SB Nation - Omari Johnson

Learn From the Past: We've Gotta Stop Tajuan

Jake Bertalotto — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:15:12 -0000

The Oregon Ducks have two seniors on their roster. One scores 3.1 points per game, the other scores .07 points per game. They're basically non-factors without much experience.

Eight players on the Oregon roster are freshmen. Two of them have started 22 games, and five of them play over ten minutes per game. They're alright, but, when it comes down to it, it's junior Tajuan Porter who carries the load.

Porter has the big game experience. He's helped his team win a Pac-10 tournament, and was named MVP there. He's been to the NCAA Tournament twice, and knows what it's like to play in the Elite Eight.

Somebody stop that guy! (Kevork Djansezian/ AP)

But this year, his team is 1-14 in the Pac-10 conference heading into Sunday's game against Oregon State. Aaron Brooks, who departed from Eugene after Porter's freshman year, is long gone, and Porter's the man in charge of running the offense.

While Tajuan struggled with the extra duties of running the point his sophomore year, he's making improvements now as a junior. His three point field goal percentage, which dipped to under 36 percent last year after he shot 43 percent his freshman year is back on the rise, and he's converted on more than four three-pointers in ten games this season.

In January's Civil War, Tajuan converted five three-pointers in the first half, and accumulated 19 points by halftime. After that torrid opening stretch, the Beavers made a simple adjustment, and Porter never was the same,

"We had to make an adjustment," Craig Robinson said after beating the Ducks in January. "We said in our scouting report that if they don't make threes they can't beat us." As a team, the Ducks were 7 of 10 from three-point range in the first half.

"We had someone shade to his side so he wouldn't just be able to shoot off the catch" Omari Johnson said of the defensive adjustment. "We didn't want to double away from him or leave him open."

In the second half, Porter made just one shot-- a three-point basket with about 4:30 remaining in the game. He was 1-of-4 shooting in the second half, and his team caught the bug as well: The Ducks were just 3-of-13 in the final 20 minutes from behind the stripe.

Containing Tajuan Porter will be a key for Oregon State in Sunday's Civil War, there is no doubt about that. Look what a simple adjustment did last time.

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

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!

Beavers Prevail 57-54 in Coach Robinson's First Civil War

Jake Bertalotto — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:59:32 -0000

It took the Beavers nearly thirty minutes to gain a sizeable advantage against the Ducks in the 330th Civil War at Gill Colsieum, but the Beavers rallied down the stretch of the rivalry game to win 57-54.

Trailing by three with thirteen minutes left, Rickey Claitt and Calvin Haynes hit back-to-back three point baskets to give Oregon State a three point lead. Then, it was Roeland Schaftenaar's left-handed layup on Oregon State's next possession that gave Oregon State a five point lead.

Roeland, the Pac-10 Player of the Week, dealt with foul trouble in the first half and was scoreless at halftime. He scored five points in the game-- two coming on the left-handed layup, and the final three coming on a 25-foot banked-in three with just over two minutes in the game, which gave the Beavers a comfortable cushion down the stretch.

Without that crucial three-pointer, the Beavers may have handed the game to the Ducks with their miserable late-game free throw shooting. The Beavers were 9 of 19 on the game from the charity stripe, and just 1 of 7 in the final 1:20 of the game.

"We missed so many foul shots down the stretch that could have salted this thing earler, but that's part of a rivialry game," Coach Robinson said after his tenth victory as Oregon State head coach. "There was a lot of pressure."

Indeed. Nobody in the Oregon State locker room had won a Civil War game, the players or coaches.

"All I've heard since April were things like "Coach, you don't have to win any other games, just win the Civil War"," Coach Rob said. "I was feeling the pressure this week."

A crowd of 10,129 certainly helped the Beavers cause, even if it the surplus did cause some jitters for the players and coaches in the early part of the game. The attendence was just a few hundred spectators short of capacity, but the largest crowd since Febuary 5, 2005, against Oregon when the Beavers defeated the Ducks, 76-72, in front of 10,312.

Former Beaver great David Lucas had 22 points in that game, one of just five Civil Wars the Beavers have won since 1995. He was in attendance tonight, along with other former Beavers like Lamar Hurd, who was the color commentator on the FSN broadcast.

AC Green, the Beaver great from the 80's who won 3 NBA titles and scored 9.6 points per game over his 15-year professional career, was also at the game. He was arguably the Beavers' biggest cheerleader, leading the Gill Coliseum crowd from his front-row vantage point.

"It's a treat to be a part of this resurgence for [the former players], becuase I know they remember when this program used to be something," Coach Robinson said.

