Oregon State blew out Colorado 76-57 on Friday night and fell in a tight battle against Utah 66-64 over the weekend to open Pac-12 play. BeversEdge.com gives five takeaways from the weekend.
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1. The Beavers are better than people think. Despite an abysmal non-conference schedule against lower tier opponents, the Beavers looked ready for Pac-12 play against Colorado and Utah. Even though the Beavers lost to the Utes in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday, this team played their hearts out and nearly came out of the weekend with a 2-0 conference record. Keep an eye on the Beavers next week against the Oregon Ducks. UO lost to Utah in Eugene and the Ducks look very beatable so far this season. The Beavers might be able to pull one off in Corvallis.
2. The Civil War is going to be entertaining. The Beavers won’t have to wait long to get the bad taste of the Utah defeat out of their mouths as they host their bitter rivals Oregon on Friday night. The game figures to be a packed house given how OSU played over the first two Pac-12 games and a win over Oregon would be huge for Wayne Tinkle’s squad. The 2017-18 Ducks aren’t the 2016-17 team and the Beavers will be able to match the Ducks stride for stride if they play good basketball and get the home crowd rolling.
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3. Drew Eubanks still isn’t playing to his potential. After the end of the last season, Eubanks tested out the NBA draft waters and ultimately decided to come back for his junior season. So far this season, Eubanks hasn’t been a dominant enough of a player at the college level to indicate he’ll be successful at the next level. Against Colorado and Utah, he had a combined 17 points on 12 shot attempts and fouled out against the Utes. For a guy that was considering the NBA, that isn’t going to cut it. I believe that Eubanks needs to demand the ball more down low and establish himself as a post presence. If he can do that, the Beavers will have an easier time on offense as they can establish an inside-out game more consistently.
4. OSU’s weak non-conference schedule didn’t appear to hurt them. I wrote last week that I thought the Beavers might be in for a rude awakening when Pac-12 play came around due to the lower-level non-conference opponents that OSU played but after one week of action, it appears that I was wrong. I’m not saying that Utah and Colorado are the cream of the crop in the Pac, but both of those teams played quality non-conference foes and the Beavers went toe-to-toe with both of them.
5. The Beavers will get better as the season goes on. Like a fine wine, I expect the Beavers to get better with age as the season goes on. Against Utah, we saw freshman Alfred Hollins and Zach Reichle on the floor in crunch time and both players played well beyond their years. Both Hollins and Reichle haven’t come onto the scene as quickly as fellow freshman Ethan Thompson did, but these guys will only get better with experience and as they continue to grow, so will the Beavers’ depth and playmaking ability.
