Beavers getting done with walk-ons and freshman. Sound familiar?
From ESPN.
Team of the Week: Oregon State Beavers
Last week: Won at Cal 69-65; won at Stanford 77-62.
Craig Robinson scheduled a home game against Cal State Bakersfield for Monday night because he'd assumed the Beavers would need some confidence going into Saturday's Civil War matchup against Oregon in Corvallis.
Robinson had had no idea the Beavers would be one of the hottest teams in the Pac-10 after an improbable road sweep of Cal and Stanford. He'd had no clue the Beavers would have three Pac-10 victories, including a home win over USC. That's one more conference win than Arizona, three more than winless rival Oregon, and as many as Stanford and Washington State.
Why would he? Oregon State went 0-18 in the Pac-10 last season, the first team to go winless in that league since it expanded to 10 teams in the 1970s. The Beavers lost three scholarship players from last season's team -- Marcel Jones, C.J. Giles and Sean Carter -- and replaced them with one redshirt and three walk-ons, including the rugged Daniel Deane, who came up with big buckets against the Cardinal on Saturday night.
AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
As if seeing his brother-in-law Barack Obama sworn in as president wasn't enough, Craig Robinson finished the week with a Bay Area sweep.
Eleven players returned from a 6-24 team that ended last season on a 20-game losing streak and endured a midseason coaching change from Jay John to Kevin Mouton and a feeling of hopelessness around the program.
So let's face it: Sweeping the Bay Area teams was flat-out improbable for the Beavers. It's the first time the school has done it since the 1992-93 season, which also was the last time Oregon State had won at Stanford. OSU was 5-13 in the Pac-10 during the 2005-06 season, which was the last time the Beavers won two road games in the same season and the last time they won at Cal. Oh, and the Beavers were 3-15 in 2006-07, which means the Beavers have won as many league games by Jan. 24 as they had in the past two seasons combined.
Oregon State's Calvin Haynes said in Sunday's Oregonian that Robinson could have jettisoned players from last season's team, but he didn't take that route. He stuck with them, and it's paying off. Things such as the Princeton principles and the 1-3-1 zone defense are working well for the Beavers and flustering teams such as Cal and Stanford. We'll see whether their success continues, but the Beavers should have a better home-court advantage at Gill Coliseum, one of the better old barns in college basketball, with upcoming games against Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State. Could the Beavers (8-10) win these games, reach a 6-5 record in the Pac-10 and be better than .500 overall? Remember, this is the same team that was trying to learn how to win early in the season after losing at Howard and to Yale and Montana State at home.
This also is the same team that had to deal with some distractions this week when its head coach was off in Washington, D.C., for two days watching his brother-in-law become the 44th president. Quite frankly, this has been one phenomenal week for Robinson's family, the Beavers and the ultimate direction of the program.
From ESPN.
Team of the Week: Oregon State Beavers
Last week: Won at Cal 69-65; won at Stanford 77-62.
Craig Robinson scheduled a home game against Cal State Bakersfield for Monday night because he'd assumed the Beavers would need some confidence going into Saturday's Civil War matchup against Oregon in Corvallis.
Robinson had had no idea the Beavers would be one of the hottest teams in the Pac-10 after an improbable road sweep of Cal and Stanford. He'd had no clue the Beavers would have three Pac-10 victories, including a home win over USC. That's one more conference win than Arizona, three more than winless rival Oregon, and as many as Stanford and Washington State.
Why would he? Oregon State went 0-18 in the Pac-10 last season, the first team to go winless in that league since it expanded to 10 teams in the 1970s. The Beavers lost three scholarship players from last season's team -- Marcel Jones, C.J. Giles and Sean Carter -- and replaced them with one redshirt and three walk-ons, including the rugged Daniel Deane, who came up with big buckets against the Cardinal on Saturday night.
As if seeing his brother-in-law Barack Obama sworn in as president wasn't enough, Craig Robinson finished the week with a Bay Area sweep.
Eleven players returned from a 6-24 team that ended last season on a 20-game losing streak and endured a midseason coaching change from Jay John to Kevin Mouton and a feeling of hopelessness around the program.
So let's face it: Sweeping the Bay Area teams was flat-out improbable for the Beavers. It's the first time the school has done it since the 1992-93 season, which also was the last time Oregon State had won at Stanford. OSU was 5-13 in the Pac-10 during the 2005-06 season, which was the last time the Beavers won two road games in the same season and the last time they won at Cal. Oh, and the Beavers were 3-15 in 2006-07, which means the Beavers have won as many league games by Jan. 24 as they had in the past two seasons combined.
Oregon State's Calvin Haynes said in Sunday's Oregonian that Robinson could have jettisoned players from last season's team, but he didn't take that route. He stuck with them, and it's paying off. Things such as the Princeton principles and the 1-3-1 zone defense are working well for the Beavers and flustering teams such as Cal and Stanford. We'll see whether their success continues, but the Beavers should have a better home-court advantage at Gill Coliseum, one of the better old barns in college basketball, with upcoming games against Oregon, Arizona and Arizona State. Could the Beavers (8-10) win these games, reach a 6-5 record in the Pac-10 and be better than .500 overall? Remember, this is the same team that was trying to learn how to win early in the season after losing at Howard and to Yale and Montana State at home.
This also is the same team that had to deal with some distractions this week when its head coach was off in Washington, D.C., for two days watching his brother-in-law become the 44th president. Quite frankly, this has been one phenomenal week for Robinson's family, the Beavers and the ultimate direction of the program.
