roberto nelson – 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 [...]

Pac-12 Player of the Year and All-Conference Teams

Andrew Murawa — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 20:45:18 +0000

Before we announce our Player of the Year and our all-Pac-12 Teams, a quick note on our methodology here — we had each of our three voters – Andrew Murawa, Connor Pelton, and Adam Butler – rank their top 15 players in the conference and awarded points to each player based on those votes (1st place vote =15 points, 2nd place =14, etc.). Normally, when putting together an all-conference team, we’d make an effort to balance our team by position, with either three guards and two frontcourt players on each team, or vice versa. But in this season’s guard-heavy conference we didn’t [...]

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 M5: Valentine’s Day Edition

Drew Murawa — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 16:01:20 +0000

We’ve got a rare Friday night Pac-12 game tonight and, first off, I’m not sure how to feel about this. After years of Thursday/Saturday games and maybe the occasional Sunday game, I’ve had a hard enough time getting used to Wednesday games and 6pm weekday tip-times. And the unbalanced conference schedule is a non-starter. But a Friday night game? And on Valentine’s Day of all days? Suffice it to say I’m not feeling the love. But, my opinion doesn’t matter and so Arizona and Arizona State will go at it tonight. Arizona keeps plugging along in the wake of the [...]

Oregon State Slowly But Surely Returning to Relevance

Rockne Andrew Roll (@raroll) — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 16:30:17 +0000

Rockne Andrew Roll is an RTC correspondent. You can also find him at @raroll. Rockne filed this report after Oregon State’s upset victory over UCLA Sunday afternoon.

A year ago, Oregon State was 1-8 in conference play and well on its way to Craig Robinson’s third losing season in five years in Corvallis. This year? UCLA’s Steve Alford summed it up rather succinctly after the Bruins’ 71-67 loss at Gill Coliseum on Sunday. His words were not intended for public consumption, but his frustration with his team’s performance gave his words such volume that they were crystal clear on the other [...]

Pac-12’s Good Players on Bad Teams

AMurawa — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 17:31:04 +0000

While the Pac-12 may not be all it was cracked up to be early in the season, eight of the conference teams have generally been regarded for most of the past month or so as at least good. That leaves four teams at the bottom of the conference – USC, Oregon State, Washington, and Washington State – that haven’t been taken seriously and that have been described, at one point or another, as straight out bad. A couple of those teams are beginning to come around some, but really until they prove themselves over long stretches, we’re still going to [...]

Oregon State Finds Success By Swapping Starting Point Guards

Kenny Ocker — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:01:27 +0000

Kenny Ocker (@kennyocker) is a Northwest-based national columnist for Rush The Court and filed this report Wednesday night from Washington State’s Friel Court in Pullman.

Craig Robinson might have just figured it out just in time to make something of this Pac-12 season. The Oregon State coach, who has struggled for consistent point guard play since taking over in Corvallis back in 2008, has given the reins of the offense to freshman guard Hallice Cooke in the last four games, and it’s paid immediate dividends. After a middling non-conference performance that included losses to Coppin State, DePaul and Hawaii, and an [...]

Pac-12 Roundup: Week Ten

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) & Andrew Murawa (@AMurawa) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 18:45:15 +0000

Out of the country? Living under a rock? Here’s what you missed in the tenth week of Pac-12 basketball.

Power Rankings (as voted upon by Connor Pelton, Andrew Murawa and Adam Butler):

Arizona is once again the unanimous top choice this week, and the next two spots below the Wildcats were in complete agreement as well. Check the full results below.

Junior Guard Nick Johnson Led The Wildcats With 17 Points In Their Rivalry Win Against Arizona State

Arizona (18-0, 3 Points). Comment: “The Wildcats have restored championship pride in a city that seemed to be dying on the vine after Lute Olson’s empire crumbled, after the [...]

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 [...]

Hatin’ Larry Krystkowiak: Christmas Edition

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 18:31:16 +0000

A Pac-12 adaption of Every Day Should Be Saturday’s Hatin’ Steve Spurrier character.

Larry is in a Holiday Mood This Week

Well, Barry Hinson, you may have gone viral and put Southern Illinois on the map for the first time in a while, but you’re not going to like what’s in your stocking on Wednesday. Washington‘s two-game winning streak will likely come to an end this weekend against Connecticut. Will we see another two straight wins for the Dawgs this season? Are Idaho State and Tulane on the schedule again? The answer is in there somewhere. Oregon State‘s celebrating Christmas in Hawaii for the Diamond Head Classic, meaning [...]

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 POY and FrOY Odds After One Month

Andrew Murawa (@AMurawa) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 17:20:30 +0000

We’re a month into the season, something basically approaching the quarter-pole of the year. Let’s take a little time over the next couple days to recount what we’ve seen so far and prognosticate a bit about the rest of this year’s race. We begin with setting odds for both Pac-12 Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year.

Player of the Year Odds

Jahii Carson, Sophomore, Arizona State; Odds 4-1 – Let’s be honest: as good as Allen Crabbe was last season for Cal, it is sort of a crime that he won the conference POY award over Carson. So, with [...]

Award Tour: Quarter-Season NPOY and COY Rankings

Jameson Fleming — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 17:01:58 +0000

Jameson Fleming is an RTC columnist who also works for CBSSports.com as the site’s social media editor. You can follow him on Twitter @JamesonFleming.

For several years, the Pac-12 was the laughingstock among the power conferences. The league is landing top talent once again, and that talent is represented in these rankings as four Pac-12 players cracked the Top 10. While two freshmen make up the top four of these rankings (and two more, Andrew Wiggins and Aaron Gordon could be on their way soon enough), the four Pac-12 representatives aren’t first-year players. Through the first month of the season, here [...]

Pac-12 Roundup: Week One

Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) and Andrew Murawa (@AMurawa) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 19:15:48 +0000

Out of the country? Living under a rock? Here’s what you missed in the first full week of Pac-12 basketball.

Roberto Nelson Poured In 31 Points In Oregon State’s Upset Win At Maryland (credit: Andy Cripe)

Best Game – Oregon State @ Maryland: Arizona-San Diego State would be a fine pick here as well, but the Wildcats held a comfortable lead for nearly 35 minutes in that one. In College Park, things were exiting and intense from the outset. The whole atmosphere, bolstered by an appearance from the President of the United States, made this feel like something much more than a [...]