Ex-Beaver greats weigh in on Tinkle, 2020-21 Beavers …
Sports Kerry Eggers Sports Kerry Eggers

Ex-Beaver greats weigh in on Tinkle, 2020-21 Beavers …

We asked a collection of names familiar to Beaver Nation — most of them former players — for their opinion of this year’s Oregon State team, which faces Loyola of Chicago at 11:40 a.m. PDT in a Sweet Sixteen showdown of underdogs. Their responses, in alphabetical order:

JIMMY ANDERSON (player from 1957-59, assistant coach from 1961-90, head coach from 1990-95):

“I haven’t missed a practice all year, so I have a pretty good handle on why the season has gone like it has. They brought in five new and (coach Wayne Tinkle’s) defensive system is a little complicated.

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Cool Hand Luke, the ultimate underdog: ‘We like shocking people’
Sports Kerry Eggers Sports Kerry Eggers

Cool Hand Luke, the ultimate underdog: ‘We like shocking people’

If anyone on Oregon State’s basketball roster can identify with the underdog, it’s Jared Lucas.

After scoring points at a prodigious rate — almost beyond comprehension — in four years at Los Altos High in Hacienda Heights, Calif., the sharpshooting guard was largely overlooked by Pac-12 schools.

When the media forecast OSU to finish 12th in the Pac-12 before the season, Lucas developed a chip on his shoulder the size of the Rock of Gibraltar.

“Cool Hand Luke” was as big a reason as any why the Beavers came from nowhere to claim the Pac-12 Tournament

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Something new: A weekly menu of sports book reviews
Sports Kerry Eggers Sports Kerry Eggers

Something new: A weekly menu of sports book reviews

As a service to our readers — the ones who enjoy sports books — we’ll critique an offering a week from now until Christmas.

The first one is a book written by one of my favorite writers and a great guy familiar to sports fans in this area. Bud Withers worked for a long time for the Seattle Times and P-I, but before that was with the Register-Guard in Eugene, where he came across one of the most polarizing figures ever to hit the Northwest college basketball scene.

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