SB Nation - Daniel Deane

Q&A with Building The Dam

joenewby4040 — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:41:17 -0000

I had a little e-mail Q&A with Jake from buildingthedam via e-mail yesterday. Looks like Arizona is going to probably be matching up with a 1-3-1 defense tomorrow night.

Arizona has been on fire the the last 49 minutes of play since Chase Budinger got his head smashed by Aubrey Coleman. Is there anything that can stop them?

How about, Oregon State's 1-3-1 defense? The Beaver defense didn't look too convincing against Arizona when the two teams met up for the first time earlier this season in Tuscon, but a lot has changed since then. Arizona may be on a roll, but the Beavers are also on a roll after beating four Pac-10 teams-- USC, Cal, Stanford, and Oregon-- in the first half of the Pac-10 season. The Beavers have won four straight, and it's amazing what some confidence can to do a team like Oregon State. The Wildcats have a good outside presence as well as a strong inside presence with Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger.

Y'all (Yes I am from Texas and this is appropriate) barely beat Oregon last week. Any cause for concern?

No. It's a rivalry game, so a close score is expected no matter what the records are of the teams coming in. Yes, we could have sealed the game earlier had we made more free throws (six were missed in the final 1:20), but the Beavers will take the close win over the Ducks any day of the week. Heck, for a team who has been on the losing end of too many Civil Wars as of late, we'll take any win.

Home court advantage in the Pac 10 is underrated big time by outsiders. Can you give us a little preview of what it's like on game day in Corvallis? We know USC has problems playing football there.

At this point in the turnaround of Oregon State basketball, it's hard to correlate football with basketball. But the students and the rest of the fans were out in full force last Saturday, as they packed Gill for one of the largest crowds the Coliseum has seen in several years. They'll likely be a large contingent of fans on hand for Thursday's game as well, as the Beavers failed to disappoint in Saturday's Civil War game. Expect a noisy bunch of fans at Gill no matter if it's packed to the rafters or not.

Calvin Haynes is a baller and a half. How many points is he going to put up on Arizona?

Hard to say. He's been averaging about 17 per game, but he's had is off nights as well. He only scored nine when the Beavers and Wildcats played the first time around, so that gives me reason to think that he'll break out of his shell and have a better game this week. 15 points, maybe 20? Hard to say.

Who is going to match up on Jordan Hill?

My assumption is that the Beavers will deploy a 1-3-1 or similar zone defense against the Wildcats, so it will likely be a combination of Roeland Schaftenaar, Daniel Deane, or Omari Johnson. Hill will likely see a litany of guys in his face on Thursday night.

Will y'all please take care of ASU on Saturday? We'll do our best to beat Oregon.

Sounds like a deal. We would be overjoyed with a split this weekend, no matter how we get it. If beating ASU is the way it happens, we'll take it. But a sweep would be even better!

UCLA Comes to Town for Pac-10 Opener

Jake Bertalotto — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:20:33 -0000

The Beavers have won four straight games, their longest winning streak in four years, but the No. 9 ranked UCLA Bruins are in town tonight with hopes of starting a run at their fourth straight Pac-10 championship.

The Bruins have won seven straight games against the Beavers, by an average of 25.6 points per game. Last year, the Bruins prevailed 85-62 in the first game between the two teams at Gill Coliseum. When the Beavers traveled to Pauley Pavilion later in the year, UCLA held the Beavers to under fifty points and won 84-49.

The Bruins will be again be heavily favored to win both games between the two teams this season. However, the Bruins are 0-2 when opening Pac-10 play in Corvallis although they're 35-24 all-time in Corvallis.

The most recent Beaver victory in the series came on New Years Eve of 2004, when the Beavers handed UCLA a 85-80 loss in Corvallis. David Lucas led the Beavers with 21 points in that game, and J.S. Nash added 20.

This year's Beavers likely won't go 8-10 in the Pac-10 conference like the 2004-2005 squad did, but the Beavers will look to be competitive against top competition with their newly installed Princeton Offense. First year head coach Craig Robinson has been working hard to teach the offense to his team in a short ammount of time, and improvements are being made everyday.

"They pay attention to what we're saying" Craig Robinson said after last week's win over Howard. "They're learning... the curve is still steep and there's a lot to learn but I'm proud of these guys."

The methodical Princeton offense, if executed correctly, could keep the Beavers in games against teams with athletically superior lineups. The Beavers will make a lot of passes, utilize screens and backdoor passes, and look for open layups as much as possible.

