Devon Collier – Rush The Court

Assessing an Awkward Coaching Situation in Corvallis

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 17:31:11 +0000

Craig Robinson said these words following Oregon State‘s season ending loss against Radford, a game played in front of fewer than 1,500 fans in Corvallis.

As he got up from podium, Robinson said, "If I get fired, it's been nice knowing you guys." Added that he was joking.

— Connor Letourneau (@ConnOregonian) March 20, 2014

That game ended his sixth season in Corvallis, with no single campaign resulting in a postseason finish higher than the CBI, and comprising the lowest attendance totals in Gill Coliseum history. Needless to say, Beaver fans aren’t happy and would like to see a change. Still, with that all laid [...]

NIT and CBI Reaction: Pac-12 Teams

Andrew Murawa (@AMurawa) & Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:01:50 +0000

Three Pac-12 teams that were not invited to the NCAA Tournament ended up receiving NIT or CBI bids. Let’s break them down in this instareaction format.

California – NIT, #2 seed in SMU Quadrant, vs. Utah Valley, 3/19, 7:30 PM PT – The Golden Bears had something of an argument for the NCAA field of 68, but nobody winds up all that shocked that they’re on the outside looking in. So, now, rather than playing for a national championship (at least in theory), Mike Montgomery and company have to shift gears and find something else to play for over their remaining games. For [...]

Pac-12 Senior Days: Oregon State Group of Six

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 18:01:02 +0000

On a day when Oregon State looks to secure a bid to the NIT, six Beavers will play their final game at Gill Coliseum. We break them down below.

Senior Roberto Nelson Leads The League In Points Despite Being Tightly Defended All Season (credit: Michael Shaw)

Roberto Nelson leads the conference in scoring in his final season in Corvallis, and he has been the difference-maker Oregon State needed to produce one of its best seasons in a decade. Coming out of Santa Barbara, he was the top signee of head coach Craig Robinson’s first recruiting class, one that also included [...]

Pac-12 Non-Conference Superlatives

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton128) and Andrew Murawa (@AMurawa) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 20:01:11 +0000

As part of the conclusion of the non-conference slate, it’s time for Connor and Drew to recognize some of the Pac-12 highlights through nearly two months of the regular season. We’ll cover all the basics: Player of the Year; Coach of the Year; Freshman of the Year; an all-conference team to this point; as well as the biggest surprises and disappointments. And we’ll give you our rationale on each. So let’s get right to it, and let us know where you disagree.

Player of the Year – There’s still a lot of hoop left, so we’ll each give you our current [...]

Holiday Hoops Mission Briefing: Oregon State In The Diamond Head Classic

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 20:50:41 +0000

One Pac-12 early-season tournament remains, and we break down the road ahead this Christmas for Oregon State.

What They’ve Done So Far: If you could use one word to describe the start to Oregon State‘s season, strange would fit the bill. The Beavers opened with a loss to now 4-5 Coppin State, but they were without starting forward Devon Collier, who is averaging 21.3 PPG and 9.6 RPG, who served a one game suspension because of a failed drug test administered during the summer. They have since won six of their last seven, two of which coming against possible NCAA Tournament teams in [...]

The Best In The West: Ranking the Top 20 Teams West Of The Rockies

AMurawa — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 21:31:44 +0000

Roughly a quarter of the way through the year, we’re going to unveil something a little new here, something we’ll check back in on once a month or so. We’re going to take all the schools west of the Rockies (and we’re going to be a bit generous with our geography – basically we’re looking at schools from the Pac-12, Mountain West, West Coast, and Big West and then some of the schools from the Big Sky and Western Athletic Conferences) and give you the top 20 teams. But, rather than just ranking schools 1 though 20, we’re going to [...]

Pac-12 M5: 11.18.13 Edition

Andrew Murawa — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:01:42 +0000

Oregon State scored a big win on Sunday evening, both for themselves and for the conference. Playing at Maryland in front of, among others, President Obama, the Beavers looked impressive, getting big nights from a pair of seniors and scoring a road win against a solid ACC squad. Roberto Nelson led the way with 31 points (he’s now averaging 30.3 PPG this year), but the big difference for the Beavers was the presence of forward Devon Collier, who scored 29, grabbed 11 boards and blocked a couple of shots. After a game missed due to suspension, he at least gives [...]

