When the NCAA Tournament tips off at 12:30 on Tuesday afternoon, the Oregon State Beavers will again be watching from afar, having been bounced out of the Pac-10 Tournament on March 10 by Arizona, 78-69.

The Beavers entered the season with high expectations, with some analysts suggesting that OSU could finish in the top half of the conference, and players saying the team would be playing in The Big Dance.  "That's where we're headed," Calvin Haynes told us last summer.  

Not happening.  The Beavers didn't even win enough games for an invitation to a small-beans tournament like the College Basketball Invitational, in which they've played the past two years.

Have coach Craig Robinson's Beavers regressed?  Robinson took the Beavers from winless in the Pac-10 (6-25 overall) prior to his arrival to 7-11 in the conference (18-18 overall) in 2008-2009.  Last season, OSU improved again in the Pac-10, going 8-10.  This season, though, the Beavers went only 5-13 in the Pac-10, and it's not as if the conference competition has improved dramatically.  As the win-loss record stands, yes, the team has regressed.

Nothing's ever as simple as numbers suggest, though.

The Oregon Ducks, which weren't expected to reach the semifinals of the Pac-10 Tournament, ran out of gas in their third game in three-nights, ultimately unable to keep up with the dangerous Washington Huskies. The effort was certainly there, but their season is over, as the Huskies pulled away for a 69-51 win.

Ducks get off to slow start, but defense keeps Huskies at bay

Both teams had a rough start, but Oregon's stood out. They had only 11 points in the first 13 minutes, struggling against a longer and more athletic team. E.J. Singler, who had 46 points in the tournament's first two games, Joevan Catron, Jay-R Strowbridge, and Malcolm Armstead combined to shoot 8-26 in the first half.

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Gerald Wallace's return to Charlotte created more noise, but Stephen Jackson coming back to the court for the Bobcats proved to be the difference maker on Friday. Charlotte's forward starred in the fourth quarter, propelling the Bobcats past Wallace's Portland Trail Blazers, 97-92, to end a six-game losing streak.

Wallace gets standing ovation as Blazers, Bobcats trade turnovers in first half

Wallace had strong words for Charlotte’s management this week, but that didn’t stop their fans from giving him the respect he deserved. They cheered a video montage of him before the game, then Wallace was welcomed back with a standing ovation upon making his first appearance midway through the first quarter.

Portland collected five steals and forced nine turnovers in all in the first quarter, routinely capitalizing. But Wallace, who was too pumped up early, picked up two offensive fouls on overly aggressive drives to the rim. More turnovers followed for Portland.

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In times like these, basketball takes a back seat to life.

While head coach Eric Reveno is busy preparing the Portland Pilots to head to Hawaii on Sunday to compete in the College Insider.com Tournament early next week, his heart remains with the people in Japan.

He's not alone.

Reveno spent four years playing professional basketball in Japan after his days at Stanford, and Thursday night when he heard the news about the 8.9 earthquake off the Pacific coast that set off a massive tsunami, resulting in floods, fires and the closure of airports and transit systems, his "thoughts were immediately with some friends."


The Portland Timbers might technically be an expansion team, but their play in the preseason so far has made them look like anything but.  With just one final game on the schedule before the regular season start, the Timbers currently stand at 2-0-5.

Even before the first match, midfielder Ryan Pore predicted the strong start. Back on Jan. 31^st, he stated: “We don’t really see ourselves as an expansion team, we think we can go in and compete right away.”

Coach John Spencer has also been impressed with his team’s early prominent record.  In an interview with the Oregonian’s Geoffrey Arnold, he said: “I think it’s meant a lot, for me, anyway.  Some coaches might look at it differently.  I’ll look at it in the sense that we’re unbeaten so far.”