Your Oregon State Beavers, the 15th most winning program in NCAA history, have just lost to…
Sacramento State!
I thought the program hit a new low with the loss to Corpus Christi. Nope.
And not only did they lose, but they were down by 22 points at the half. That’s horrendous. The importance of the CBI championship has been overstated. After the NCAA and NIT, a CBI championship means the Beavers are in the 90-100 range in rankings. That’s hardly something to celebrate. Gotta say, the CBI is a clever way to inflate the ego of terrible teams and give them false confidence. Probably a good thing for a rebuilding team that’s mature enough to handle the “champion” title, but not a young, immature team that is learning how to win.
The bottom line is that this team is going nowhere so long as Calvin Haynes, Schaftenaar, and the Tarvers remain the focal point. The young guys (specifically Joe Burton and Jared Cunningham, but also Angus Brandt) have played well, and they should be playing major minutes. The dynamic and chemistry of this team is off. You have freshman who are better than their junior and senior counterparts, and thus those older players are consistently looking over their shoulders’. Craig Robinson needs to start the young talent, let them have their growing pains and find true confidence, and then allow the chips to fall where they may. There’s no reason for Calvin Haynes to be attempting game-winning jumpers in two straight games when you have guys like Burton and Cunningham who can create their own shots and get to the hoop. 65-63 Sacramento State.
Yeah, both disappointing and embarrasing. I agree – I thought they got some ‘new’ talent to bring to this team. I went to all the home CBI games last year. OSU’s style leaves a lot to be desired – pass the ball around for 30 seconds and then take a shot. That’s why all their games are so low scoring. I was surprised to see the Tarvers and Schaftenaar are still playing. Haynes runs very hot and cold. Hopefully Robinson will get the right group on the court sooner vs. later. I think the starters are leftover Jay John’s recruits…time to move into a new era.
As I noted above I see a few problems. Maybe I’ll outline them more clearly here to get some feedback and see if you guys agree/disagree:
1. The older guys are looking over their shoulders.
2. The CBI improperly inflated (a) expectations and (b) player egos.
Those are the two main problems I see.
To expound: Burton had a monster game versus Texas Tech, but didn’t seem to get minutes tonight. CR probably feels an obligation to play Schaftenaar. Same with Cunningham. Didn’t see the Tech game but listened on the radio, and he was slashing to the basket at will. None of the older guys can create their own shot. Seems CR is caught in between two worlds. He better decide if he wants to go young/athletic or old/princeton-style…the Frankenstein approach isn’t working.
Coach Rob is allowing some pretty atrocious early season losses, and I’m not entirely sure how he will respond to this.
What do you think, Angry? I want to know what you thought about the Robinson hire and last season in general and what you think about his abilities as a coach.
At this point I’m more willing to suggest that our veteran players aren’t playing with any composure and Rob is giving them a chance to hang themselves and he’ll eventually give the people that perform well in practice and games a chance. That was one thing I liked about him last year.
I loved the Robinson hire at the time, before I even knew he had connections to the White House. Mainly because I saw he was a Princeton guy, and I always felt that the Beavers needed a gimmicky offense (i.e. Princeton Offense) since they had such a pronounced talent deficiency. Then I learned he had those connections and saw how he could parlay them into recruiting success, and I liked the hire even more. I still like everything about the guy and the way his team has played, except for the start of this season. He really needs to break these guys down again and make them realize they’re not “champions” of anything and it’s going to take a lot more than simply showing up to win some games. It’s hard to comment too much before seeing a game. When is the first televised game?
The first televised game is against Colorado, I think…in about a week?