With the Oregon State women's basketball team fresh off winning the Preseason WNIT Championship and the Oregon State men's team off to a 3-1 start, BeaversEdge.com Managing Editor Brenden Slaughter gives you the rundown on Scott Rueck and Wayne Tinkle's squads.
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WBB: Beavs red-hot and rollin' after WNIT Championship
RECORD: 4-0
ON DECK: vs Southern Utah (Nov. 21st - 11 a.m.)
RUNDOWN: Following a stretch where the Oregon State women's basketball team played three games over the course of a week for the Preseason WNIT, the Beavers have a lighter load over the next 10 days as they'll play just two. On Thursday, OSU will host its annual beyond the classroom game where they invite kids from all over the state to come and watch the team play at 11:30 a.m. vs Southern Utah.
After the matchup with the Thunderbirds, Rueck, and Co. have another dose of downtime, not playing again until Black Friday when they take on the Miami Hurricanes in the Sunshine State. OSU will also play Liberty in Miami on the 30th before returning to Gill Coliseum on December 6th. With the Beavers sporting an unblemished record and a Preseason WNIT trophy, through four games, there's no doubt that this years' team is going to be really, really good.
Now that Kat Tudor and Taya Corosdale are back in the fold after missing the early part of the season due to injury, OSU is now at full-strength and should begin to flex their talent, depth, and size on just about anyone in the conference. Rueck is blessed with having a ton of versatile talent that can be utilized in a variety of ways, so look for the Beavers to continue playing at an extremely high level.
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MBB: After a big win in Laramie, OSU eyes match up with UCSB
RECORD: 3-1
ON DECK: vs UC Santa Barbara (Nov. 20th - 7 p.m.) | vs Grambling State (Nov. 23rd - 11:30 a.m.)
RUNDOWN: After dropping its first game of the season to Oklahoma at Moda Center, the Oregon State men's basketball team bounced back in a big way on the road against Wyoming last Saturday. While the OSU football team was handling Arizona State on the football field, the basketball team was 1,128 miles away in Laramie, putting together an impressive showing against the Cowboys. With five players scoring in double-figures, the Beavers were quickly able to put the loss to the Sooners behind them, routing Wyoming 83-63 and improving their record to 3-1 on the year. With the Beavers having NCAA Tournament aspirations, picking up as many non-conference wins as possible is paramount to the Beavers' chances.
With games against winnable opponents (UCSB and Grambling State) on deck this week at Gill Coliseum, the Beavers are in a good position to take both games and be sitting 5-1 entering next week. While the loss to Oklahoma may have exposed some of the weaknesses that this years' group has to overcome, this is the most talented and depth-filled team that Wayne Tinkle has had, and I expect it to just be a matter of time before they're firing on all cylinders.
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