig stays for a few years and builds a foundation that can carry us into a new era of OSU basketball!

For some schools the CBI is "Meh"...For Oregon State its just what they need

I can imagine for Stanford, Houston, or other schools who have been in the NCAA tournament recently that the CBI would be a downer. Its a 3rd or 4th rate tournament on the edges of the nations conscience. Does anyone get HDNet? Its the equivalent of the Seattle Bowl a few years ago.

However, for some teams its a taste of postseason play that they would never have even sniffed before. I truly think that the CBI experience will do nothing but good for the Oregon States of the world. The Beavs just need more practice, more experience, and more time to get ready for next season. That's what going to a lower bowl gives you in football. And the basketball team is getting the same thing now.

Can the Beavers beat Stanford at home again and avenge their Pac-10 Tournament loss a couple of weeks ago? What a great matchup for the Beavs in the Semis! And its Wednesday night, so great ready for another game quick!

CBI Schedule

When Will Coach Robinson Have The Beavs In The NCAA Tournament

The season is probably over (maybe a CBI bid), but the real question is when will we finally make it back to the tournament? What do you think?

Hoops Civil War Tomorrow!

OK, I admit it. I'm bummed that I don't have the chance to write:

- 18

Congrats to the Ducks for avoiding the dubious distinction that the Beavs did last season. But...

Would going 1-17 this season be worse than 0-18 last season?

From my point of view, the Pac-10 is worse than last year. Last year may have been the best collection of teams in the Pac-10 ever. All of the elite teams from last season (UCLA, USC, U of A, WSU, Stanford, and Oregon) are all worse than last year. Some more than others, but still. Of the improved teams (UW, ASU?, OSU, Cal) only a couple will probably make the tournament.

So who had the harder schedule? Would this years Duck team beat anyone in conference other than the Beavs? Would the Beavs of last season have beat this years Ducks at least once?

I think if the 08-09 Ducks team was transported to last season, they would have tied the Beavs at 1-17.

Thoughts?

Beavs win #5

Nice comeback win against the Cougs last night. Man, our offense is like a good running game. Before you know it, there's no time on the clock and you don't have time to win the game. Assuming things are clicking of course. If Ruland and Haynes can get hot again down the stretch, we may have a good shot at winning a couple more games. Too bad we let that WSU game get away earlier in the year.

Anyone know what the deal was with Omari Johnson? Was he sick or hurt?

Beaver Basketball: What Exactly Do We Have Here?

After the first road sweep in 16 years and three wins in a row something feels like it might be happening. Its definitely an event you can't ignore. Even in the last winning season in '04-'05 we only won 1 road game. So what is going on? Is it the crazy 1-3-1 defense? The offense that leads to layups? The breakout of Ruland and Calvin? Yes.

I thought I'd take a look at StatSheet.com and see if I can figure out what were doing better and maybe that would help explain if this is a trend or just a hot streak.


Our FG % is pretty high compared to the last few seasons. 47.4% seems pretty good to me. Our opponents are at 44.9%. This is the highest FG% we have shot for the last 12 years. That's pretty awesome. Hopefully that's the extra layups and not just some hot shooting.

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

Our 3 point FG% has gone back to respectable levels and 34.2%. Our opponents are shooting virtually the same. You can see why we we so good in '04-'05. We hit at an awesome level from 3. And apparently we defended the 3 very well.

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

Our Offensive Efficiency rating (Points per 100 possessions) is 95.8 in Pac-10 play and 101 overall. That's ninth in the Pac-10. Squarely between the '05-'06 and '06-'07 seasons. In '04-'05 we were 6th in the league. Basically, this measures how well we are using the chances we get.

College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

We have actually lowered the number of turnovers per game in conference play. Down to 12.5 from 14. And we have marginally increased our steals.


Well, nothing in the numbers stands out a ton from previous mildly successful years. If we continue our recent trends and keep our efficiency, FG%, and 3PT% up then we should have a chance in nearly every game the rest of the way. Our rebounding, FT%, and Opponent's Efficiency will costs us a lot of games.


I like what I'm seeing and I'll be following intently the rest of the way. I'm bringing a big group to the Civil War game this weekend!

Go Beavs!

Beavs Make Huge Comeback, Beat Cal on the Road

Whoa. Big win! First road win in the Pac-10 in like forever. Imagine if we had beat WSU...

I started listening with 10 minutes left in the second half. That was the low point. Down 11. From that point Cal made one 30 footer. That's it. The defense, rebounding, and free throw shooting was really clutch.

Great job Beavs! Now go beat Stanford!

Beavers Hoops Beats USC! Snaps 21 Game Pac-10 Losing Streak

The Beavers won this game with defense, some good patient offense, and a couple great individual efforts at key moments of the game.

