Oregon State Basketball is headed to the NCAA tournament after defeating Colorado 70-68. Maurice Calloo, a Junior College transfer that originally started his career at Oklahoma State was awesome against the Buffaloes and scored a team-high 15 points. Jarod Lucas hit a big three down the stretch and made some key free throws to finish with 14 points.
The Beavers were also helped with Colorado’s poor shooting performance. As a team, Colorado shot 33 percent from three and 60 percent from the line. The free throw shooting is really surprising, going into the game Colorado was the best free-throw shooting in history at 83 percent.
Wayne Tinkle has done an incredible job with the Beavers this year. After losing Tres Tinkle, Oregon State was picked 12th in the Pac 12 preseason poll. They have won six out of their last six and 7 out of 9. They have greatly improved from the team that lost to Portland witch didn’t even win a game in the WCC this year and Wyoming.
It took a while for Oregon State to get their rotation right and for guys to settle into their roles. Lucas has greatly improved his efficiency since January and was a top 2 nominee for me of Pac 12 most improved player. Warith Alatishe has been awesome since February going into the game against Colorado he was shooting. Roman Silva, a 7-footer didn’t play much at the beginning of the year but has greatly seen his minutes improve since February.
At times Oregon State has mixed up their defenses this year. Like the 2nd time, they played Washington State Oregon State played have court man to man and several different zone defenses. Lately, Oregon State has been primarily a man team.
Oregon State has greatly improved this year and Wayne Tinkle deserves tons of credit. After the Beavers got blown out by Arizona on January 14 they ranked 153rd on Kenpom. Today they rank 84th. They are greatly improved, Ethan Thompson and the rest of the team will be a tough out.