Beat Journal #2

Beat Journal #2

Everyone thought that the Beavers were going to go to Northern California and get swept away, sending them further down the Pac-10 standings.
Then a funny thing happened.
The Beavers broke their brooms and swept the bay area schools right out of their gyms. Then on Monday night they hosted Cal-State Bakersfield in a game that was supposed to help them get some confidence back before hosting the Ducks. It was a trap game, and they survived. The coverage from the Bakersfield Californian was interesting.
The article about Monday’s game would make you believe the Beavers were a Top 25 team or headed to the NCAA tournament. Considering the Bakersfield team has never beaten a Division I school on the road, this was as close as they have ever come apparently, I guess their ‘upset’ talk was funny. The Beavers are 9-10! Funny how two wins can change the face of a program to small schools such as Bakersfield.
From the Palo Alto Daily News regarding Saturday’s game against Stanford: they didn’t necessarily blame the loss on an injury to their starting point guard, but they certainly made sure the injury was mentioned in the first few paragraphs of the story.
Lastly, ESPN.com’s Andy Katz picked the Beavers as his “National Team of the Week.” Interesting. I am sure that Craig Robinson’s whirlwind of a week had a little to do with it, but an interesting choice nonetheless. He mentioned that, with a win this coming weekend against the Ducks, the Beavers would be back to .500 at 10-10. True. But, he also says not to sleep on them as a tournament team. Whoa.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I believe that he wrote that just in case they do make a run at a tournament berth, so he can say “told ya.” I don’t think he actually believes that, not that I have ever met him or anything. It just sounds crazy to say a 9-10 team with no success in nearly 20 years is a tournament sleeper. I think he got caught up in the Robinson saga and the fact that the Beavs are being taken lightly.
They won’t get taken lightly anymore.