Calvin Haynes led the Beavers with fifteen points, four of his five field goals coming from three-point range. It was his eleventh double-digit scoring performance in the fourteen games he's played in this season. Omari Johnson, who missed four free throws in the final stretch of the game, turned in a Pac-10 game high with 14 points on the night. Four of his five field goals came from three point range as well, with perhaps his biggest coming as time expired in the first half to cut the halftime deficit to five, providing the Beavers with a spark to ignite their second half run.

Oregon State will get Sunday off before beginning preparation for the second half of the Pac-10 season. Arizona will be at Gill for a Thursday night game, followed by Arizona State on Saturday.

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

"Speed Bump Beavers" Pop USC's Tire, Win 62-58 in OT

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:38:45 -0000

Usually I live by a "act like you've been there before" mentality, but can you believe it, Beaver Nation?

CR has insisted that this team "do things right" ever since he arrived on campus. It payed off with a solid road win at Fresno State, a gritty home win against Nebraska, and now, our first Pac-10 win in 21 games. Craig Robinson is .500 all-time in the Pac-10.

If you haven't already, go here for The VD Special's thoughts from Gill.

And if you're just joining us, check out the game preview, open thread, and the celebration open thread.

The Beavers rallied from 15 points back in the second half of Sunday's game to do something an Oregon State squad hasn't done since February 22, 2007... beat a Pac-10 team. The Beavers have had 23 attempts since then when you count Pac-10 tournament games, and the y've come oh-so-close on so many occasions.

But never, have they battled back and finished like they did on Sunday. The Beavers simply wouldn't go away.

Roeland Schaftenaar played the game of his Oregon State career, and had one of the most impressive statlines a big man could have: 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists,, 1 turnover, 1 block, and 3 steals in 40 of 45 minutes.

Prior to the game, Roeland had been averaging six points and trace amounts of rebounds and assits per game. He had surpassed those marks by halftime.

Just two games ago, against Seattle U, Roeland had zero points and five turnovers in eleven minutes.

It was Roeland who sent the game to overtime with a three-pointer with 0:04 left on the game clock.

Calvin Haynes, who The VD Special described as "our Brandon Roy" was hot in the second half. He had 16 points in the game, and 14 came in the second half.

"At the end of the second half, and into overtime, they were keying on Calvin." CR said after the game. "Calvin was very unselfish finding the right guys, the open guys, and then those guys knocked the shots down."

Calvin ended up 7 of 12 from the field, and had four assists, two turnovers, and a steal.

When you combine Roeland and Calvin's stats, you get: 34 points, ten assists, three turnovers, and four steals.

Omari Johnson didn't miss a shot from the field on his way to eleven points. He was the only other Beaver in double figures, but Seth Tarver had eight points, and Rickey Claitt has five. Rickey, who left late in the game with injury, had three steals in the game, none bigger than the one that led to his injury. We wish Rickey the best in his recovery, and hope it's nothing serious.

Oregon State shot 50% percent as a team, and 46.7 percent from three point range. The Beavers have shot over fifty percent in five other games this season, but I would venture to guess that they haven't had a shooting performance like this against a Pac-10 team in a long time.

Also, Oregon State was a perfect 3-of-3 in overtime, and made their only three-pointer. Comparitively, the Trojans were 1-of-7 in the extra period, with their only field goal being Daniel Hackett's three-pointer on USC's second possession. After that, the Beavers went on an 8-1 run to win the game by four, amidst chants from the crowd of "Just Like Football!"

Against USC, that is impressive.

Very impressive.

Pregame Keys Revisited:

Get into the Offense: Craig Robinson's Princeton Offense was working as well as it ever has on Sunday. Take it from the man in charge himself: "The second half was probably the best offensive that we've run. Each game we hope to get better and better, and that's what you saw in the second half." The Beavers seemed to be getting easy layups even when future pro Taj Gibson was on the court, and it shows in OSU's exceptional field goal percentage. This will continue to be important throughout the season, and it was something the Beavs struggled with in the game against UCLA. But now we know, and the team knows, that if we can run the offense to near-perfection, we can play with absolutely anyone.
Control the Boards: USC held a slight advantage on the offensive boards, and they seemed to get their offensive rebounds at more opportune moments, but the Beavers kept up with the Trojans on the glass. The final numbers were 31-30 in favor of USC, which is exceptional, if you ask me. Taj Gibson, the 6'9" rebounding machine, who averages eleven rebounds a game, only had four rebounds against the Beavers. And only one of them came defensively.
Find Consistency on Defense: The 1-3-1 zone worked brilliantly against the Trojans, and was much more successful than it was against UCLA. It kept the Beavers in the game for much of the first half, after USC surged back from an early deficit. The Beavers were down five at the half... down fifteen at one point in the second half, and rallied back with strong defense and three-point shooting.

