Oregon State men's basketball coach Wayne Tinkle addressed the current state of affairs with the Beaver big men today. The first issue is the status of Jarmal Reid, who was suspended for at least 4 games following the incident in the first Utah game where Reid received a flagrant technical foul for tripping an official.

Reid has sat out 4 games, and Coach Tinkle confirmed the terms of the suspension have been met, and it won't be suspended.

"He's been great," Tinkle said of Reid's performance during the suspension.

Then he dropped a bit of a surprise, indicating that Reid may not return for this Thursday's game, which just happens to be the rematch with Utah.

"We've got to approach this and not put him in place to fail," Tinkle said, "but we're gonna need him."

That need could be greater than expected, due to another leg injury affecting Daniel Gomis, who just came off a season high 24 minutes against Arizona.

"Daniel has had a reoccurrence of issues. It's his other shin this time," Tinkle said. Gomis didn't practice today, and Tinkle said "We may know tomorrow about his availability for Thursday, after consulting with the trainers. But it doesn't look good at this point."

Tinkle also addressed the lookin on tv during a timeout in the Arizona game, where Tinkle was quite passionate (and loud) in addressing the team about leadership, notably asking where it is.

"The leadership responded (to the timeout exchange)," Tinkle felt, "but we have to be more consistent with it."

It should make Thursday night's rematch with the Utes interesting, in a game that after being swept in Arizona, is about a must win, as will be Saturday night's game with Colorado, if the Beavers are to maintain much post-season tournament hope, given that after this weekend there will only be 1 more series at Gill, and the next 3, and 5 of the final 7 are on the road.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com