New look Beavers, football injuries

category: OSU Sports

New look Beavers, football injuries 517CommentsNew+look+Beavers%2C+football+injuries2008-10-29+20%3A25%3A48Cliff+Kirkpatrick

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The first glimpse of the Oregon State men’s basketball team under first-year coach Craig Robinson will be 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Gill Coliseum when the Beavers take on Saint Martin’s, an NCAA Division II school from Lacey, Wash., in the first exhibition game of the season.

Usually, these games are just procedure. Big-time school blasts a smaller school to warm up for when games count. This time, there’s an interest in how they will look and build off the performance.

“We’ll be able to tell how much (the players) are picking things up compared to when they are playing against others when they don’t know what everybody is trying to do,” Robinson said. “We don’t know a whole lot about our opponent in these exhibition games. What we are going to concentrate on is what we are doing. I want to see guys play hard. I want to see things be crisper than in practice because we are playing people who don’t know what we are doing. I want to see us be aggressive. If I see those things I’ll be able to assess where we are from two weeks ago.”

“If anything, we just want to see where everybody is at,” senior G Rickey Claitt said. “And we want to see where we improved from last year as a team.”

The Beavers have been working hard since team practices started on Oct. 17, trying to learn the hybrid Princeton offense. Robinson installed about 55-60 percent of what they’ll need. Now he has to see what they can do against another team.

5:30 a.m. practices have been going well. No one has been late, yet. And many players show up more than 30 minutes early to get extra shooting in. I know because I was there Wednesday morning. There have been no new injuries.

“It has been big jumps until the end of (first) week and the beginning of practice this week,” Robinson said. “Now we are slogging away. If feels like we are running through mud. We need a game or scrimmage, and the guys need it for the freshness of it. This is the time when practice gets tough. Our practices are so different from last year. It’s hard for them. And that’s OK. That’s what it’s supposed to be. Practice is supposed to be harder than the games.”

All the hype around his team has been about the new offense, but the players are ahead learning the defense, which is typical. There will be the full array of man, zone and press defenses. “It’s not where we want it to be, but it’s coming along just fine,” Robinson said.

Everybody will play early on as the Beavers get their game legs. Robinson is looking for a rotation of eight or nine players to start, and then seven or eight by the end of the season.

He’s keeping his first string under wraps until the game time because he wants the players to fight for it throughout the week. However, Robinson said he really likes the work of F Roeland Shaftenaar and Claitt.

Something else to watch for is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar style skyhooks. Robinson has been teaching all the players this move. “Everybody is working on a skyhook,” he said. “You have all played pick-up basketball. That’s the hardest shot to block.”

It should be interesting Sunday.

Hoops extras

The above video is the beginning of a Robinson’s press conference this week. Here are some links you might be interested in. This is a story that ran in Wednesday’s GT on Robinson’s concern over life if his brother-in-law wins some election next week. Here’s a look at 5:30 a.m. practices. And this is season preview in case you missed it.

Football update
A starting offensive lineman for the Oregon State football team has been sick all week and out of practice, and a reserve wide receiver was lost for the season due to injury.

Senior left tackle Andy Levitre is expected back from illness today, and should play in Saturday’s game, coach Mike Riley said after Wednesday’s practice. Sophomore receiver Kyle Brown tore an Achilles’ tendon Tuesday.

“It’s not a serious as Roy Schuening (walking pneumonia) last year, but he just doesn’t feel good,” Riley said of Levitre. “Kyle is out for the year.”

Tavita Thompson’s return from ineligibility was timely. He has been working in at left tackle, and can relieve Levitre if he’s not at full strength.

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