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With the Oregon State men's basketball team coming off a Bay Area sweep and the women's basketball team fresh off an upset win over No. 14 Oregon, BeaversEdge.com gives three things we learned, poses two questions, and gives one prediction.
MORE: WBB: Beavers Upset No. 14 Oregon | Baseball Sweeps Grand Canyon
Three Things We Learned
1. Scott Rueck's squad rose to the occasion
-> Talk about an impressive victory when it was needed most...
The Beavers entered the contest against No. 14 Oregon needing the win to solidify their place in the NCAA Tournament field and the Beavers responded with arguably their most impressive performance of the season save for an upset win over then-No. 8 UCLA.
Rueck and Co. got the win and more as they convincingly handled the Ducks and made a statement to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. Despite only playing 15 games and a resulting 9-6 record, the Beavers are 100% a tournament team and will be a very, very tough out for whoever has to face them in the postseason.
Given that Rueck's teams have always seemed to play their best basketball when it matters most, I'm not terribly surprised that they've been able to put all the pieces together. What is surprising is how quickly it seemed the switch flipped and how quickly they've been able to return to the standard of the program that we've all come to expect.
There's still a lot left to be played and spoken for yet this season, but credit has to go to the players and Rueck and his staff. It would have been easy to cry woe is me and say this wasn't our year, but the Beavers never did, even in the face of extreme adversity, and that tells me this is a special group capable of making some noise in March...
2. The Beavers continue to quell doubters
-> After being picked to finish 12th in the conference in the preseason, the Oregon State men's basketball team and head coach Wayne Tinkle continue to prove doubters wrong. The most recent example came this past weekend when the Beavers went down to the Bay Area and came away with their first sweep of the two schools since 2008-09 and in doing so, kept their postseason hopes alive.
There's still plenty of work to be done to be in a position for the postseason NIT field, but stealing two games on the road and getting up to two games above .500 really gives the Beavers a fighting chance down the stretch.
What the Beavers showed in the wins over Cal and Stanford was that they're still very much playing for something and that they are eager to make the postseason. The road ahead will be challenging, but if they're able to string together a couple of more wins, and keep their record firmly above .500, they'll have a chance to reach the postseason, and given where this year started, that would be a huge feat.
