“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose!”

I spent most of Sunday afternoon watching episodes of “Friday Night Lights,” so forgive me if I put too much stock in a single victory for Craig Robinson’s Oregon State Beavers. His team is still an underwhelming 2-5, but Saturday’s one-point win over a solid Nebraska squad does seem an awful lot like a turning point in the young season.

Here’s Robinson take, at least:

“Not only did they close out, but they had to close out with sheer toughness. That was the beauty of this game. Talking about all the different things you have to do that allow you to be a winner; and for us, toughness is just as important as rebounds, turnovers and foul shots. It was really a treat to see these guys pull out a tough game like that against a very good team with a very good record.”

Sophomore guard Calvin Haynes, who scored 14 points in his first game of the season after finally getting his grades up to snuff, underlined Coach Robinson's points:

 

"I feel like we are finally buying into what coach is saying. We’ve got to win close games like tonight, and it’s going to be like this the rest of the year.”

Saturday night’s home win was the Beavers’ first in almost a year. Pretty good timing, too. The team plays seven of their next 10 games in Corvalis, including two likely gimmes against Seattle Pacific and Seattle, and a rematch against Howard, before opening up conference play in the new year against UCLA and USC.

Now, I’m not about to proclaim OSU as favorites to win the Pac-10, even if the conference is reportedly wide open. Still, the team’s latest win is a step in the right direction and a bit closer to what OSU’s Athletic Director Bob De Carolis had in mind when he handed the program over to Coach Robinson last April.

Are You Sure We Can?

With President-elect Barack Obama’s security and economic teams securely in place, it’s worth checking in, as promised, on the progress of Obama’s brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, the head coach of the rebuilding Beavers of Oregon State, whose team lost their season opener to the lowly Howard Bison 47-45, on November 14.

To put it gently, the Robinson administration isn’t off to as fast—or as impressive—a start as Obama’s.

Following their opening night loss, the Beavers ran out of gas against Nevada and, after finally returning home, lost close games to Yale and Montana State by a combined four points. I'm sure that one-point loss to Yale really rankled Robinson, a graduate of Princeton, but his Bulldog-inspired agita was probably just a hiccup compared to his team's Thanksgiving Eve gag-fest against Montana State, which put the Beavers' current losing streak at an unsightly 25 straight going back to last season, before Robinson was hired to change the culture of the OSU basketball program. 

Still, Robinson and his team kept on keeping on, and finally won their first game of the season-- and first in about a year-- last night against Fresno State, a so-so squad from the Western America Conference, 62-54, behind senior guard Rickey Claitt's 14 points.  

Not exactly "Hill at Foggy Bottom," but, as even the president-elect would tell you, a win is a win is a win. 

The Beavers next take on the 4-1 Iowa State Cyclones, in Ames, on December 6.