Mid-Valley Sports

Hampton: OSU’s season comes to end

Kevin Hampton — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:40:12 +0000

The Beavers knew Boston University shoots the 3 and that’s exactly what the Terriers did on Wednesday at Gill Coliseum in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational.

BU hit 12 3 -pointers and shot 38 of 67 from the field. That was too much for the Beavers in a 96-78 loss.

The Terriers took a 46-27 lead at the half with a 23-4 run sparked by 3-point shooting and OSU turnovers. The Beavers had 12 of their 18 turnovers in the first half.

It was a tough way for seniors Roeland Schaftenaar and Seth and Josh Tarver to finish their OSU careers.

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Hampton: Robinson e-mail rumor

Kevin Hampton — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:02:30 +0000

There’s an e-mail circulating about Craig Robinson that is quite interesting. Here’s the text:

Some have said that the stimulus hasn’t saved any jobs, but here is a case where at least one job was saved.

According to an unnamed source, Oregon State University Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis was considering firing their basketball coach, Craig Robinson, after an 8-11 start (2-5 in the Pac 10 conference).

When word of this reached Washington , Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter was dispatched to Corvallis with $17 million in stimulus money for the university. The source now says that Craig Robinson’s job is safe for this year.

For the record, Coach Robinson just happens to be Michelle Obama’s Brother. (END)

If you haven’t already guessed, this is false.

Oregon State did receive $17.8 million, but it was part of $52 million given to the Oregon University System through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Money was distrubuted to other universities in the state as well.

That was in Oct 2009, around the start of the basketball season. So if the e-mail is to be believed, Robinson was on the brink of losing his job coming off a CBI championship and leading OSU to an 18-18 overall record in his first year at OSU, that after an 0-18 Pac-10 the previous season.

Robinson was given a two-year contract extension just a few weeks ago, so the timeline doesn’t exacltly add up.

OSU director of athletics Bob De Carolis said there’s no truth to the e-mail. He said he’s been getting e-mails from all over the country regarding the rumor.

“It’s been crazy,” De Carolis said. “I must have gotten 50 e-mails a day from people wanting to know if it’s true.

“It’s the Internet. Don’t believe everything that’s on it.”

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Hampton: Paying to play

Kevin Hampton — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:50:59 +0000

Oregon State has to pony up a guarantee of reportedly $60,000 to host tonight’s College Basketball Invitational game against Boston Univeristy.

A risk? Of course, especially with the current economic climate and the athletic department’s debt.

But AD Bob De Carolis was faced with a similar situation last year and gave the go-ahead for the Beavers to play at home for what turned out to be four games.

The Beavers won the tournament and came out fine financially in the process.

That gave De Carolis the confidence to make the same call this season. If the Beavers draw a good crowd (they probably need 5,000 or more) and they will be in good shape.

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Hampton: OSU vs. BU and Robinson on NCAA expansion

Kevin Hampton — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:53:39 +0000

Expect a lot of 3-pointers to be tossed up on Wednesday night when Boston University plays at Oregon State in the first round of the CBI tournament.

The Terriers like to drive to the hoop and either go in for a layup or kick the ball out for a 3-point try.

They are not particularly big and aren’t deep, but they have several guards who can shoot from long range and a very good guard-forward in John Holland, who averages 19 points a game.

It will be a good test for OSU’s 1-3-1.

OSU guard Calvin Haynes has confidence in his team’s defense.

“Our defense is made to stop people, period,” Haynes said. “We just want to bother people and make them do stuff they don’t want to do.”

That will be necessary if the Beavers want to move on. In addition to Holland, the Terriers can go to guards Corey Lowe (15.1 points), Carlos Strong (10.1) and Tyler Moore.

Forward Jake O’Brien adds 13.5 points and 6.4 rebounds.

“I think you’re going to see them try and push the ball if they can and they can really light it up from the 3-point line,” Craig Robinson said. “I think they’re over 35 percent as a team and they score 70 and their opponents score 60, so that’s a nice little spread to work with there.”

Robinson on expanding the NCAA Tournament

Robinson was asked what he thought about the possible expansion of the NCAA Tournament from 65 teams to 96. That would include giving automatic bids to all regular season conference champions despite what happens in the conference tournaments.

