Oregon State Opens Hoops Season

Western Oregon at Oregon St. / Gill Coliseum, Corvallis / 7:00 PM PDT / Pac-12 / KEJO 1240 AM / KEX 1190 AM

Oregon State opens their men's basketball season tonight, with a non-counting, exhibition game against Western Oregon. The Wolves are a Div. II team from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

That difference in class didn't make a difference last year, when the Wolves pinned a 57-47 loss on the Beavers.

Western Oregon turned out to be a pretty good post-season worthy team, finishing first in the GNAC in the regular season, and making it to the first round of the NCAA Division II West Regionals, and Oregon State proceeded to not lose again at home until well into February, running off 14 consecutive wins. But it was still a shock to the Beavers' system.

The game marks the first appearance of several of Oregon State's highly rated freshman class, including Tres Tinkle, Stephen Thompson Jr., and Drew Rubaks.

It's also the first time the Beavers have returned all of their basketball starters in a decade, led by Gary Payton II, Malcolm Duvivier, and Langston Morris-Walker.

However, the Beavers will be working on working without post Daniel Gomis, who suffered a broken hand last week in practice, and forward Jarmal Reid, who is still recovering from a stress fracture in his foot.

Junior center Cheikh N'diaye, will also miss the game, with a shoulder injury, but  could be back by "maybe the end of this week or next week," according to Coach Wayne Tinkle.

Western Oregon, ranked 18th in the country in the pre-season D-II poll, and is picked to finish second in the GNAC. The Wolves will start Alex Roth, who transferred from Oregon Statebut will be without  Division II All-American Andy Avgi, the leading scorer in last year's Wolves win over the Beavers, who also plays tight end for the WOU football team (and leads the team in touchdown catches), and will only join the basketball team after football season.

The Wolves will also be without their projected starting point guard.

BuildingTheDam will be at the game, and have coverage and analysis of our first look at this year's Beavers afterwards.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com