UCLA head coach Ben Howland realizes that Oregon State will try to slow the game down and play methodically. He'll likely deploy some sort of full court pressure defense to try to speed up the game and force the Beavers to play up-tempo basketball.

UCLA is led by 6-0 senior Darren Collison, (pictured, right) who is averaging a conference twelfth-best 14.3 points per game. He's the best free throw shooter in the Pac-10 conference, only missing one shot from the charity stripe in 33 attempts so far. He's also one of the best assist-generators in the conference, averaging over five per game.

Alfred Aboya, who played much of 2007-2008 behind Kevin Love, will start for UCLA at center. He doesn't have the same size that Love did-- Aboya is 6-9, 245, Love was 6-11, 270-- but Aboya has a large presence on defense for the Bruins. He averages a team-high six rebounds per game, and just under 10 points per game. He scored a combined ten points against the Beavers in the two games last season.

A new addition to UCLA's probably starting lineup is true freshman Jrue Holiday, the 6-3 native of North Hollywood who only lost one game during his high school career. He's a talented combo guard who has a very "smooth" game. He's been putting up 10.6 points per game, and is shooting over 50 percent from the field.

Junior forwards Josh Shipp and James Keefe round out the starting lineup. Keefe is strong on defense, averaging more rebounds (4.7) than points (4.3) per game. Shipp averages 12 points per game. Freshman Malcolm Lee, who gets 13.5 minutes per game, will travel with the Bruins to Oregon, but likely won't play due to left knee injuries that include a bone bruise.

Oregon State will need big performances from their best players to keep up with UCLA: Calvin Haynes, Omari Johnson, and Calvin Haynes. The Beavers will need a strong inside presence to execute the offense effectively, so it will be important for Roeland Schaftenaar to play well. Daniel Deane, the transfer from Utah, will likely also see minutes in the post as well.

The game is set to tip off at 7:33 on FSN. Swing by BtD during the game to participate in the open thread. Until then, head over to Bruins Nation for a UCLA perspective.

GO BEAVERS!

--Jake (jake.buildingthedam@gmail.com)

Poll

In your opinion, what would you consider a "victory" in tonight's game against UCLA?

Beavers win, period.

3 votes

Beavers lose by five or less

2 votes

Beavers lose by ten or less

11 votes

Beavers lose by fifteen or less

5 votes

Beavers lose by twenty or less

12 votes

33 votes | Poll has closed

Oregon State 64, Nebraska 63

Jake Bertalotto — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:58:42 -0000

Coming off Finals Week, the Beavers were able to turn in a complete team-oriented game on Saturday night, beating Nebraksa in front of an exuberant Gill Coliseum crowd of 3,359. The Cornhuskers were picked to finish ninth in the Big 12 by the media. Iowa State, who the Beavers lost to by 13 in their last game, were picked to finish eleventh.

Neither team led by more than six points in the game-- it was Oregon State who took that big of a lead midway through the first half after an 8-3 run. There were 11 ties and 20 lead changes in the game.

Many things finally fell into place in this game for the Beavers. Fans finally got to see two players-- Daniel Deane and Omari Johnson-- emerge as leaders of this team. Both had double-dobules. Also, Calvin Haynes became academically eligible before the game, and added 14 points.

Down the stretch, it was Deane and Johnson who led the Beavers to victory. After Nebraska's Paul Velander made a three pointer with 2:28 to put the Huskers up by one, it was Deane and Johnson who scored OSU's final six points.

First, it was Johnson who pulled in an offensive rebound and scored on a layup, putting Oregon State ahead by one. However, after a timeout, Nebraska countered with a layup to regain the lead.

On Oregon State's next possession, Roeland Schaftenaar missed a jumper, put Daniel Deane came through with an offensive rebound and was fouled. He made both free-throws, putting OSU ahead again. Daniel then fouled Ade Dagunduro, who converted both of his foul shots.

With Nebraska leading by one with under 0:15 remaining, Cookie Miller fouled Deane, giving Daniel two free-throws with his team down by one. He made them both, giving Oregon State the lead. Then, with the clock ticking towards 0:00, Ade Dagunduro's arcing shot from the baseline hit off the back of the rim and bounced away at the buzzer.

Oregon State held on for their second win in three games. "Not only did they close out, but they had to close out with shear toughness" Head Coach Craig Robinson said after the game. That was the beauty of this game. And for us, toughness is just as important as rebounds, turnovers and foul-shots."

