Cliff Kirkpatrick

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The Oregon State men’s basketball team heads into its final home weekend of the season, unless it buys its way into a low-end postseason tournament.

Stanford is first with a 7 p.m. game Thursday and then California at 2 p.m. on Saturday. That’s the return of former coach Jay John to Gill Coliseum.

Check out the above video of coach Craig Robinson talking with the media Tuesday. He goes over facing Stanford and his lineup changes of G Josh Tarver and F Kevin McShane starting the last two games. For more on those two read my story in Wednesday’s GT.

Johnson update
F Omari Johnson didn’t play Saturday at Washington State, but Robinson expects he’ll play against Stanford. The official reason for him sitting out was a coach’s decision.

However, when a player is not hurt there’s always something behind the scenes. There was, but it was nothing criminal, academic or really bad. Robinson didn’t want it public to embarrass Johnson.

Funny stat
The Beavers are 2-5 in Gill Coliseum and 3-3 on the road in Pacific-10 Conference games.

“It’s not surprising when you know what’s going on,” Robinson said. There’s much more pressure to win at home than on the road. So winning games on the road is easier than the road.”

Robinson also pointed out that after playing poorly at the Arizona schools his team played them tough at home the second time around. He said the Beavers are not a normal team, yet, meaning they are evolving faster than normal teams with the new coaching staff.

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