Final Score: Stanford 59, Oregon State 35
In an arena where the Beavers pulled off one of their most impressive victories of the 2008-2009 season, the Beavers suffered a miserable defeat at the hands of the Stanford Cardinal Thursday night at Maples Pavilion.
It was a puzzling loss for the Beavers, and perhaps an even more mind-boggling win for Johnny Dawkins and Stanford, who lost to Oregon State a total of three times last season, including the semifinal CBI tournament matchup.
The Beavers were only down six at halftime, but the game quickly got out of hand in the second half. The Beavers opened the half with three missed layups and the shooting woes persisted throughout the half. The Beavers went a stretch of nine minutes without scoring in the second half, a stretch in which the Beavers completely self-destructed while Stanford ran away with their third Pac-10 win.
The 35 points the Beavers scored were the least amount of points a Craig Robinson-coached Oregon State team has scored. Last year, the only team to hold Oregon State in the 30's was Arizona State in the first meeting between the two teams in Tempe.
The numbers were lopsided, there's no doubt about that. Here's a quick list of some more lopsided-ness:
- The Beavers were out-rebounded 38-22
- The Beavers were outscored in the second half 31-13
- Stanford had 14 offensive rebounds in the game, 12 of them in the second half.
- Stanford had 0 second chance points in the first half, and 14 in the second half.
- And again, the Beavers went 9 minutes without scoring in the second half
--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)
Head Coach Craig Robinson
Thoughts on the game:
It was just a horrible game from an effort standpoint. Normally I come out here and I'm pretty diplomatic and I try to keep my cool, but I have a locker room in there that I'm sorely disappointed in, and they know it. And they'll know it until we play on Saturday. To my staff's credit, they put a lot of work into absolutely everything they do, and this was disrespectful to my staff, the fans, and Oregon State. Normally, I'm trying to keep my cool, but as you can tell I'm hot right now.
On the ups and downs of this season...
I'm not taking myself off the hook either. I'm going to have to really examine the way we're doing things. They seem like they're afraid to be good. Being good is a function of hard work. It's easy for guys to think that last year they capped out on how hard they work and don't realize that they have to work even harder this year. We're going to have to make some changes, we're going to have to put some energy guys in there. From a tactical standpoint, I thought we came out and ran the first three or four plays we wanted to run and had shots around the baskets and missed every one of them. That means they're not ready to play. When you're not ready to play, that means I have to take a look at what I'm doing, then a look at what they're doing.
All the loose balls that went Stanford's way...
There's no secret in this game that rebounding is a good indicator of effort, and we were just not there tonight. You cannot win games in this league with marginal effort.
On Jared Cunningham's energy, and the veterans...
He's just getting better and better, and I'm going to have to find a way to get him in-- I may even have to start him on Saturday. I look at Jared and Kevin and the guys who are ready to play at the shoot-around. It's interesting-- I'm hoping that our veteran guys aren't just content with what they accomplished last year,and are looking to ride into the sunset. That;ll have to be something we examine over the next week or two. We have a lot of basketball left to play, and to have such sweet memories of last year torn down so quickly... I don't think we as a team understand how demoralizing it can be.
--Jake | (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)