First, that 1-3-1 zone was perfect. It may not work every night but it was key. By pushing their guards way out past the 3 point line they were removed as a threat. Plus, they couldn't directly enter it into the post. So each play there were really only three legitimate threats each time out. Plus, the Beavers were working hard to prevent drives and getting caught too many times out of position. Great strategy by coach Robinson.

Second, the offense was working well. It seems like everyone gets their role and are really looking to attack the defense with back-cuts and passing. Plus, people were hitting their threes when they were open. I could see how this offense could really work here.

Third, three huge offensive plays sealed the game. Ruland's 3 to send the game into OT was big. He was open and was feeling it. Then the play of Calvin Haynes at the end of the game and in OT. He looked like a poor man's Brandon Roy on those last two layups. Setup the pick and roll and drive to the hoop. He is the key to the team right now.


Great job Beavs! Now go get win #2!

Cliff K the Videographer

I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but Cliff rocks for content. He's been posting game clips and postgame interview videos on his blogs about the basketball team lately (Howard, Seattle Pacific, and Nebraska). Since I haven't been to the games, its been great to watch the guys talk unfiltered about each win. Plus, we got some highlights in the Nebraska game. Cliff, you rock!

Check out all his other good stuff at his blog: http://www.gazettetimes.com/gtblogs/cliff_kirkpatrick/

Welcome Craig Robinson

The Beavers have a new basketball coach. After giving it a couple of days to simmer, I'm in the "wait and see" camp. I think its way too early to say he's in over his head like Tim said, but its also too early to praise this as a great hire. Like Ryan White, I have to say that I'm...interested.

There's a lot to digest with Coach Robinson.

* He's a total unknown on the West coast.
* He did a pretty impressive turn around at Brown. Granted...its Brown.
* He's been very successful outside of basketball in a very competitive business that involves strategy, selling, and long hours.
* He's related to Barack Obama.
* He's bringing in a system that can potentially help level the playing field and talent gap.
* He's a good, thoughful, and intelligent speaker

I think he could be a great hire. He's the type of guy who you want to succeed. He fits in well with Mike Riley, Pat Casey, LaVonda Wagner, and the other OSU coaches.

So, hey, I'll give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I don't buy anyone who says that Billy Grier or Bennett would have been better hires than Craig. I see him as an East Coast version of those guys. And when it got down to some unknown at IUPUI...ugh. Sure, I wanted Eustacy to get an interview but I can understand not compromising as well.

I say good hire for now and let's wait and see how this Princeton-esqe offense comes together.

Here's the NY Times article on coach Robinson: Coach With a Link to Obama Has Hope for Brown’s Future

I looked around for some video on Brown, but there wasn't much.

Here's some from what looks to be a Brown student... Brown University Bears Beastin!

There's more on the related videos area. Nothing spectacular.

Where is the furthest any season ticket holder travels to Beaver football home games?

I got an interesting comment yesterday asking about Beaver football season ticket holders. What's the furthest season ticket holder by distance? I've certainly heard of Central Oregon season ticket holders and maybe even some from Washington. Southern Oregon could be a bit of a haul.

So if you are or know of a season ticket holder who travels a looong way for each home game, leave a comment and I'll make a cool Google map widget to show where people are from and calculate the furthest season ticket holder.


On a side not: OSU Basketball is slipping further and further from relevance for Beaver nation this year. The G-T has way more articles on the 2-time national champion OSU Baseball team than the hoops team these days. I find myself watching more NBA games than I have in the last 10 years. Hmm, I wonder how many new Blazer fans are also Beavers fans?

John, Giles gone

As the major newspapers reported, Jay John was fired over the weekend. Assistant Kevin Mouton takes over and looks down the barrel of a UCLA and USC home stand. Yikes!

What surprised me was that Mouton's first order of business was to kick C.J. Giles off the team. Bummer. Seems like you'd want to give the new coach a chance to do that himself. Too bad it didn't work out.

More on this later.

Coach John may be fired, but it won't help this season.

I haven't blogged about the Beavers Men's Basketball team this year, but after starting 0-8 in Pac-10 its time.

By the time you read this Coach Jay John may already be fired. I hope that OSU keeps him through the end of the season because it doesn't gain us anything to fire him now. It probably hurts the players. And really, only Pro teams fire coaches halfway through the season right?

Time to catch up with the season. It's been a disappointing season. I've watched a few games live and a few on TV. I've been a season ticket holder the last 4-5 years because I thought that Jay John knew what it would take to build a winner because he'd seen it at U of A. After that NIT season I really felt that he had brought us over the hump and we'd be back to the Orange Express in no time.

