With the Oregon State women's basketball team coming off its most successful weekend of the season and the men's basketball team earning a home-split against the mountain schools, BeaversEdge.com gives you the latest on Scott Rueck and Wayne Tinkle's squads...
The Oregon State women's basketball team is flying high after an impressive showing in Los Angeles over the weekend as the Beavers knocked off USC & No. 8 UCLA.
With the wins, the Beavers (8-6, 6-6 Pac-12) have further pushed themselves into the postseason conversation and really given themselves a much-needed boost of confidence.
It's been anything but smooth-sailing for Scott Rueck's squad this year as the team has dealt with incredible amounts of adversity, but yet, it didn't faze them. The Beavers could have very easily said this wasn't their year for numerous valid reasons, yet here they are ushering themselves back into the postseason picture.
With the Beavers already having reached the minimum threshold for games required to be eligible for the postseason, it's now all about padding the resume and getting as many wins as possible heading into Selection Monday.
It was originally thought that the team might have been able to make up some of the previously postponed contests at some point before the selection show, but as of now, there are no updates.
So with that being said, Sunday's contest against Oregon has suddenly become the most important game of the season...
With the team currently sitting at.500 in Pac-12 play and 8-6 overall, the Beavers need this win to leave no doubt for the selection committee. They'll also have the benefit of playing at least once during the Pac-12 tournament, which could also present multiple opportunities for more wins.
All in all, the Beavers took care of business in the most impressive way possible in LA this past weekend...
Rueck and Co. knew that they needed to play stellar basketball to keep the postseason dream alive and it speaks volumes to the character and resiliency of this group that they came away victorious...
The Oregon State men's basketball team snapped a three-game slide last week as the Beavers were able to rout the Utah Utes at Gill Coliseum 74-56 last Thursday. However, they weren't able to complete the home sweep as they fell to Colorado 61-57 on Saturday.
Against the Utes, everything was working for the Beavers as Ethan Thompson had 25 points, eight assists and five rebounds, while Warith Alatishe added a career-high 19 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and three steals.
The Beavers played much-better against the Buffs this time around, but just couldn't quite get over the top of a good Colorado team. Thompson led the way for the Beavs with 18 points and seven assists while Alatishe added 12 points and 10 boards.
While this year has seemingly been one step forward and one step back with the team playing .500 basketball this season, the Beavers (11-11, 7-9 Pac-12) have largely outperformed preseason expectations as they were picked 12th by Pac-12 media.
With three regular-season games remaining on the schedule (@ Cal, @ Stanford, vs Oregon), it's certainly all hands on deck as the Beavers will be looking to be playing their best basketball of the season down the stretch. All three of those contests will be tough games and if the Beavers want to be in the postseason, they need to stack up a few wins...
Outside of winning the Pac-12 Tournament, the NCAA Tournament isn't going to happen, but, the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is back this season and the Beavers are looking like a team that could perhaps end up in the field.
To make that happen, however, the Beavers need to close the season strong and leave nothing to chance by getting as many wins as possible...
