Beaver Belief: 3 Silver Linings after Loss to Gonzaga

Last night, Oregon State got routed. The final score was 98-60. Earlier, the margin got all the way up to 40. It was an ugly loss. But it's still a beautiful season.

Here are three reasons for optimism in Wayne Tinkle's Beavers going forward:

This team has a winning formula!

The Beavers have a clear, effective formula: shoot from anywhere, and score everywhere. It's not unusual for four or five different Beaver shooters to score double-digit points. Last night, Michael Rataj notched 15 points, Nate Kingz scored 11 points, and Damarco Minor & Maxime Logue each reached 10 points. Unfortunately last night, the scoring wasn't efficient enough. The Beavers shot only 38.2% from the field, and 26.1% from deep. Some nights, the shots don't fall. I think that's the best explanation for what went wrong against Gonzaga.

Nate Kingz' stock is rising!

When this season began, the redshirt junior from Salem was merely a rotation piece. Now he's an impact player. On January 11th at Pacific he scored 20 points. In the overtime thriller vs Gonzaga on 1/16, he scored 20 again. Ditto a week later against Pepperdine. At his best, Kingz' scoring, length, and instincts make him the Beavers' best two-way guard.

The busses won't break down every night, right?

Consider this nugget from The Oregonian's Nick Daschel: before last night's game, the Beavers team bus broke down. So they hitched uber's to the arena. What might seem like a minor annoyance to a common man was a glaring distraction for the Beavers. These are professional athletes, with strict routines. I'm not surprised that the shooting slumped on a night where the Beavers were totally out of rhythm before the action tipped off. Lock in the pregame routine - with operating team busses - and this team can rediscover its winning ways.

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