Next up: Arizona State and Arizona on the road. Remember to vote in the poll below, as part of our Modified Schedule Project. Sorry to all you haters out there, but I kinda rigged this one.

GO BEAVERS!

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

Poll

Are you satisfied with OSU's 62-58 WIN over the Trojans?

#@$% yeah!

50 votes

50 votes | Poll has closed

UCLA Runs by Oregon State in Conference Opener

Jake Bertalotto — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 06:51:05 -0000

The Beaver defense held UCLA to just two field goals in the first five minutes of the game, but once UCLA found their grove, they were tough to stop on Friday night at Gill Coliseum. The Beavers fell to the Bruins for an eighth consecutive time, this time by the score of 69-46 in front of a season-high crowd of 5,629.

After the Beavers shut down the Bruins down early in the game, UCLA went on to take a 21 point lead at the half. The Beavers could never climb back into the game in the second half, despite playing the Bruins fairly evenly in the final 20 minutes. The Beavers never really settled into their offense, and UCLA's fervent defense kept OSU's shooters off balance. Craig Robinson said it best in a post-game interview with Mike Parker:

"Our defense was fine, what was killing us was our fast shots that led to fast breaks for them. When we shot the ball fast, they got it out quickly. But when we made them play in the half court, I was pretty happy with the amount of pressure we were putting on. As we keep learning, and as we keep getting used to the league, we'll be in games."

In the second half the Beavers shot 52 percent from the field, which was impressive compared to the 35 percent they shot in the first half. Although many of UCLA's reserves received substantial minutes in the second half, it was still an improvement that Craig Robinson was impressed with.

"We're going to have some setbacks, but at least we had a second half that gives us some confidence and lets us know that we can play with a team that's considered the best team in the league."

Once again, Oregon State was led in scoring by Calvin Haynes, who had 16 points off the bench. Omari Johnson, Seth Tarver, and Rickey Claitt all had seven.

For UCLA, Darren Collison and Michael Roll each had 16 points. Collison was 7-of-10 from the field, and Roll was a perfect 4-of-4 from the three point line. Freshman Drew Gordon added 11 for the Bruins, who move to 11-2 with the win.

Pregame Keys Revisited:

Control the Tempo: Oregon State never really settled into their offense in the first half, which was when the outcome of the game was decided. Like coach Craig Robinson (who is Barack Obama's brother-in-law, if the FSN telecast didn't make that clear enough to you) said in the postgame quote above, UCLA's smothering man-to-man defense forced the Beavers to take quick, contested shots.
Break the Press: UCLA never really got to the point where they had to pressure the Beavers to speed up the tempo, they just controlled the pace with their defense.
Rebound: The Beavers were out-rebounded 31 to 25, but where they really suffered was on the offensive glass. The Bruins had 12 offensive boards (Alfred Aboya led the way with five), compared to OSU's 4. That's a lot of extra opportunities for an offense as potent as UCLA's.

Oregon State held the Bruins to under their season scoring average, which is a small moral victory. However, the Bruins allowed under their season defensive scoring average, so there's a small moral defeat.

With the loss, the Beavers fall to 5-6 on the season and 0-1 in the Pac-10. That now moves to streak to 21 straight regular season conference losses, and 23 straight conference losses when you include the Pac-10 Tournament.

The Beavers will look to once again to end that streak Sunday at Gill, when the USC Trojans come to town. The Trojans are 10-3 on the season, most recently defeating Oregon 83-62 at Mac Court.

More on the Trojans coming tomorrow... you can get the UCLA perspective on this game by heading over to Bruins Nation.

GO BEAVERS!

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

Poll

Are you satisfied with the way the UCLA game (L, 69-46) turned out?

Yes

16 votes

No

20 votes

36 votes | Poll has closed

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

Beavers Make History in Win over Howard

Jake Bertalotto — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:47:04 -0000

The Howard Bison (1-7) prevailed when they played Oregon State in their season opener in the nation's capitol earlier this season, but a repeat victory wasn't to be when the two teams met again Saturday night at Gill Coliseum.

After allowing Howard to only two points in the first ten minutes of the game, Oregon State (4-5) went on to defeat the Bison 90-54. The win demonstrates the improvement of the Oregon State program so far this season.

"We new that first game wasn't really the team that we are now" head coach Criag Robinson said after the game. "We didn't want to let any [thoughts of OSU and Howard's first game] come into the thought process of this game."

