Oregon State Women's Basketball: Pac-12 Tournament Preview

With the regular season in the rearview mirror, the No. 11 Oregon State women's basketball team now turns its attention to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 women's basketball tournament.

The Beavers (24-6, 14-4 Pac-12) earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will have a bye in the first round before facing the winner of Washington/Utah on Friday night.

The Pac-12 Tournament always brings out the best in the conference and the Beavers will be looking to bolster their resume with a strong showing in Vegas...

BeaversEdge.com breaks it all down.

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The No.11 Oregon State women's basketball team has wrapped up its regular season and is beginning its march to the postseason as the Beavers head to Las Vegas this weekend for the Pac-12 Tournament. For the fifth-straight season, the team has a bye in the first round.

"I'm excited for the challenge," Beaver head coach Scott Rueck said. "This conference made everyone so tough and you've been in every sort of game at this point. Now that we are in a one and done situation, I love our experience that we can draw from. The last three weeks have really tested us and prepared us for the postseason."

Vegas is a new venue for the tournament this season as since 2013 it's been held at Key Arena in Seattle, Wash. With the city of Seattle and Key Arena undergoing renovations that will enable the arena to have an NHL and eventually an NBA team, the women's tourney will be displaced to Vegas in 2019 and 2020.

Rueck, who's taken his teams' to Vegas five times for preseason tournaments in the past, didn't expect the move, but is excited to see how a new area and fanbase will support Pac-12 WBB.

"I didn't expect it to move," Rueck said. "I didn't realize the arena was undergoing renovations, so once I did, it made sense that we would be displaced for a couple years. Vegas makes sense because of the men's tournament and I'm excited to see the atmosphere in the new venue."

Senior guard Katie McWilliams, who is the only player remaining on the roster from the 2016 OSU Pac-12 Tournament Championship team, says she'll miss Seattle but is excited for the prospect of playing in Vegas.

"I'll miss Seattle, but it's going to be awesome to see Beaver Nation bring a good showing (to Vegas)," McWilliams said. "It's going to be fun to be on the strip, play at the MGM, and it will be great environment for a tournament like this."

While Rueck hopes that everything will go smoothly in the new venue, its a bit of mindset change for the team knowing that they've had an established routine they've been accustomed to in Seattle.

"For us as coaches, you hope that everything is logistically conducive to success," Rueck said. "Seattle was almost like home because we knew exactly where we practiced, where the hotel was and you had a routine built. Now, this is all new. Navigating all of that is a new adversity and I'm anxious to figure it all out.

The Beavers will begin their quest for the just the second Pac-12 Tournament Championship in school history on Friday night as the Beavers will host the winner of sixth seeded Utah (20-9, 9-9) and 11th seeded Washington (9-20, 2-15) on Friday night at 8:30 p.m.

Junior guard Mikayla Pivec, who was named All-Pac-12 along with sophomore guard Destiny Slocum, likes how the bracket shook out for the Beavers.

"It's a good matchup for us whether it's Utah or Washington," Pivec said. "We were able to win those games in the regular season, but like we found out last season, the regular season doesn't really matter in the postseason. We have to be ready for every team to bring their best against us."

When taking a closer look at the bracket, Pivec is right that the matchups might just tilt in the Beavers' favor. If they can defeat Utah or UW, that will most likely bring about a rematch with Stanford in the semis, a game that the Beavers will certainly have plenty of motivation for after falling 61-44 in the regular season.

OSU will certainly be looking to get some revenge on the Cardinal should they make it that far, and if they're able to win, the Beavers could find themselves in the championship game against the Ducks. While there's a lot of games to be played, the idea of a Civil War championship game is certainly intriguing.

"We have to take it game by game, but that would be an awesome rematch to have a rivalry game for the championship," McWilliams said.

The Pac-12 Tournament presents a challenge unlike any other as you have the potential to play three games in three days if you advance to the championship round.

While the Beavers have one title coming back in 2016, Rueck said that the top-to-bottom depth of the Pac-12 might be the best its ever been and that creates a whole host of challenges on top of having to play so many games in so little time.

"This is the toughest week of the year," Rueck said. "If you make it to that third game, you're running on fumes. We've been in this situation earlier this season with the Vancouver Showcase (three in three days) and our team handled that very well. We played well then, let's do the same in Vegas."

The Beavers will be heading to Vegas in search of erasing the ghosts of last seasons past as OSU was one and done in this tournament a season ago. After earned the No. 3 seed in 2018, the Beavers were upset by No. 6 Arizona State in the quarterfinal round.

"It's definitely something we can't have happen again," McWilliams said. "We need these three wins in terms of looking ahead to hosting and potentially trying to get to the Portland Regional."

Added Pivec: "Last year was a really tough experience after the Pac-12 Tournament," Pivec said. "You have to sit there for two weeks waiting for everyone else to play and waiting on the NCAA seeding. This year we want to have an extended stay in Vegas, come out strong and have no regrets."