Oregon State Basketball: Stanford Cardinal Preview (Game 29)

Stanford visits Corvallis as the Beavers try to snap a four-game losing skid.

By The_Coach Mar 3, 2020, 8:00pm PST

Stanford Cardinal (20-9, 9-7)

Head Coach: Jerod Haase (4th Season)
Top Performer: Oscar da Silva (16.1 PPG, 6.5 RPG)
Points For: 70.3 PPG (226th)
Points Against: 61.7 PPG (11th)
Last Game/Streak: 72-64 Win vs. Colorado (4W)

The Skinny

Over one month ago, the Beavers and Cardinal met in Palo Alto, when Oregon State snapped a four-game losing skid helped by a career day from back-up freshman guard Jarod Lucas.

This time around in Corvallis, the Beavers once again find themselves in the midst of another four-game streak of defeats and simply hoping that lightning can strike twice for the black and orange.

Obviously, one of the biggest headlines going into this one has to revolve around Tres Tinkle’s probable breakage of Gary Payton’s all-time scoring record in the contest, as the senior forward sits just six points away from the long-standing accolade heading into the game. But more than that, the focus for Oregon State needs to be on stopping the bleeding after a tough stretch of opponents that included four of the top five teams in the league.

As for Stanford, the Cardinal have won four-straight contests, anchored by the same, consistent duo of very different and multi-dimensional talents in Oscar da Silva (16.1 PPG) on the interior and Tyrell Terry (15.3 PPG) in the back-court. The Cardinal are playing at a comfortable tempo, defending at a high-level and trying to fight their way onto the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, where they currently sit on the outside looking in. Clearly, Jerod Haase’s squad has no room left for error, as their 15-2 start to the season looks like a distant point in the rear-view now.

NCAA Basketball: Kansas at Stanford — Forward Spencer Jones is a glue guy for the Cardinal.

One of the main reasons that Stanford seems to lack some consistency is that beyond their top two talents, the workload is a mixed bag on any given night. Sophomore guard Bryce Wills (7.4 PPG) scored 19 points in the team’s much-needed victory over Colorado, but dropped just 2 points five days prior against Utah. Junior play-maker Daejon Davis (8.4 PPG) added 12 and 17 points individually in two of the team’s last three games, but failed to score in 31 minutes versus the Utes. Even freshman forward Spencer Jones (8.9 PPG) is becoming a bit more erratic as the season marches on, however his performances could be defined as more commonplace for a rookie adjusting to the second round of conference play.

In general though, the consistency is not there for Stanford, a likely reason that they’ve begun to struggle to over the grueling stretch of league play.

But at the end of the day, it leaves Stanford with a wealth of question marks in terms of filling out the rest of their rotation, instead of punctuated answers at this point in the year. The good news for the Beavers is that the Cardinal favor Oregon State’s style of play with a more methodical approach and this game could be won and lost in the execution of half-court oriented sets. That style gives the Beavers a puncher’s chance. The bad news for Oregon State is that they don’t seem to be flourishing in any respectability and can’t seem to get things right at the moment. This is where Beaver Nation can only rationally expect more of the same.

A strong team like Stanford surely won’t play down to the Beavers weaknesses, especially with all they having hanging in the balance. Unless Oregon State can change their tone at home, I’d expect another frustrating outing for the Beavers.

Player To Watch

NCAA Basketball: Washington at Stanford — As the kids say, star guard Tyrell Terry is a “problem”.

Tyrell Terry (Guard - Freshman)

Despite being the third ranked recruit from the state of Minnesota in the 2019 class (behind only Duke’s Matthew Hurt and Arizona’s Zeke Nnaji), few saw Tyrell Terry making the impact at Stanford like those other two freshmen were projected to do at their given schools. The 6’ 1” guard has been arguably the Pac-12’s biggest surprise and by far, one of it’s most electrifying and enjoyable talents to watch.

Game Info

Date: Thursday, March 5th
Time: 6:00 PM PT
Location: Gill Coliseum (Corvallis, OR)
Coverage: Pac-12 Network