Beavs fall back to .500 against Nebraska

WHAT THE BEAVS did last year on the hardcourt -- producing a .500 record and winning a postseason tourney -- was remarkable. Yes, remarkable. Such were the circumstances of a winless Pac-10 season the year prior and a program in years previous consigned to the Pac-10 cellar. Yet what the Beavs did against Nebraska tonight, however, was not a game OSU head man Craig Robinson is likely to cherish.

Indeed, within the detritus of Oregon State's 50-44 defeat to Nebraska, was a decided lack of execution from the men in black and orange.

And mistakes aplenty.

Oregon State had their shots. They just didn't hit 'em.

Oregon State's offensive schemes produced an open man often against the Cornhuskers and the defense was, for the most part, stout. Nebraska didn't hit a field goal in the final 6:53 of the game.

But the Beavers shot a desultory 36.7 percent from the field against Nebraska. The Cornhuskers actually shot fractionally lower on the night, but they had just enough offensive rebounds to put the game into their win column.

"You can't make the kind of mistakes we made and expect to win the game," said head man Craig Robinson after the game.

OSU had 16 turnovers on the night, gave up 10 offensive rebounds and shot just 6-for-12 from the foul line.

OREGON STATE IS utilizing Roeland Schaftenaar less as a 6-11 point man this season as compared to last. He's coming off the bench and averaging about 21 minutes a game. Against NU, he played 25.

And he made good use of his time.

Schaftenaar went 8-for-12 from the field tonight, with a team high 16 points. Alas, the only other Beav above the 50 percent mark was Seth Tarver, who scored 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting.

Also coming in off the pine against Nebraska was Lathen Wallace. Alas, he went ice-cold against Nebraska, shooting 0-for-7 from the field in his 15 minutes and was held scoreless.

STILL, THERE'S A lot for Beaver fans to feel optimistic about this hoops season.

They're going to start finding the hoop more, including Wallace, and Oregon State was 4-3 coming into the Nebraska game, dropping to 4-4 with the loss.

Last year, as good as it was, OSU was never above the .500 line in the win-loss column at any time.

ROBINSON, AS THE non-conference schedule winds down, is tinkering.

And the Pac-10, based on their non-con record, is decidedly down this year.

Robinson is trying to put his unique touch on the so-called Princeton offense in while fitting in his '09-'10 personnel, which includes freshmen Joe Burton and Jared Cunningham this season.

Oregon State lost tonight because the shots wouldn't go down.

But in watching the Beavs tonight, the feeling here is that they will touch twine more as the season goes along. And the win-column, as a result, will receive an accompanying boost.