“I had not really thought about it. The little brief thoughts I’ve on it is there’s probably a financial reason for doing it and I would imagine that if all of the higher seeds are going to have byes, it’s just making it harder for the teams that come in at the bottom. So the at-large teams are going to have as much if not more of an advantage of moving forward.

“I think that as a team that is struggling to get to the tournament, the more teams the better. Because once you’re in you have a chance at advancing. If I was a perennial NCAA team going into the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight, it might make my life easier.”

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Hampton: CBI again for Beavers

Kevin Hampton — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:26:14 +0000

OSU men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson was incredulous at the thought that some programs would not want to play in the postseason simply because their team did not meet expectations.

The Beavers are back in the College Basketball Invitational and host Boston University on Wednesday.

Robinson was all for getting his team more playing time and practice. He knows that part of the postseason experience is building for the future.

“There are some of the philosophy that if their team doesn’t play well enough, then they don’t deserve to go, which I always laugh at because if your team doesn’t play well enough, then you need more games and more practice,” Robinson said.

“We’re at a stage in our development where we need more. We have gotten to a point where for two seasons now at the end of the year we’re playing better than at the beginning of the year, so we want to see where that takes us.”

The Beavers will lose seniors Roeland Schaftenaar, Josh and Seth Tarver and Calvin Hampton when the season comes to a close.

“We’re going to replace them with a very young team. We don’t have a sophomore class, really, other than the walk-ons,” Robinson said. “So hopefully, if healthy, all five of our freshmen are going to be logging a lot of minutes. So getting them experience in tournament play is important. Getting them experience in just playing is important and training them in how to behave and how to practice after the season is over, that’s something else that you have to get used to so when you do make the NCAA tournament, you don’t have to spend three years trying to figure out how to advance.”

Check out my story in Tuesday’s Corvallis Gazette-Times or online at www.gazettetimes.com. I will have more on the matchup between the Beavers and the Terriers in Wednesday’s paper.

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Hampton: Postseason possibilities

Kevin Hampton — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:05:41 +0000

The OSU men’s basketball team has been waiting for a postseason bid since Thursday after the Beavers lost their Pac-10 tournament game to Washington.

Will the Beavers land a bid? Probably. With so many slots to fill, OSU is almost a lock to keep playing.

Coach Craig Robinson said the team is eager to keep playing.

“When you end on a tough note I want to make sure that the players want to do it, too, because we wouldn’t be able to do it if they didn’t want to do it and every single one of them said yes,” Robinson said.

With the NCAA out of the question, there are three tournaments that could select OSU.

The National Invitational Tournament is a possibility but is unlikely to take the Beavers. It has a 32-team field and a lot of those openings will be taken by teams that won regular-season conference titles but lost in conference tournaments and teams that were on the bubble for the NCAA tournament and didn’t make it.

The Beavers are most likely headed to the College Insider.com Tournament or back to the College Basketball Invitational.

“We would love to try and defend our title and if there’s enough room for us in one of these tournaments, specifically the CBI, that would be terrific,” Robinson said.

When will the Beavers know? The NCAA makes its picks on Sunday, then the NIT and then the final two.

“The NCAA stuff is done by Sunday and then early Monday you hear about the NIT stuff. Last year we heard Monday night,” Robinson said. “Then the first games are Tuesday and Wednesday. So hopefully we’ll hear sometime between late Sunday and Monday.”

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Hampton: OSU falls to UW

Kevin Hampton — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:08:41 +0000

Well, the third time was almost the charm.

The Beavers gave Washington all it could handle in a 59-52 loss at the Pac-10 tournament on Thursday in Los Angeles at the Staples Center.

Craig Robinson did some tinkering with the Beavers’ defense and it worked for the better part of a half. He was concerned about UW’s ability to penetrate to the basket after the Huskies did it so easily in an 82-70 win at OSU last Saturday.

The Beavers packed in the defense a little while pressuring the ball and had the UW offense slowed to a near-standstill in the first half. The Beavers led 31-22 at the half. Quincy Pondexter had one point and Isaiah Thomas five in the half.

