It's back to Los Angeles for the men's basketball team, where they'll play their third game in the past week in the City of Angels.
Last weekend's loss to USC means that the Beavers are the #8 seed in the tournament, and they'll have to win four games in four days to take the prize. The potential schedule makes me tired just thinking about it... and I'm not even sure that our guys will be coming into the tournament fully rested. A win against the Trojans over the weekend would have given the Beavers a detour around the dreaded play-in game and an automatic berth to the quarterfinals, where they would have played Cal.
The Beavers will meet up with Stanford tonight at the Staples Center, a team they've beat twice this year already.
The regular season sweep means nothing in the tournament, where the Cardinal will be looking to enforce their will against a team who hasn't had the best of fortunes in recent Pac-10 tournaments.
More gameday coverage:
Buker sheds light on coaching advantages to playing a team three times, as well as post-season possibilities (also, note the Beavers' past fates in the Pac-10 tourney at the bottom of the article).
There is the usual coaching adage about playing a team three times in one season, but as Robinson pointed out, noting the Beavers swept the regular-season series with the Cardinal, "if you have to pick teams who you have to play (in a tournament) you want to play somebody you've beaten.''
And yes, Robinson said he wouldn't be the least bit embarrassed to accept a bid to play in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) or the CollegeInsider.com tournament after the Beavers have been bounced from the Pac-10 tourney.
He said he wants to extend the season as long as possible for his seniors, especially point guard Rickey Claitt, who has been OSU's on-floor and locker room leader.
The Beavers have been bothered by some injuries in the past few games... Cliff Kirkpatrick of the Gazette Times brings us this quote from Robinson:
"We should be at full strength," Robinson said. "If we don't play well, it's because we didn't play well. It's not because of injuries, having the wrong attitude. We'll be rested. Fatigue won't be a factor, at least in the first game."
Tip-off is scheduled for just after 6:00 PM tonight on FSN.
--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)