ASSESSING CRAIG ROBINSON'S 2010-2011 OREGON STATE EXPERIMENT

Hey, Coach Rob:  
'Beaver Nation truly wants to believe you know what the  Hell you're tryin' to achieve here'

("How many times are we gonna pass before we shoot?") 

GAME #1

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 | 9:07 PM, EDT | FSN-TV
Staples Center | Los Angeles, California

9 OREGON STATE BEAVERS 10-19 | 5-13 Conf (11-12 ATS)
8 STANFORD CARDINAL 15-15 | 7-11 Conf (12-15 ATS)

OREGON STATE BEAVERS

2010-2011 Oregon State Basketball: LSBHF's
(L) Long (S) Suffering (B) Beaver (H) Hoop (F) Fans

'LSBF' was a 'Badge of Honor', proudly adorned by Oregon State Football Alumni, Fans for at least a Decade after Hurricane Dennis Erickson's 1999 Oregon State Football Team Snapped 29-Years of Sub-.500, ORST Football futility.
 
As another Oregon State Basketball Season approaches merciful conclusion, an analogous, bleak 'LSBF' reality has blossomed in Corvallis. 

     1990

Gary Payton's ORST Senior Season
Jimmy Anderson's 1st Year as ORST Head Coach.

Also last NCAA Tournament Appearance for Oregon State   

21 Consecutive Dry Seasons....in other words, A GENERATION has passed since Oregon State Basketball's bygone, Conference Title-Contending era & NCAA Tournament Postseason play.  Those years are becoming a scant, blurred spec on Beaver Hoop Fans' collective rear-view...essentially invisible to a majority of Gill Coliseum patrons.

"One-Score & One-Year Ago, Gary Payton pitched-a-bitch & sprung for 58 right on this very floor against Harold Minor & George Raveling's 'SC Trojans"

21 Years....and counting.

Beaver Head Coach Craig Robinson is now staring down the barrel of a Roster of 4 Decorated Seniors departing this 20-Loss, 2010-2011 Team. 

Oregon State Beaver Basketball Fans are starving for a Winner; yet (mostly) resigned to the sobering reality that a winner can & will conceivably only be achieved organically; piece-by-painstaking-piece.

The Beavers simply must make Lemonade within parameters of Conference's undisputed 12th Rated Facility, in a largely unchanging ORST Department.  ORST is generally ill-equipped to keep pace in the never-ending facilities arms-race.  The bar is now systematically raised two more clicks w/the absorption of illustrious heavyweights, whom comprise the Mile High Branch of PAC-12 "Have-More's":

• Utah Utes' Big-Time donor, Jon Huntsman
• Colorado Buffs' Contributor, Adolf Coors 

As the Regular Season came to a Close, Oregon State was automatically lapped Utes & Buffs 'Sharper Image', crispy mountain air venues in Boulder & 'SLC'.  All the sandblasters on the Left-Coast Seaboard can't make the Ol Barn on Ralph Miller Drive any newer.  The recruitment amenities provided by Adolf Coors' Family at CU, and Jon Huntsman at UU is yet another 'challenge for ORST; filed in the "IWII" File (Is-What-It-Is')

The point w/all this:

Oregon State Hoop Fans are genuinely patient yet growing concerned. 

ORST HC Robinson's 2010-2011 contrarian scheme: often erratic; w/volatile, substandard  results.  Beaver Fans & followers remain cautiously (somewhat reluctantly) optimistic that Craig Robinson knows what the heck he's doing. 

ORST HC Craig Robinson 2010-2011 Team completed a dramatic transition; System overhaul & mid-season youth movement.  The Beavers pulled off a 5-4 Home Conference Mark, including monumental Wins over eventual outright PAC-10 Champion, Arizona (Jan 2: 76-75)  and decisive Win over then #22 Washington (Feb 3: 68-56).  Nevertheless, Oregon State's performance in Road Conference Games regressed entirely; ORST was 0-9 PAC-10 away from Gill.  Perhaps most inconceivable, was Beavers' consistent inability to muster  a competitive challenge in any one Road Conference Game, despite logging 6-9 Road Combined Road Conference record in HC Robinson's first two ORST Seasons.

The Beavers reversal in basic team system involves a genuinely profound paradigm break from Craig Robinson's life-long pursuit of the intrinsic, deliberate, Princeton-Based, High Post, Backdoor-Cutting Offense & Extended, Overplay', High-Energy, High-Risk, High-Reward, ¾-Court, suffocating 1-3-1 Zone Defense.

The ORST Reversal is profound; as ORST has flip-flopped from Bottom-2% of NCAA Team 'Tempo' (Possessions/Per Game or 'PACE') to this alter-ego, 2010-2011 double-quick, Tempo (Now in NCAA's Top 10% Team Pace). 

All the rapid-fire, contrarian changes & reversals negative, maddening cumulative side-effect on Oregon State's Heavy-Minute, Veteran Senior Trio (O Johnson, C Haynes & L Wallace) offensive production.

[1]
ORST 5-7 | 146 Fr AHMAD STARKS
7.4 PPG | A/T-Ov Ratio NEG <-0.25>
Starks broke thru Offensively vs Cal & Stanford
14.5 PPG | 7-15 Threes

HC Craig Robinson began starting 5-7 Starks 2nd Half PAC-10 Season.  The highly touted energetic PG from Chicago has proved to be a Defensive liability, w/somewhat suspect shot-selection & decision-making.
 
Bench
ORST 6-2 | 185 Sr Calvin Haynes
STARTER in ½ Beaver Gms
#2 SCORER (9.4 PPG)
(Haynes was Beavers Leading Scorer Last Season)

[2]
ORST 6-4 | 201 Soph JARED CUNNINGHAM
Bench
ORST 6-4 | 199 Fr Roberto Nelson

[3]
ORST 6-9 | 228 Sr OMARI JOHNSON
DEFENSIVE CATALYST
#2 MIN/Gm

Scoring & Steals have plummeted w/reduced minutes.
Johnson began season w/6 Consecutive Double-Figure scoring efforts, & avg'd 14½ PPG thru First 8 Beaver Games.  Johnson's offensive game vanished in Conference Play.  O Johnson (though starting all 28 Beaver Games) scored 32 Total Points during 9 Game mid season stretch (3.6 PPG | Included two scoreless games & five games w/only 2 Pts)

Bench
ORST 6-3 | 207 Sr Lathen Wallace
#2 Made 3's (27-91 | 30.4%)

[4]
ORST 6-9 | 221 Fr DEVON COLLIER
Bench
ORST 6-7 | 294 Soph Joe Burton

[5]
ORST 6-10 | Soph 245 ANGUS BRANDT
Bench
ORST 6-9 | 237 Jr Kevin McShane

More analysis on the way before Tourney gets underway.