GAME #7 — The Oregon State men’s basketball team (3-3) — coming off the program’s best season in 15 years — will seek its first victory away from Gill Coliseum this weekend, but it will have to come in one of the Beavers’ biggest non-conference tests. OSU meets Georgia (7-1) on Saturday (Dec. 17) at 2:30 p.m. at the Rose Garden in Portland. It’s the second straight year these teams have squared off in an NBA arena, and the first time since 1998-99 the Beavers have played at the Rose Garden.

ON THE AIR — The Georgia game will be shown on FSN, with Barry Tompkins and Dan Belluomini as announcers ... The game can also be heard live on the Beaver Radio Network (which includes 17 stations throughout the Northwest), with Mike Parker calling the action. The radio broadcast can be heard on the internet by Yahoo! Sports college broadcast subscribers by going to www.osubeavers.com and following the links.

SCOUTING GEORGIA — The two schools met for the first time last year at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl for Kids, which was held in Atlanta’s Philips Arena. The Bulldogs pulled off a 76-74 overtime victory. Georgia overcame a 13-point first-half deficit, and Sundiata Gaines hit a jumper at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. In OT, the Beavers trailed by five with 34 seconds to play, and by two with one second left. Nick DeWitz caught a length-of-the-court pass, but his running lay-up attempt at the buzzer missed ... OSU’s Lamar Hurd and Georgia’s Steve Newman were teammates on an Athletes in Action team that went to China last summer ... The Bulldogs have won seven in a row heading into Saturday’s game and are led by freshman guard Billy Humphrey’s 13.8 points per game.

25TH ANNIVERSARY — It’s been 25 years since the 1980-81 squad won 26 straight games, captured the Pac-10 title and was ranked #1 in the nation. OSU will honor this team at halftime of the Georgia game this Saturday. Tickets to the Georgia game are available through Ticketmaster. Fans that purchase four tickets at GI Joe’s/Ticketmaster locations will receive a DVD commemorating the 1980-81 team.

OSU & PORTLAND — The Beavers and the city of Portland have a long history together. From 1959-60 to 1998-99, OSU played at least one game a year in Portland, and usually more due to the Far West Classic. The Beavers won 16 of their 20 Far West Classic titles in Portland. The Rose Garden opened in 1995-96, and unfortunately, the Beavers have only won once there in seven tries (in 1996-97 vs. Bradley). The last time the Beavers played there, they lost 64-50 to Colorado State in 1998-99.

LAST GAME — The Beavers continued to show they can be successful at home, beating winless Northern Colorado, 70-52, on Wednesday at Gill Coliseum. The Beavers led by as many as 28 points in the second half, although OSU’s cold second-half shooting helped the Bears cut the lead down to 14 points. Chris Stephens had a game-high 17 points, while Kyle Jeffers scored a career-high 13, Sasa Cuic added 13 and Nick DeWitz had 12.

GOOD TRENDS — OSU has made more free throws (123) than its opponents have attempted (113) ... The Beavers have reduced their turnovers in four straight games since having a season-high 23 against Prairie View A&M, and gave the ball up just eight times against Northern Colorado ... OSU’s rebounding margin stands at +1.3, much better than last year’s -3.0.

BLOCKS — Despite having played less than a full season for the Beavers, Nick DeWitz is already on the career top 10 list for blocked shots. He now has 66 and is in ninth place (one behind Brent Barry and Clifton Jones, who are tied for seventh) ... The Beavers led the Pac-10 with 3.9 blocks per game last year, and are averaging 4.8 a game this season ... DeWitz entered the week leading the Pac-10 and now stands at 2.3 blocks per game.

THREE-POINTERS — It was expected that the Beavers would use the three-pointer to their advantage this season. In the each of the first five games, however, opponents made more three-pointers than OSU, and shot for a better percentage from beyond the arc. Both of those trends finally ended in the Northern Colorado game.

GREAT TO BE HOME — Just like the old days, Gill Coliseum has lately been a difficult place for visiting teams to play. Over the last 35 home games, OSU is 27-8 (.771). The Beavers went 8-1 at home in Pac-10 play last year.

COMEBACKS — Unfortunately, there are no records for the biggest deficit overcome in school history, but the 22-point comeback against UNLV has to rank up there. The Beavers also came back from 22 down to beat USC on Feb. 22, 1990 (the game in which Gary Payton scored a school-record 58 points) ... Hopefully, the UNLV game will be an indicator that OSU is a better finisher than last year. The 2004-05 Beavers had three games in which they trailed by 18 points in the second half (at Stanford, at Arizona State, vs. Cal State Fullerton), yet rallied to take the lead. But in all three cases OSU couldn’t complete the comeback and lost.

