With the regular season in the rearview mirror, the Oregon State men's basketball team now turns its attention to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament. The Beavers (18-12, 10-6 Pac-12) earned the No. 4 seed in the tournament and will have a bye in the first round before facing the winner of Colorado/Cal on Thursday afternoon.

BeaversEdge.com breaks it all down.

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up now!

The Oregon State men’s basketball team has made it to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament and will be looking to make some noise from the No. 4 spot. After finishing the regular season with a 10-8 conference record, the Beavers were awarded the four seed in the tournament and have the all-important first round bye.

OSU will face the winner of No. 5-seed Colorado and No. 12-seed California at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. With the Beavers struggling inconsistent play in the Pac-12 regular season, this weekend’s tournament in Vegas offers the only lifeline remaining when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. Due to the Beavers' NET rating of 84, making a run this weekend is the only chance to pad their resume and pick up some extra wins.

Despite Washington winning the Pac-12 regular season crown, the Pac-12’s auto-bid is determined by the winner of the conference tournament, not the regular season. Which means that if the Beavers were able to capture their first Pac-12 Tournament title, they would be in the Big Dance.

There’s a lot of things that would need to happen for the Beavers to put themselves in a situation where they could even play for the championship game, but given that OSU boasts some of the most seasoned and veteran playmakers in the conference on its roster, it’s not unreasonable to think that the Beavers could get hot and play their way into March Madness.

The Beavers will have a tough road ahead of them, having to not only play the 5/12 winner in the first game, but then a matchup with No. 1 seed Washington would await them. OSU fell to UW 81-76 in Seattle in the last week of the season and given that UW has a 2-0 series lead this season, the Beavers will be itching to get another crack at the conference's best.

While winning the tournament and earning a berth to the NCAA Tournament is certainly the goal for the Beavers heading into the weekend, there's much more on the line. Given the Beavers' 1-3 record in their last four games, they've been pushed to the outside of most NIT projections.

With the Beavers having their first winning season in Pac-12 play since 89-90, it would be a shame to see their season conclude in Vegas. If the Beavers are able to beat Cal/Colorado and play Washington very tough, it will probably be enough for them to squeak into the NIT field.

Unlike previous seasons where the Pac-12 has always had a dominant few teams at the top that would almost always win, (Arizona, Oregon, UCLA, etc.) the tournament is truly up for grabs this season. Washington lost to Oregon round out its season, Arizona State has been inconsistent, as has Utah... so there's a path for the Beavers, but it's going to be a difficult one as they'll have to play their best basketball of the season to make a run.

- This is Oregon State's highest seed in the Pac-12 Tournament since being the No. 1 seed in 1990.

- 2018-19’s conference record of 10-8 marks the first time since the 89-90 season that the Beavers had a winning record in Pac-12 play.

- The No. 4 seed is 14-6 all-time against the No. 5 seed and 1-0 all-time against the No. 12 seed.

- Regardless of who their opponent is, the Beavers have found regular season success against both teams. Oregon State played California one time this season and won 79-71 on Feb. 9 in Corvallis. Oregon State also played Colorado one time this season and won 76-74 on Jan. 31 in Boulder.

- This season marks the first time winning five conference road games in a season since the 1989-90 team finished 6-3 on the road.

- Tres Tinkle was selected to the All-Pac-12 First Team for the second straight year. He was second in the Pac-12 in scoring (21.4) and comes into the tournament sporting four straight games with an average of 26.4 per game. During his recent four-game stretch, he's shooting 53.2 percent (33-for-62) from the field and 50.0 percent (12-for-24) from behind the arc. Tinkle is the only player in the Pac-12 in the top 10 in the league in scoring (second, 20.7), rebounding (fifth, 8.2), assists (ninth, 3.9) and steals (fourth, 1.7).

- Stephen Thompson Jr. was selected to the All-Pac-12 Second Team and was named the 2018-19 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

- Kylor Kelley was selected to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team...Kelley is tied for sixth on the Pac-12 single-season blocked shots list with 102.