2023 Opponent Preview Thread

With week 1 in the books, time to look at next week’s opponents. Didn’t really look at Bushnell because we better beat them. Looks like they are fairly high scoring — at least against teams at their own level. If you follow Oregon HS basketball, you might recognize a name or two as they have about 10 in-state players.

That brings us to Portland St. I figured this for a fairly easy victory, but after their game last night against Portland I’m not so certain. They only lost by 7 to the Pilots, and we know what the Pilots did to FAMU this week. I’m going to out on a limb and say no way PSU scores 91 against the Beavs like they did last night. The good for them is they only had 7 turnovers. The bad is they allowed Portland to shoot 40% from 3 (48% overall), and the Pilots shot 44 free throws. But still a pretty good first game for a team that has 10 newcomers.

Their leading scorer is local product Cameron Parker, a 6-2 grad transfer from Montana. He had 23 last night as well as 6 assists. Little used IUPU transfer Bobby Harvey added 14 points, as did SE La transfer Isiah Kirby in 17 minutes off the bench. Hunter Woods, a 6-6 transfer from Elon also came off the bench but played 28 minutes and tallied 11 points, 14 rebounds and 3 assists. They aren’t a real tall team with only 2 players 6-10 or overbplaying. Combined they played just 26 minutes and put up 4 points and 3 rebounds last night.

Beaver fans will recognize another from the Vikings’ bench brigade — Isaiah Johnson. He had a productive 14 minutes, scoring 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting and picking up 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal. He played well down the stretch, including a 3-pointer that gave PSU a two point lead with 4 minutes left.

PSU plays twice more before its game against the Beavs — Seattle tomorrow and some school named Evergreen later in week. Seattle is 2-0 with its best win against UC San Diego, so that game might tell us a bit more.

I believe the Vikings play a somewhat frenetic defense (reason for big foul discrepancy) and shoot a lot of 3s (took 41 last night). Beavers take care of the ball, guard the 3 point line and use their height advantage and they should get the victory. But have a feeling this one might not be an easy one.

Well, since we play Bushnell (formerly NW Christian) next, I did look at them, at least for a quick second. The NCAA/NAIA rules make for an interesting comment on this game:

While OSU can lose this game, Bushnell cannot win it.

According to the Game Notes, this is a counting game for OSU, but an exhibition for Bushnell.
osubeavers.com/documents/2022/11/13/Game_3_vs._Bushnell.pdf

Go Beavers!

With the break in the schedule and because I have no interest in rehashing the same arguments about Tinkle at this time (proud of myself for not opening the threads beyond once to see subject matter), I took a little time to see what our “pro football” portion of the schedule is all about.

Next up is Seattle on Thursday. Good news is they lost to first Pac 12 opponent this year. Bad news is they beat Portland St. by 12. The 7-1 Redhawks don’t appear to be a big team but are a decent 3-point shooting team (35%). Their star is 6-3 Cameron Tyson, who is averaging 23.7 ppg and 5 rpg. He averages 17.5 shots per game, including nearly 12 from distance. If Beavs can limit his touches/shots, they have a chance. Schumacher and Grigsby, a 6-3 guard and 6-6 wing respectively, are their other two top scoring options.

Green Bay this weekend is a game Beavers can’t afford to lose. The Phoenix are 2-9, shoot just 25% from 3 and average just 27 rpg. And they play Stanford on the road the Friday before this matchup. They do seem to be playing better since 6-8, sophomore Cade Meyer has started to assert himself. In last 4 games that include the teams’ two wins, Meyer has averaged 16.5 ppg compared to his season average of 12.2.

Denver is the final game before a 10-day holiday break. The Pioneers are 8-3, though they’ve lost their last two against Sacraments St and UCLA, both in the road. They look to be a team that spreads the scoring around — 6 players average 9.9 ppg or higher. But their star is 6-1 Tommy Bruner. He averages 15 ppg and 4.5 apg. Their second leading scorer Tevin Smith has missed the last few games (including those losses) with a injury. No word on its severity, so no idea if he’ll be back. If he is, Bruner, he, two front court transfers from Coppin St and Stanford as well as a 6-9 “home grown’ sophomore from Finland could be a very tough matchup for the Beavers.

Would love to say Beavers will win all 3 with a good amount of confidence. Not that they can’t, but at this point 2-1 might be best we can hope for. As I said above, definitely have to beat Green Bay.

Seattle is the best of those three, sitting at 7-1.  The one loss is to Oregon State's one conference win, Washington.  Seattle also has the win over Portland State in the Redhawks Center.  Seattle started hot but seems to be regressing, especially on the road. Seattle's last two road trips were the loss to Washington at Alaska Airlines Arena and an overtime win against NET 276 North Dakota at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.

Florida A&M and Green Bay are probably the worst two teams on Oregon State's schedule.  That should be a W.  It would take an absolutely awful performance by Oregon State and a great performance by Green Bay for Green Bay to pull out the W.

Denver is 8-3.  Denver's only three losses are both ends of a home-and-home with Sac State and the loss to UCLA at Pauley.  Otherwise, Denver has defeated each of the other eight opponents.  Denver's best win was probably a three-point win over The Citadel in New Orleans.

Seattle and Denver should not be overlooked.  Both teams could beat Oregon State but should not.  The Beavers should head to Matthew Knight Arena 7-6 on New Year's Eve.  But Oregon State also should have handled Portland State.

We'll see.