The Oregon State Beavers may have their best remaining chance at a Pac-12 win Thursday when they host the Colorado Buffaloes.
Game information:
Colorado at Oregon State
Time: 6 p.m.
Where: Gill Coliseum
On air: Pac-12 Network; Radio on Beaver Sports Radio Network (stream here)
TV coverage: JB Long (play-by-play), Eldridge Recasner (analyst)
Projected starters:
Colorado (15-11, 5-8 Pac-12)
15 – Dominique Collier, 6-2, 190, Jr. | 6.1 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 1.7 apg
21 – Derrick White, 6-5, 200, Sr. | 17.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 4.2 apg
24 – George King, 6-6, 225, Jr. | 11.6 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 0.7 apg
11 – Xavier Johnson, 6-7, 225, Sr. | 14.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 42.9 3P%
1 – Wesley Gordon, 6-9, 245, Sr. | 7.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.6 bpg
Oregon State (4-22, 0-13)
0 – JaQuori McLaughlin, 6-4, 185, Fr. | 11.0 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 3.2 apg
1 – Stephen Thompson Jr., 6-4, 175, So. | 16.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 3.4 apg
24 – Kendal Manuel, 6-4, 180, R-Fr. | 7.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.5 apg
12 – Drew Eubanks, 6-10, 250, So. | 14.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 2.1 bpg
23 – Gligorije Rakocevic, 6-11, 255, So. | 3.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 16.0 mpg
Coaches: Colorado: Tad Boyle, 145-91 at Colorado (7th season), 197-133 overall. Oregon State: Wayne Tinkle, 40-49 at Oregon State (3rd season), 198-140 overall.
RPI: Colorado: 107. Oregon State: 289.
KenPom rating: Colorado: 68. Oregon State: 280.
Last 10: Colorado: 5-5. Oregon State: 0-10.
Line: Colorado by 10 1/2
Previous meetings: Colorado beat Oregon State 85-78 at the Coors Event Center in Boulder on Jan. 26, led by 24 points from George King. The Buffaloes lead the all-time series 13-6, but OSU has a 5-2 edge in Corvallis.
Injury report: Oregon State sophomore forward Tres Tinkle (20.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg) has missed the Beavers’ last 20 games with a broken wrist. Senior center Cheikh N’diaye (3.6 ppg) has been out for 17 games with a shoulder injury. Both will be out Thursday.
Sophomore center Gligorije Rakocevic suffered a right elbow injury Sunday at UCLA but will play.
Preview: When Oregon State and Colorado last shared the floor, they entered the game as two-thirds of the nation’s Power Five conference teams without a league win. Including the seven-point win the Buffalos wrapped up that night, they have won five of six including an upset of Oregon – now the No. 7 team in the country.
“I’ve noticed they’re really buying in at the defensive end and they weren’t early on,” Wayne Tinkle said.
Oregon State, however, is now the lone remaining team in the aforementioned category of winless conference slates. The Beavers have lost 13 in a row and haven’t been in the win column this calendar year. Much of the talk around the team has involved peaking by the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas in March.
Staring Thursday, OSU will have five games to get to that peak. Out of the five remaining games, the college basketball analytics site KenPom lists Thursday as the Beavers’ best chance to grab a win (20 percent).
Drew Eubanks and Stephen Thompson Jr. had big offensive games during the first matchup in Boulder, with Eubanks going for 27 points (10 of 13) and 11 rebounds against one-on-one coverage. The sophomore forward has primarily faced double teams throughout the season.
Although that game provided an offensive breakout for the Beavers, whose 78 points is still their high-point of Pac-12 play, OSU allowed Colorado one of its best offensive games of the season. The Buffs hit 12 of 22 three-pointers and committed only seven turnovers, scoring 85 points despite missing 16 free throws.
Throughout the season, Colorado has been the one best offensive rebounding teams in the Pac-12 and is back at full strength after two-game suspensions for both Xavier Johnson and Wesley Gordon. Assuming the CU offense does not catch fire in the same way on the road, Beavers guards will be tasked with helping keep their sizable opposing guards off the glass to limit second-chance points.
They said it: “We’ve got to stay positive with them in practice and in film sessions and during games. I think they’ve finally kind of bought into the fact that we’re not saying this is a lost year. We’re building. We want to still play our best basketball here down stretch, but that we’re building for the future. They know that they’re being evaluated from day-to-day and know that we’re going to move forward with the guys that are doing things our way and are making progress and buying into that. We want it to be all of us. We keep sending that message. They’re buying into it. They’re holding their heads high. They’re not getting down. We’ve got good kids, so it’s not like they’re going to throw it in or get off page. Those are some of the ways we’re trying to keep them into it.” – Wayne Tinkle
Links:
— Danny Moran
dmoran@oregonian.com
@DannyJMoran
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