This is definitely Coach John's last season (if not his last days). I think it is time for him to go. I think he got spoiled at Arizona. He couldn't get elite talent, yet he wouldn't change his offense to help his players. The offense clearly relies on players to make plays. He's just not good enough with the X's and O's to overcome a lack of talent like say WSU can.

I think this season he may have the best collection of athleticism he's ever had. Heck probably the best since the Miller days. Quite a bit of talent too. But no leadership and no confidence really doomed this team from the beginning. Plus, there's the poor shooting. I think that goes with confidence, but its been a common theme with Jay's teams and really OSU teams for the past 15 years. I actually like alot of these players and I think its possible that the right coach could have a serious breakthrough next season.

So we'll see what happens this week. Thanks to Coach John for his effort and lets hope for a Dennis Erickson-type hire this time.


Makes you appreciate Mike Riley and Pat Casey, huh?

Spring Game next weekend, here's the info you need

The Beavs have a week left of spring practice so start making plans to see the Spring Game next weekend. It starts at 1pm on Saturday.

If you are going don't forget to print out this Spring Prospectus from the athletic department. It has all of the players both numerically and alphabetically listed as well as depth charts at the start of spring. Plus, it lists who we lost and general outlooks for each position. Good stuff

Get it here:

OSU Football Spring Prospectus

Get your game face on! I found this nice photo in Flickr from user "Ambulance" ->

It's fun to use the "clusters" functionality on Flickr to find photos like this. Beaver Cluster





On another note, it can't be good that the basketball team is making more news this spring than the football team. I'm starting to get a little concerned with all the turnover. I thought that Jones trying out for the NBA draft would be good, but I'm not sure all this change and flux is really good. I'll be amazed if next season is a turn around season at this point. But I'll reserve judgement until I see them play.

Stadium Construction

I finally made it to a football practice last Friday and snuck into the stadium to get a field level view of the new end zone construction. It's coming along fast. It is going to be very cool to have that bowl-like feel to the stadium.

For the latest progress check out the web cam: Reser Stadium Construction Web Cam


There sure is a lot of news from the athletic department these days. New logo's (I didn't realize we invented a font, now that's actually pretty cool), new uniforms (April 27th new FB unis), and new basketball players.

I actually admire what Jay is doing. The team has a 2 year window with Giles and he doesn't want to waste any time on players who won't get us to the next level. I'm a little bummed about losing Silvar because I think he had potential to be a really nice backup PG. Washington is a bummer because I like the kid, but he needed to get an outside shot or else just play point. Really, I could take or leave any of them. I'm glad they were Beavers and hope they had a good time while they were here. Jay wants a more athletic team. I can't argue with that. Let's run, have fun and win some games.

Now just pray for no rain this weekend becuase I've got baseball tickets!

It's Tournament Time!

Its time to finalize those brackets. March Madness is almost upon us. How nice would it be if our team actually participated. One can only dream. It's probably a little late, but if you need some help filling out those brackets try this:

Pure LRMC Rankings

Now about the Pac-10.

I just saw the Oregon basketball team heading out of the Eugene airport as I was heading back from a conference. And that got me thinking about whether I could actually root for the Ducks this year. Hmm. How about the Pac-10 this year huh?

The Pac-10 has significantly raised its profile over the last year. Starting with UCLA's run last year and continuing with the surprise seasons of Oregon and WSU, people believe in the Pac-10 now. Sure, the media was jumping on the bandwagon mid-season, but the real proof is in the tournament selection committee. I don't remember a season with this many high seeds (or teams) in the NCAA tournament, ever.

#2 - UCLA
#3 - WSU
#3 - Oregon
#5 - USC
#8 - Arizona
#11 - Stanford

When OSU was making it to the NCAA tournament I don't remember us getting higher than a 5 or 6 seed. And that's when we placed second in the Pac-10! Now both Wazzu and Oregon get 3 seeds?! Add UCLA and USC and WOW. Back to the Ducks, anyone else having a hard time picking Oregon in their brackets? I mean as a 3 seed you have to at least pick them to win one game. But what about the sweet 16? Elite 8? Man, does that hurt. I've got them getting to the final 16, but no further.

Really, I do want the Pac-10 to do well because it will conitinue to raise the profile of the league and maybe we can get a #3 seed...someday.

Good luck everyone, happy March Madness!

Time to be the Florida Marlins?

If you are Jay John, is it time to play for the future? I say yes.

I think what happened over the weekend is what should continue for the rest of the season. Punt on 2006-07. Lets get our young guys ready for next season. Play Seth Tarver, Calvin Hampton, and Ruland Shaftenaar more. Keep playing Josh Tarver and Marcel Jones. Challenge the rest of the guys to play better or they sit.

Could the fans let this happen? I don't know, but I want to see what next season might look like now.