Oregon St. vs Wazzu
By osbeaver
Oregon State takes on Washington St. tonight in a 7PM contest at Gill. This one is considered a should win by just about everyone. OSU is a potent team at home and hopefully the Cougs will run straight into a meatgrinder tonight with a suffocating mix of defenses. F Brock Motum is leading the Cougs with over 17 points a game and nearly 7 rebounds. He probably was the biggest reason OSU fell just short against Wazzu in their last matchup in Spokane.
Obviously, I like OSU to control and win tonight’s game. Jared Cunningham is having an impressive year but we are still further down the PAC-12 standings than we would like. We absolutely have to have this game and then quickly get ready for the marquee matchup against Washington on Saturday. I see Cunningham getting around 24 points tonight and perhaps adding 4 steals. Collier, Brandt, Burton and Moreland will provide the muscle and together we should have more than Brock and the Cougs can handle in front of what will probably be 6500 fans tonight.
Cunningham has to stay aggressive because it would be a great honor for himself and Oregon State to win PAC-12 POY. He is right on the cusp and whoever finishes the strongest and also leads their teams to alot of wins is going to take it. Right now it is a coin flip between 3 people with Jorge Guiterrez of Cal and UW’s Tony Wroten the others. I would think a junior in Cunningham should have an edge on a freshman but UW’s record is why Wroten is currently neck and neck with Jared.
Get out to the game tonight if you can. OSU Hoops is showing signs that we are getting this program moving and we need to keep that momentum going. In other news it looks like Riley probably is moving forward with Rod Perry as DB coach without much excitement from Beaver Nation. Oh well, this is just another example of Riley and BDC being out of touch with the winning formulas at most other institutions. Riley has a lot to prove this year and the next if he remains that long. Beyond that I don’t care at this point because if he wants to have a few Golden Years with Perry, that is fine, but it could easily be time soon to move on without him.
Even a Holiday Bowl seems like a stretch for Riley in the next 2 years. I would not be surprised if he didn’t do better than the Las Vegas Bowl in the next 2 years. That is where I lay the odds. I am confident he won’t go above the Sun which is against ACC #4. Even the mighty Holiday Bowl that he has never delivered in over 11 years at OSU is only a matchup against Big 12 #5, nevermind that they only have 10 teams. Riley truly is the definition of mediocre and slow. He wants 20 years and all he likely will do in that time, if we give it to him, is take us to one measely Holiday Bowl.
Tonight’s game should put us in a much finer mood though and baseball is nearly here. It will be nice to see dirt moving on the basketball practice facility this late spring as fans come down to watch OSU Baseball try to return to the CWS this year. We have a strong team and Casey knows how to win.