Oregon St. @ Cal
By osbeaver
Big game for the Beavs tonight against the California Golden Bears. OSU is on a 4 game losing streak. It doesn’t look likely OSU will move up from their current #8 spot in the Pac-12 tourney unless they win tonight. It also will be a big opportunity for Cunningham, who is averaging nearly 19 points a game, compared to Guiterrez’ only 2nd best on his own team 13.4 pts a game. Jorge also is only shooting 45% on the year. If Cunningham can outscore him by atleast 4 or so points tonight it should help his case that the scoring gap is far too wide and Jared deserves the Pac-12 POY honor.
I expect Oregon State will hang in this game but I don’t expect them to win it. Craig Robinson is due and he said he may have to make more of a spectacle of himself to get the players to perform better. I don’t care what the forumla is, it is time for a ‘W.’ Craig needs to be fully engaged and an important part of pulling off the upset. Coaching matters and he also must step it up.
In baseball news Oregon State won the 1st game in their double-header against Santa Barbara in the 3-2 in the 8th inning as the opener was only scheduled for 7 innings. Game 2 they rallied in the top of the 9th to come back from an 11-10 deficit to score 2 runs on an off the wall deep ball double. However with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th and all of Beaver Nation anxious to seal the sweep, they allowed a high hit ball to float inches over the wall and over the outstretch glove of an OSU outfielder. With the game tied 12-12 at the end of regulation they decided to schedule the rest of the game for 11:30am tomorrow because of darkness.
It has been an up and down day so far but it would be nice to end it with a big basketball victory on the road. It will be great if Cunningham scores atleast 22 points but the whole team has to want to win. My recomendation is to use Collier some more. His field goal % is still at .621. After that Brandt at .556 and Burton at .550 lead the team. I think we have to play the odds more. Starks thinks he is the best shooter on the team but is only averaging .378 from the field. I liked Jared’s comment that they have to look at everything and do some things differently. For whatever reason this team has not gotten over the hump in Pac-12 play to the extent we thought they would. Defense, more leadership and determination are all needed.