Pac-12 M5: 11.12.13 Edition

Andrew Murawa — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 16:01:41 +0000

So. Stanford. Out to save Johnny Dawkins’ job and salvage a single NCAA Tournament appearance for its talented senior class. Yeah, that team. Well, they gave up nearly 1.3 points per possession last night in a home loss to BYU, in a regulation game that featured more scoring than any game played last season anywhere, losing 112-103 at Maples Pavilion. A college basketball game that had more scoring than seven of the nine NBA games on the same night. The good news is that scoring is up, and we could attribute that to the new emphasis on enforcing hand-checking rules. [...]

A Recap Of Opening Weekend in the Pac-12

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:31:18 +0000

The Pac-12 opened the 2013-14 season with a big splash in South Korea and ended with a head-scratching upset in Corvallis. Let’s take a closer look at how the conference fared through the first three days of the regular season.

Young, A Transfer Out Of Houston, Made His Case For Newcomer Of The Year In The Pac-12 After A Stellar Opening Night Performance Against Georgetown. (credit: Lee Jim-man)

Best Game – Oregon vs Georgetown: The stage couldn’t have been bigger. A top 20 Oregon team, missing two of its starters after receiving suspensions earlier in the week, against a good Georgetown club, being [...]

Pac-12 M5: Veteran’s Day Edition

Andrew Murawa — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:01:55 +0000

Washington knocked off a game Seattle squad on Sunday night in its season opener, but the win may turn out to be something of a Pyrrhic victory as sophomore forward Jernard Jarreau left with a knee injury just two minutes into the season. As of this writing, there is no news on the severity of the injury, but Jarreau is expected to undergo an MRI today. With senior center Perris Blackwell already out after suffering a concussion in their exhibition game last Wednesday, and with junior Desmond Simmons out for up to two months following knee surgery, the Huskies were [...]

Pac-12 M5: 10.30.13 Edition

AMurawa — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 15:01:48 +0000

While the main focus right now for basketball fans around the country may be the return of the NBA regular season, we continue to check off the final days before college basketball returns for real. But, in the meantime, if you’re dying for any kind of action, we do have some exhibition games to pass the time. Tonight, for instance, the Steve Alford era at UCLA gets underway as the Bruins will host Cal State San Bernardino at Pauley Pavilion, giving fans a first glimpse at what the Alford offense is going to look like and whether Kyle Anderson can [...]

Pac-12 Team Preview: Oregon State Beavers

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 16:31:12 +0000

We continue unveiling our team-by-team breakdowns, in roughly the reverse order of where we expect these teams to finish in the conference standings.

Oregon State Beavers

Strengths. Oregon State boasts one of the finest frontcourts in the conference. Starting the group off is senior Devon Collier, a strong small forward who can score either driving to the hoop or with a nifty little jumper. Senior center Angus Brandt missed the majority of last season after tearing his ACL in the fourth game of the year, and his ability to score from both inside and behind the arc took away a big threat from [...]

Welcome Back: Pac-12 Team-By-Team Offseason Wrap

AMurawa — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 18:59:34 +0000

After a long offseason away from college basketball, we’re back. With practice underway across the country, with “Midnight Madness” events looming and with the start of the season on the not-too-distant horizon, it is time to end our hiatus and dig back into hoops. In a year where the Pac-12 seems to sport one legitimate national title contender and a healthy pack of NCAA Tournament contenders, we can finally say that the conference is back from the recent depths and ready to be a consistent contender on the national stage again. But, in taking an offseason sabbatical, we’ve missed some [...]

Morning Five: 10.02.13 Edition

rtmsf — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 12:01:57 +0000

The drumbeat of pay-for-play continues echoing through the chambers of college athletics. The latest and greatest: Jay Bilas tweeted out an article last night called “Money Madness: Why and How NCAA Athletes Should Be Paid” from Duke Political Review, a piece that probably wouldn’t have otherwise been seen by anyone beyond a small group of policy wonks. Zach Gorwitz argues that the free market should allow for college football and basketball programs to pay its players a reasonable salary beyond the cost of a full scholarship — he suggests $10,000 to $60,000 for football players, as an example — limited by an NCAA-wide [...]

Oregon State Suspends Eric Moreland and Devon Collier

nvr1983 — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:19:41 +0000

When Oregon State announced that it was suspending forwards Eric Moreland and Devon Collier indefinitely in late July many observers wondered how long the suspensions would be given the fact that both players were expected to be significant pieces of a Beaver team that was attempting to move up the Pac-12 hierarchy after failing to even finish at .500 in any of Craig Robinson’s first five seasons in Corvallis. This morning, during the team’s media day, Robinson announced the length of the suspensions–half of the regular season (14 games) for Moreland and one game for Collier–for a violation of team rules [...]