3/29/2021 basketball Edit

Oregon State Set To Take On Houston In Elite Eight

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

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With the Oregon State men's basketball team (20-12) set to take on Houston (26-4) in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, BeaversEdge.com previews the matchup between the Beavers and Cougars...

MORE: FB: 2022 Big Board Break Down: QB | Sneak Peek At Houston | OSU Punches Elite Eight Ticket

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN

No. 12 Oregon State (20-12) vs No. 2 Houston (27-3)

4:15 p.m. PT (7:15 p.m. ET)

Lucas Oil Stadium - Indianapolis, Ind.

TV - CBS (Ian Eagle (PxP), Jim Spanarkel (analyst), & Jamie Erdahl (reporter)

Radio - Beaver Sports Network (LINK)

Series: Oregon State leads 2-0. The last matchup came at Gill Coliseum in 2009 when the Beavers beat the Cougars 49-45 in the CBI Tournament.

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OREGON STATE PROJECTED STARTERS

#2 G Jarod Lucas - 6-foot-3, 195-pound So. - 12.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, & 1.2 assists

#5 G Ethan Thompson - 6-foot-5, 195-pound Sr. - 15.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, & 3.8 assists

#11 G Zach Reichle - 6-foot-5, 205-pound Sr. - 7.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, & 2.8 assists

#10 F Warith Alatishe - 6-foot-7, 200-pound Jr. - 9.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, & 1.8 assists

#12 C Roman Silva - 7-foot-1, 265-pound Sr. - 5.7 points & 2.9 rebounds

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HOUSTON PROJECTED STARTERS

#00 G Marcus Sasser - 6-foot-1, 190-pound So. - 13.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, & 2.3 assists

#24 G Quentin Grimes - 6-foot-5, 205-pound Jr. - 18 points, 6.0 rebounds, & 1.9 assists

#3 G DeJon Jarreau - 6-foot-5, 185-pound Sr. - 10.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, & 4.3 assists

#4 F Justin Gorham - 6-foot-7, 225-pound Sr. - 8.6 points & 8.6 rebounds

#32 F Reggie Chaney- 6-foot-8, 225-pound Jr. - 4.6 points & 2.8 rebounds

Oregon State Quick Hits

- Oregon State has five wins against Top 25 teams, its most in a season since the 1975-76 team also won five. The Beavers’ last win against a Top 10 team came in Wayne Tinkle’s first season (Oregon State 58, No. 7 Arizona 56 on Jan. 11, 2015) ...

- In the three NCAA Tournament games, the Beavers are shooting 43.7% (69-for-158) from the field and limiting its opponent to 31.3% (57-for-182).

- Oregon State is shooting 41.7% (50-for-1120) from beyond the arc and limiting its opponent to 24.6% (35-for-142) from deep during the current six-game winning streak.

- Ethan Thompson (1,705) passed A.C. Green (1,694) and moved into seventh on Oregon State’s career scoring list. Thompson is shooting 96.2% (25-for-26) from the free-throw line in the NCAA Tournament and is averaging 20.3 points and 7.0 rebounds.

- Warith Alatishe is leading the Pac-12 in double-figure rebounding games (14) and offensive rebounding (3.28).

- Jarod Lucas leads the Pac-12 and is 13th in the nation in free throw percentage at 89.6% (103- for-115).

- Tariq Silver has 13 assists and no turnovers in 162 minutes this season.

- In the 20 wins, Oregon State is averaging 74.7 points, while shooting 46.5% from the field, 39.1% from beyond the arc and 78.5% from the free-throw line with a rebounding margin of +4.6 and assist average of 15.3.

- In the 12 losses, Oregon State is averaging 64.2 points, while shooting 38.9% from the field, 30.8% from beyond the arc and 72.8% from the free-throw line with a rebounding margin of -4.7 and assist average of 13.3.

- Oregon State averaged 74.2 points and 17.2 assists in its 16 home games; 63.4 points and 10.8 assists in its 10 road games; 73.8 points and 13.8 assists in its six neutral site games.

- In seven seasons under Tinkle, Oregon State is 83-19 (13-2 this season) when leading at halftime and 95-11 (17-2 this season) when leading with five minutes to play.

- Oregon State is 27-1 since the start of the 2017-18 season when scoring 80-plus points (6-0 in 2017-18; 7-0 in 2018-19; 10-0 in 2019-20, 4-1 in 2020-21).

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Prediction: Oregon State Advances To The Final Four

For the first time since 1962, the Oregon State men's basketball team will be back in the Final Four...

It's surreal typing the above text, but heading into this matchup against Houston, I like Oregon State's chances to be able to spring the upset and ride a wave of orange and black to college basketball's biggest stage.

Simply put, Wayne Tinkle's Beavers are playing some of the best college basketball that I've ever seen and as I've said all along, it's going to take a gargantuan opposing performance to slow up their mojo.

The Cougars are certainly capable of providing the shell-shocking type performance that it would require to knock out OSU as they've been one of the more dominant teams in the country en-route to a 27-3 overall record.

They play tremendous defense, rebound extremely well, and can get out and score in transition, so the challenges the Beavers will have to overcome will certainly be as tall as any recent contest.

Three-point shooting and rebounding figure to be the two areas where the Beavers need to excel if they want to come out on top. For OSU to advance to the Final Four, they'll need to continue to rebound a high clip and hit shots from beyond-the-arc.

The Cougars boast a top-five three-point defense (28%) and have the sixth-best rebounding margin (+9), which allows them to stifle opposing offenses, just like they did this past round against Syracuse.

On the flip side, I'm very curious to see how the Beavers choose to attack the Cougars defensively... Tinkle and Co. made national headlines in the win over Loyola-Chicago by throwing an aggressive mix of 2-3 zone and man to man looks, will they follow a similar script against the Cougars?

While Houston's defense gets a ton of credit and rightfully so, its offense can be just as lethal if the Beavers don't bring the same defensive intensity and mental sharpness they did against LUC.

I expect this to be a tough matchup for Oregon State, but ultimately, I believe the train will keep rolling. There's no question that the Beavers have channeled the magic of the ole orange express these past weeks, but even that train never made it beyond the Elite Eight...