Double Gameday Quick Recap

Today was a rare occurrence for any university, it was a gameday for both the football and basketball teams. Let's wrap up today's activities with a bow.

Football:

• Finally a victory! Both the fans and the seniors deserved this one. The fans deserved it for sticking through this terrible season, and the seniors gave the fans a wonderful couple of years before this one.
• The "son of Montana" did not quite live up to the hype and the Beavs did a great job of capitalizing on his mistakes today. When Price did play though I did wonder if Washington looked down on OSU and thought they could win without him. It would have been a different game with a better UW qb, but "what if's" don't really matter after the fact.
• The defense played better today too, notably tackling in open space. They also created turnovers, a late forced fumble by Scott Crichton led to the score that really helped OSU open up the game, and a Ryan Murphy red zone int really sealed the deal. The Murphy int is encouraging too since he will likely get a lot of playing time next year.
  
• The offense mostly finished in the red zone with touchdowns, instead of settling for field goals. The running game was much more present, although Washington is pretty awful against the run.
• Probably the best moment of the day was James Rodgers becoming the all-time reception leader at OSU. He really earned the record and it was great to see him get there. There are plenty of other things to cover, but these things stood out the most in my mind.

Basketball comments following the jump.

Basketball:

The Beavs played the University of Texas in the semifinals of the Ticketcity Legends and the Beavs prevailed 100-95 in overtime.

• This could really help out a future tournament resume for OSU, Texas might not be ranked now, be they certainly looked athletic today and certain can contend in the Big 12. This win might end up being a big deal for the Beavs if OSU can keep winning in conference play.
• The Beaver offense might end up being pretty terrific, there really is a lot of potential there. Jared Cunningham set a new career high for himself with 37 points, Collier still has a lot of potential, Ahmad Starks and Roberto Nelson could shoot better, Angus Brandt is playing quite well, and Joe Burton is also playing well. The Beavs scored 81 points in regulation and that total could go up if everybody plays up to the top of their ability.
• The one point of concern is guards getting beat off the dribble, both Starks and Cunningham got beat a couple times at the end of the game, and it is less of a deal because the Beavs pulled out the win, but this problem might rear its head at some point during the season.
• Once again OSU really showed heart in this game, the end came down to a free throw battle, which the Beavs do not excel in, but they still managed to pull out the victory at the end. Last year, I think that Oregon State could not have showed that poise down the stretch, I saw plenty of games where they stayed competitive until the end. This team feels different, we'll see how they handle Vanderbilt in the finals, but there is finally some reasons to feel excited about this team.

Today was a great day for Beaver Nation, and hopefully the Monday basketball game versus Vanderbilt is another great day.

Go Beavs!