Preview:
Oregon State has not been as formidable this year as in some recent years, but the recent addition of freshman Timea Gardiner (ESPN #6 overall for 2022), who has played only 3 games and just won freshman-of-the-week, seems to be changing their fortunes--helping OSU to a win over state rival Oregon. So all the stats on Oregon State are going to be obsolete, divided into the pre-Gardiner and the post-Gardiner team. That is just as well, since the Oregon State website doesn't have this year's stats even posted and I had to scrounge for them elsewhere.
Oregon State is 50th by Massey, 59th in NET, is 4/4 in conference play, 13/6 overall, and is unranked. They have lost to some good teams--Iowa, Duke, LSU, Oregon, USC, etc. Their best wins were beating UCLA and Oregon--good wins indeed.
Looking at the boxscore from their last game against Oregon shows that OSU started four guards and its giant post.
Talia Von Oelhoffen, the 5'11" sophomore guard, had 16 points, 4 assists, and 7 rebounds in that game. She is clearly the team leader in many ways. TVO is probably their best three point shooter but barely over 30%--not sure why the threes are not falling better for a Rueck team--that was largely how they beat us at Maples a few years ago.
Jelena Mitrovic is a 3rd year player and their 6'9" center. She had 11 rebounds and 9 points. I could easily see Betts getting some time against her.
Oregon State has two transfer guards starting: 6'1" Shallexus Aaron (on her 3rd school, though we know her from USC) and 5'10" Bendu Yeany (from Arizona.) And they also started another guard -- this one is home-grown -- 5'6" junior Noelle Mannon. Yeany doesn't shoot threes well but is a glue player who does a bit of everything and scores 7ppg. Mannon and Aaron are scoring points in the mid single digits and shooting threes in the high 25-30% range.
Coming off the bench is their freshman sensation, Timea Gardner, a 6'3" freshman forward, who played for 23 minutes and scored 15 points on 70% shooting. She also was 1/3 from three point range. She didn't play until recently due to an "unspecified" injury. Clearly another highly talented forward who has an inside/outside game. I bet Tara looks carefully at the tape she does have, though, not only to figure out how to defend her but also to see what her defense is like. Perhaps someone like Brink could take advantage of a freshman defender.
On the season, OSU's second leading scorer is Raegan Beers, a 6'4" freshman forward, but her playing time was down to 13 minutes, perhaps due to the need for OSU to go small, perhaps due to the emergence of Gardner. My guess is that since we are not a guard-heavy team, that we will see a lot of Beers this game even if Oregon did not.
Coach Rueck always prides himself on his defensive scouts. He would love to win a 51-49 game. Our USC game was no doubt his kind of dream, and I'm sure he has devoured that tape. His players don't score a lot of points--in part because they don't have to, and because OSU slows games down to a plodding pace. I'm sure he will try to stop any transition points and make it into a strictly half-court on half-court game. In the half court his defenses traditionally are a lot like our defenses--not excessively close but very sound positionally, cutting off open lanes and making opponents work for every point.
Therefore, I doubt our offense will ride roughshod over OSU, and so our defense will continue to be very important. TVO is shifty and will require our own sound positional defense--whether that means Emma-Nnopu, a returning Lepolo, or maybe Nivar I'm not sure. We won't necessarily have a height advantage inside, but I do think our bigs are more skillful than theirs. Gardner is the wild card since we have never played against her and we have very little film to watch on her, but after TVO, she is clearly the player to worry about.
As a whole, Oregon State has three quality "bigs" and a bevy of guards, so they have some flexibility and depth, and if their Oregon win is an indicator, they are finally beginning to come together as a team.
Oregon State has not been as formidable this year as in some recent years, but the recent addition of freshman Timea Gardiner (ESPN #6 overall for 2022), who has played only 3 games and just won freshman-of-the-week, seems to be changing their fortunes--helping OSU to a win over state rival Oregon. So all the stats on Oregon State are going to be obsolete, divided into the pre-Gardiner and the post-Gardiner team. That is just as well, since the Oregon State website doesn't have this year's stats even posted and I had to scrounge for them elsewhere.
Oregon State is 50th by Massey, 59th in NET, is 4/4 in conference play, 13/6 overall, and is unranked. They have lost to some good teams--Iowa, Duke, LSU, Oregon, USC, etc. Their best wins were beating UCLA and Oregon--good wins indeed.
Looking at the boxscore from their last game against Oregon shows that OSU started four guards and its giant post.
Talia Von Oelhoffen, the 5'11" sophomore guard, had 16 points, 4 assists, and 7 rebounds in that game. She is clearly the team leader in many ways. TVO is probably their best three point shooter but barely over 30%--not sure why the threes are not falling better for a Rueck team--that was largely how they beat us at Maples a few years ago.
Jelena Mitrovic is a 3rd year player and their 6'9" center. She had 11 rebounds and 9 points. I could easily see Betts getting some time against her.
Oregon State has two transfer guards starting: 6'1" Shallexus Aaron (on her 3rd school, though we know her from USC) and 5'10" Bendu Yeany (from Arizona.) And they also started another guard -- this one is home-grown -- 5'6" junior Noelle Mannon. Yeany doesn't shoot threes well but is a glue player who does a bit of everything and scores 7ppg. Mannon and Aaron are scoring points in the mid single digits and shooting threes in the high 25-30% range.
Coming off the bench is their freshman sensation, Timea Gardner, a 6'3" freshman forward, who played for 23 minutes and scored 15 points on 70% shooting. She also was 1/3 from three point range. She didn't play until recently due to an "unspecified" injury. Clearly another highly talented forward who has an inside/outside game. I bet Tara looks carefully at the tape she does have, though, not only to figure out how to defend her but also to see what her defense is like. Perhaps someone like Brink could take advantage of a freshman defender.
On the season, OSU's second leading scorer is Raegan Beers, a 6'4" freshman forward, but her playing time was down to 13 minutes, perhaps due to the need for OSU to go small, perhaps due to the emergence of Gardner. My guess is that since we are not a guard-heavy team, that we will see a lot of Beers this game even if Oregon did not.
Coach Rueck always prides himself on his defensive scouts. He would love to win a 51-49 game. Our USC game was no doubt his kind of dream, and I'm sure he has devoured that tape. His players don't score a lot of points--in part because they don't have to, and because OSU slows games down to a plodding pace. I'm sure he will try to stop any transition points and make it into a strictly half-court on half-court game. In the half court his defenses traditionally are a lot like our defenses--not excessively close but very sound positionally, cutting off open lanes and making opponents work for every point.
Therefore, I doubt our offense will ride roughshod over OSU, and so our defense will continue to be very important. TVO is shifty and will require our own sound positional defense--whether that means Emma-Nnopu, a returning Lepolo, or maybe Nivar I'm not sure. We won't necessarily have a height advantage inside, but I do think our bigs are more skillful than theirs. Gardner is the wild card since we have never played against her and we have very little film to watch on her, but after TVO, she is clearly the player to worry about.
As a whole, Oregon State has three quality "bigs" and a bevy of guards, so they have some flexibility and depth, and if their Oregon win is an indicator, they are finally beginning to come together as a team.
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