Thomas caught fire in the second and the Huskies were able to open it up on offense just enough to put together a run and overcome the Beavers.

“They wanted to speed the game up and put some pressure on us,” Robinson said.

The Huskie hit 3-pointers in the second with Thomas coming up big from the arc, hitting three. He finished with 15 points.

UW was more active on the offensive boards and the Beavers could not keep pace on offense and were outscored 37-21.

“It’s just a shame when you’re playing that well to have it sort of snatched away, but it would be different if we had it snatched away by a team that was our level or lesser,” Robinson said. “I admire that team. We want to be that team at some point. They kept their cool, they played tough, they played through foul trouble and I’m hoping they can get to the tournament.”

Roeland Schaftenaar had 17 points and Jared Cunningham 15 for OSU.

The Beavers now wait to see if they will be selected by a tournament. The NCAA selection is Sunday, so the Beavers will most likely get a bid after those teams are announced.

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Hampton: My all-Pac-10 team

Kevin Hampton — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:44:44 +0000

The Oakland Tribune held a media poll in which Pacific-10 Conference men’s basketball writers voted for their all-Pac-10 team, MVP, coach of the year, etc.

For my five-man team I had: Landry Fields, Stanford; Quincy Pondexter, UW; Jerome Randle, Cal; Derrick Williams, UA and Klay Thompson, WSU.

I went with Landry Fields as player of the year (he was second to Randle by one vote and Pondexter was third)

I voted for ASU’s Herb Sendek for coach of the year.

Look here http://www.insidebayarea.com/college-sports/ci_14646543 for complete results.

There was no category for defensive player of the year. No doubt Seth Tarver would have won.

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Hampton: Robinson on Seth Tarver

Kevin Hampton — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:53:43 +0000

OSU men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson was asked to comment on Seth Tarver being named Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year during Tuesday’s press conference.

Robinson said the Beavers have been fortunate to have Tarver and he’s deserving of the award because of the impact he’s had.

“Now that’s he’s gotten it, that it is just amazing to me that you have a player that is actually controlling the game. He’s dictating what takes place in the game for the entire game from the top of the 1-3-1 while leading us in rebounding from way out there,” Robinson said.
“We couldn’t be where we are without him. We needed something that sort of was our thing, our identity and he helped us become a really good defensive team. So I’m really excited for him.
“I thought last year he really deserved to get a little more than he got and this year it was great to see the other coaches really take note and say he’s done a great job.”

Tarver was also an honorable mention all-conference player and Calvin Haynes was selected to the second team.

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Hampton: A tough senior day loss

Kevin Hampton — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:36:50 +0000

It’s never easy to lose on senior day.

For Roeland Schaftenaar, Calvin Hampton and Seth and Josh Tarver, Saturday’s 82-70 loss to Washington was a tough one to swallow.

Not only did they lose their senior day game, but the Beavers had a shot at a .500 record and a higher finish in the Pac-10 (they wound up sixth).

And, to make matters worse, the game nearly got out of hand.

“It’s tough,” Schaftenaar said. “Last home game here and this is a tough one to lose. And such a big opportunity for us to get into (fifth) place but we gave it all we had and next week Pac-10 tournament.”

The Beavers will get another shot at the Huskies on Thursday in the Pac-10 tournament.

The Beavers want the opportunity to get a win over UW, but it won’t be easy if Saturday’s loss was any indication. The Huskies showed more athleticism than OSU and went up by 20 in the second half.

UW passed the ball well (18 assists), hit 6 of 14 3-pointers and scored 42 points in the paint.

The Beavers did have some chances to get back into the game. They were within 58-49 in the second half after a three-point play by Schaftenaar, but Venoy Overton nailed a three and the Huskies took control.

“It was sort of like a back breaker but we just decided to keep our heads up and just keep playing, play the game until it’s over,” Hampton said.

The Beavers did and made sure a 20-point lead didn’t swell into an embarrassment.

Schaftenaar led OSU with 15 points.

Joe Burton had another solid game with 10 points and five rebounds. Burton has gained confidence on offense and has shown an array of moves down low.

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