The Barometer Online

Issue date: 1/15/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Ethan Erickson Senior guard Rickey Claitt leads the 6-8 Oregon State Beavers with 38 assists on the season. Claitt is averaging 7.9 points per game and has started all 14 of OSU's games this season.

After dropping both games in Arizona last weekend, the Oregon State men's basketball team will look to get back on track as they host Washington State and Washington, respectively, this weekend at Legendary Gill Coliseum.

"We're just excited to get back on the court," Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson said. "That's the great thing about conference play - you can get past the bad weekends and get on to the next one quickly."

This weekend specifically will be another tough couple of tests for the Beavers, as Craig Robinson will go head-to-head against Washington State head coach Tony Bennett for the first time since they were assistants at Northwestern and Wisconsin, respectively, in the Big Ten conference.

Bennett was in a similar situation as Robinson is now when Bennett first arrived at WSU. The Cougars had gone just 1-17 in conference play the year before Bennett's arrival, and since then Washington State has made two trips to the NCAA tournament.

"They're a team that likes to dictate the tempo a little bit more than we do," Robinson said. "We've got to keep Baynes from getting the ball inside, and stop Rochestie from killing us from the outside, and now they've got Klay Thompson, who's making shots as a freshman, so if we can keep those guys from killing us we'll have a shot at winning this game."

The three Coach Robinson mentioned were Aron Baynes, Taylor Rochestie and Klay Thompson, who are the three leading scorers for the Cougars this season. All three of them are averaging close to 11 points, an example for how solid and consistent the Tony Bennett offense really is.

Behind their three offensive stars, the Cougars have gone 9-6 this season and picked up their first conference victory with a win over Stanford on Saturday. However, the Oregon State offense has been coming around as well behind Calvin Haynes, Omari Johnson, and, as of this weekend, sophomore guard Lathen Wallace.

"It came around pretty well," Wallace said. "I just let my game come to me and tried to play within the offense."

Continued...

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