In his final regular season game, Joevan Catron went out with a bang. His Oregon Ducks couldn't muster enough of a comeback to follow suit, falling 90-82. Behind the play of their senior forward, they put up a substantial fight against the 18th-ranked Arizona Wildcats, playing with a tremendous amount of energy and aggressiveness to make the McKale's centers 13,000-plus consistently nervous.
The Ducks, coming off a disappointing loss to Arizona State, needed to play their best basketball to have a chance. They had nothing to lose, and it showed. Free and easy from the start they hung with the Wildcats in the first half, largely due to their ability to create turnovers and hold Arizona's best player, Derrick Williams, in check. Oregon missed 17 of their 27 shots, but forced seven turnovers, five of which steals, and frustrated Williams, who had more fouls, three, than points at halftime.
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The Oregon Ducks, on a three-game skid, play for pride as they prepare for battle against the 18th-ranked Arizona Wildcats, a team playing for the Pac-10 title. Coming off one of their worst performances of the year, Oregon appears to have run out of steam, and on the road against a far superior team they will have to play nearly flawless basketball in order to come out on top.
They don't have much positive to hang their hat on, but forward Joevan Catron is only 21 points shy of becoming the 30th Duck to score 1,000 points. He had only five against Arizona State, and will have his hands full with Derrick Williams, who has already surpassed the 1,000-point threshold in just two seasons, entering with 1,056.
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2011 West Coast Conference Tournament
The WCC Tournament kicks off tonight with two first round matchups featuring Portland vs. Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine vs. San Diego. Since the Pilots finished the conference season 7-7, the team was seeded in the bottom half of the division at #5.
Because of how the tournament is structured, the Pilots will have to win four games within four days in order to earn a berth in the 2011 NCAA Final Four Tournament. Alternatively, the top two teams in the bracket (Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga) will only have to win two games within two days for the same opportunity. no comments
About a half-hour after Oregon State's loss to California last Saturday at Gill Coliseum, Craig Robinson contemplated whether or not he would watch the game film that night and take notes on what the Beavers did right and wrong.
It had already been a long day. Heck, it's been a long year.
Judging by how the season has gone for Oregon State, there might be more wrong than right to jot down and teach upon this week at practice for the Beavers. But with two games remaining at Arizona and Arizona State this week and then the Pac-10 Tournament that follows, Robinson is far from done coaching and teaching his young team - one Robinson is constantly grooming for the future.
"I like the fact that we are getting better. Our teams have gotten better from the beginning to the end and this is another one of those seasons," Robinson told Beyond the Beat, with Oregon State sitting at 10-17 on the season.
"I could look at the glass half empty, but that's not my style, especially this early. We are just getting these young guys ready to play."
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With the Pac-10 tournament just a week away, OSU has a lot to work on. It won't be easy as they travel to Arizona this weekend, first playing the Wildcats in Tucson on Thursday, then the Sun Devils in Tempe on Saturday.
The Beavers opened to a 2-0 record in the Pac-10 by beating both Arizona and Arizona State in the first weekend of conference play, but since those victories at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, OSU is 3-11. For many people, the Beavers are the biggest disappointment in the Pac-10 this season. But the season's not over, and a run through the Pac-10 tournament in Los Angeles next weekend isn't likely, but it's not impossible, either.
First, though, the Arizona teams are out for revenge. Below, a few speculative thoughts on how the Beavers might come out of the desert with a win or two.
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