Coming off a strong first thirty minutes against Arizona, the Beavers will try to string 40 together today against the Sun Devils of Arizona State University.
The Sun Devils are giving the Beavers no respect, but with C.J. Giles back in the lineup, the Beavers hope they can show up, make a few baskets, and run away with an upset.
It's unlikely, but possible. The Sun Devils won Thursday night by eight against the Ducks, thanks to a 13-2 run late in the second half. The Sun Devils got double digit scoring performances from Jeff Pendergraph, Derek Glasser, and James Harden.
Harden, the 6-5 210 Freshman, leads the Sun Devils with 17.2 points per game. Behind him is Jeff Pendergraph, a star from last year, who has been averaging 13.4 points per game. Ty Abbott is the other Sun Devil who averages scores in double digits. He's at 11.2 points per game.
Arizona State is one of the best shooting teams in the country. They lead the Nation in true shooting percentage, they rank thirteenth in the nation in free throw percentage, and they're the ninth efficient team in the country.
That stinks for the Beavers, who like to slow the game down and keep the scores low.
However, the Sun Devils are not a good rebounding team. They rank dead last in the Pac-10 in rebounds per game, and 290th in the nation. They also foul and turn the ball over a lot, which serves as some good news for the Beavers, who hope to dominate the bards with C.J. back in the lineup.
In OSU's 13 point loss to Arizona on Thursday, Omari Johnson scored 19 points. In the Arizona game profile, I wrongly picked C.J. Giles as the "X-Factor" of the game. While he has the potential to make a huge difference for the Beavers, we're going to stick with Omari Johnson as our X-Factor.
Oregon State needs to dominate the boards, slow down the tempo, and keep the score low. Hopefully Arizona State has some trouble shooting the ball, because we have no answer to long runs by opponents.
And C.J., please don't foul out in six minutes.
The game will be televised by FSN at 1:00.
GO BEAVERS!
--JB--