Some other notes:

Rebounds

A stat that demonstrates how Oregon State out-hustled the Huskers is rebounds. Oregon State had 40 to Nebraska's 25, with Daniel Deane and Omari Johnson both coming through with ten.

Double-Doubles

I eluded to this a little bit earlier, but Daniel Deane and Omari Johnson both turned in double-doubles. It was the first time two Beavers had a double double since Marcel Jones (17 points, 19 rebounds) and Roeland Schaftenaar (12 points, 10 rebounds) did so in November of last year against Iowa State.

Turnovers

If there was one thorn in Oregon State's side last night, it was turnovers. The Beavers had 24 turnovers, the most they've had all season. However, in both their wins, the Beavers have had more turnovers than their opponents. Deane and Johnson both had five turnovers. Nebraska had 30 points off of turnovers, Oregon State 9. Nebraska only turned over the ball eleven times.

Iowa State 63, Oregon State 50

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 01:52:59 -0000

Pardon my temporary absence. I think I'm all better now.

After cutting Iowa State's lead to six with three minutes remaining in the game, the Beavers couldn't mount a late surge, as Iowa State went on to defeat Oregon State 63-50 in front of 13,688 at hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa on Saturday night.

Fresh off their first win of the season at Fresno State, the Beavers (now 1-5) weren't able to keep up with Iowa State in the fifth game of this year's Big-12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series. Last season, the Cyclones defeated the Beavers 71-64 in overtime at Gill Coliseum.

Daniel Deane led the Beavers with 14 points and six rebounds, and was the only Beaver in double figures. He now leads the team in scoring with 60 points on the season, for an average of 10.0 per game.

In taking a glance over the stat sheet, there were some definite things that Coach Robinson has probably alrady addressed with his team:

Field Goal Percentage, specifically 3-point FG%

It's tough to harp on this team for having a low field goal percentage against Iowa State because they've done a fairly good job with shooting this season. Belive it or not, the Beavers came into the game ranked fifth in the Pac-10 and 38th in the nation in field goal percentage (48.7%).

Against Iowa State, the Beavers shot 20 of 50 (40.0%) from the field, which works out to be shy of their season average. However, the Beavers were just 2 of 19 from behind the arc, for a measly 10 percent. Just 2 of 19!

Both makes came in the first half, when the Beavers were 2 of 13. In the second half, the Beavers only attempted six three pointers, and missed every one.

The Beavers also underachieved from the charity stripe, where they'd been shooting 61.9% coming in. OSU was 8 of 15 from the line on the game, for 53.3%.

Oregon State's season percentage dropped from 48.7% to 47.2% over the course of the game, which isn't so bad after how horrendous the Beavers were from behind the arc. That puts the team at 62nd in the nation, and they maintain their spot at fifth in the conference.

Turnovers

Oregon State won the turnover battle, but didn't take advantage. The Beavers turned the ball over 11 times, the Cyclones 13. However, Iowa State scored 20 points off of Oregon State's 11 giveaways, and Oregon State only scored a half dozen points off of Iowa State turnovers.

Steals

Even though we didn't capitalize offensively on Iowa State's turnovers, it's good to see that we're applying strong pressure on defense. Oregon State stole the ball eight times from ISU (Seth Tarver had 3), compared to the goose egg Iowa State has in the steals column.

Assists

Iowa State scored 21 baskets, and 19 of them were assisted. Oregon State, on the other hand, scored 20 baskets, and only nine of them were assisted. It's tough to say just by primarily looking at the statsheet, and I didn't watch the whole game, but I think it's fair to say that the Cyclones were getting better ball movement to find the open man. Maybe it's a side effect of Coach Robinson's offense, but that was a glaring difference between the numbers of the two teams.

(image by Charlie Neibergall, via ESPN)

SB Nation - Daniel Deane

Q&A with Building The Dam

UCLA Comes to Town for Pac-10 Opener

In your opinion, what would you consider a "victory" in tonight's game against UCLA?

Beavers win, period.

Beavers lose by five or less

Beavers lose by ten or less

Beavers lose by fifteen or less

Beavers lose by twenty or less

Oregon State 64, Nebraska 63

Rebounds

Double-Doubles

Turnovers

More more postgame quotes:

Iowa State 63, Oregon State 50

Field Goal Percentage, specifically 3-point FG%