At halftime, Oregon State led 44-17 after shooting 61.5% in the half. The Beavers did get off to a slow start, though, only converting on one of their first seven field goals. Calvin Haynes led the Beavers with 17 points in the first half, Omari Johnson added 14.

The Beavers hit a school record 14 three-pointers in the game, in 20 attempts, for 70 percent. Oregon State was 34 of 53 on field goals in the game (64.2%), their highest mark this season.

Sophomore Omari Johnson led the team with 18 points in 29 minutes. Ricky Claitt added 15 points, and was a perfect 3-3 from three-point range. He hit three consecutive shots from the perimeter late in the game, the final of which broke the school's single game record for team three-pointers.

Off the bench, Lathen Wallace scored 16 points, a season high. Calvin Haynes contributed 17 to the effort in his role as the sixth man. Haynes has played in less games than most of his teammates due to an academic suspension, but he has scored over 14 points in each of his three games. He leads the team with 17 points per game.

Howard was led by Eugene Myatt, who scored 13 points. He also scored 13 points when these two teams met on November 14. Six-foot-nine center Paul Kirkpatrick added nine points for the Bison. Howard shot just 34.5 percent from the field, and 22.7 percent from beind the arc.

The Beavers will get several days off to spend time with their families before returning to practice on Dec. 25. The team will be back in action when they play Seattle on Dec. 29 at 7:00 PM. The game will be televised on FSN.

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

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.

Basketball goes 2-0 in exhibitions, regular season starts Friday

Jake Bertalotto — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:00:07 -0000

The election is over, Robinson's brother-in-law is now the Presidential elect, and it's almost time for the Men's Basketball season to begin.

The Beavers took care of their two exhibition opponents, Saint Martin's and Concordia, and open the regular season on Friday in Washington D.C.

In the exhibition opener against Saint Martin's, the Beavers squeaked out a narrow four point victory, winning by the score of 80-76. The Beavers found themselves ahead by ten points with three minutes left, but the Saints closed the gap quickly. Jake Linton hit a three pointer with just over a minute left to cut the Beaver lead to three, but the Beavers hit several crucial foul shots with under a minute left to preserve the victory.

Omari Johnson led the Beavers with a double-double-- 18 points and 12 rebounds, followed by Daniel Deane with 15 points and 6 boards. Seth Tarver also earned a double-double with eleven points and eleven rebounds. In total, five players scored in double figures, and the team had 16 total assists.

After the game, Robinson commented that, "It was a good test. St. Martin's played a great game. They played different defenses and it gave us the chance to work on some stuff."

Six days later, the Beavers looked more improved against Concordia, winning 82-57. Six players reached double figures in the contest. Daniel Deane led the troupe with 15 points, followed by Omari Johnson with 14 and Lathen Wallace with 13.

The Beavers quickly amassed a lead against Concordia, and led at one point in the first half by the score of 29-9. Oregon State led 31-17 at halftime, and continued to dominate in the second half. With 2:31 left in the game the Beavers held a 37 point lead, but managed to win by only 25.

After the game, Coach Robinson commented on the distribution of scoring and free throw shooting. The Beavers were 16 of 22 from the line-- 71.5%, and 10 of 12 in the second half. Oregon State shot 64.9% from the free throw line last year, which ranked 294th nationally. Hopefully the improvement against Concordia is a sign of things to come.

It was definitely a positive to see the team put up more than 80 points in both exhibition games- the Beavers average 59.9 points per game (ranking 317th nationally) last year. Granted, the competition wasn't nearly what it will be come Pac-10 time, but we need to start somewhere, right?

Oregon State will open the 2008-2009 season and begin the Craig Robinson era this Friday in Washington D.C. against Howard University. The game will be played at 7:00 Eastern, 4:00 Pacific.

SB Nation - Omari Johnson

Learn From the Past: We've Gotta Stop Tajuan

Q&A with Building The Dam

Beavers Prevail 57-54 in Coach Robinson's First Civil War

"Speed Bump Beavers" Pop USC's Tire, Win 62-58 in OT

Are you satisfied with OSU's 62-58 WIN over the Trojans?

#@$% yeah!

UCLA Runs by Oregon State in Conference Opener

Are you satisfied with the way the UCLA game (L, 69-46) turned out?

Yes

No

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

Beavers Make History in Win over Howard

Oregon State 64, Nebraska 63

Rebounds

Double-Doubles

Turnovers

More more postgame quotes:

Basketball goes 2-0 in exhibitions, regular season starts Friday