INJURY REPORT — Junior forward Michael Johnson broke his right foot in practice on Nov. 29. He had surgery on Dec. 1 and is expected to miss at least six to eight weeks ... Freshman point guard Josh Tarver broke his right foot on Oct. 13, two days prior to the official start of practice. He is practicing but is not yet fully cleared to play.

LAST YEAR — The 2005-06 Beavers will seek to improve upon one of the program’s best seasons in many years. Last year’s team went 17-15 and 8-10 in the Pac-10 for fifth place. OSU had its first postseason victory of any kind (beating UCLA in the Pac-10 Tournament) since 1988-89, its first winning season and first true postseason appearance (making the NIT) since 1989-90, and its most Pac-10 wins and the best conference finish since 1992-93.

NUMBERS — Oregon State returns nine letterwinners (three starters) and one redshirt ... Returning players account for 64% of last year’s points, 64% of the rebounds, 70% of the assists, 68% of the blocks and 68% of the steals ... The Beavers lost six letterwinners ... OSU replaced them with six newcomers (one transfer, four freshmen and one student that was already attending OSU).

EXPERIENCE — Coach Jay John feels that the Beavers have the best returning corps of players in his four seasons, with seven players that have been through the rigors of Pac-10 play at least once. Two are fourth-year seniors (Lamar Hurd and Chris Stephens), two are seniors that transferred into the program (Nick DeWitz and Jason Fontenet), plus junior Kyle Jeffers and sophomores Sasa Cuic and Angelo Tsagarakis. Still, Coach John is looking for some of the other players to step up and contribute to the rotation. Marcel Jones has been the most prominent player to do so thus far.

NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE — OSU’s non-conference schedule will be challenging. The marquee game at home is against UNLV, another NIT team last year. Other home games are against Prairie View A&M, Northern Colorado and Texas-Pan American. The Beavers also host Georgia at Portland’s Rose Garden in a return game from last year. The Beavers open the season on the road at Tennessee Tech, which won the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title last year. Other road games are against Fresno State and Portland. The first game of the Rainbow Classic is against Northwestern State, which won the Southland Conference regular-season title last year. Two more games will be played at the Rainbow Classic against what are also expected to be quality opponents.

PAC-10 SCHEDULE — Of the other nine Pac-10 teams, four made the NCAA Tournament and one other squad made the NIT last year. The conference slate has a difficult start with three straight road games (Oregon, Stanford, California). One stretch has the Beavers playing four straight home games. The Beavers open and close the Pac-10 season with Civil War games against Oregon. One change for the Pac-10 Tournament — all 10 teams will participate, instead of just eight.

PAC-10 POLL — Last year, the Beavers were chosen to finish eighth in the Pac-10 in the annual preseason media poll, but they defied predictions and placed fifth. They’ll look to do the same in 2005-06, as they were picked seventh. The order of finish was predicted as: Arizona, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, California, Oregon, Oregon State, USC, Washington State, Arizona State.

THAT’S "BIG" TIME — OSU’s coaches know how to work with big men. The Beavers are one of only three Pac-10 schools to place a forward or center on the All-Pac-10 first team in each of the last three seasons.

EXCUSE THE DUST — You’ll notice a few changes around Gill Coliseum, and some of them are still on-going. New banners honoring OSU’s retired jerseys and championship teams have been hung high above the court. The hallways on the first level are being given a facelift, with new flooring, wall paneling and lighting. That work will be completed in mid-December. The men’s basketball locker room will be renovated after the season. Many coaches’ offices are also being redone.

HALL OF HONOR — Legendary OSU head coach Ralph Miller will be inducted into the Pac-10’s Hall of Honor in March. Previous Beaver inductees were Gary Payton, Slats Gill, Mel Counts and Ed Lewis. The other 2006 inductees will be Damon Stoudamire (Arizona), Lionel Hollins (Arizona State), Andy Wolfe (California), Jim Loscutoff (Oregon), Adam Keefe (Stanford), Don Barksdale (UCLA), Dennis "Mo" Layton (USC), Steve Hawes (Washington) and James Donaldson (Washington State).

KVAL PREVIEW — You can catch the OSU Pac-10 basketball preview on KVAL-13 in Eugene (as well as its sister stations in Coos Bay and Roseburg) this Sunday (Dec. 18) at 3 p.m.

PRIDE OF THE PROGRAM — All 326 Division I basketball programs will be featured this season on ESPN’s "Pride of the Program" segments. The 30-second vignettes will look at a significant event in each school’s history. OSU will be highlighted during a Feb. 18 telecast.

EUROPEANS — There are three Europeans on the 2005-06 roster. Next year, one-quarter of the roster will be from that continent. Sasa Cuic (Croatia), Liam Hughes (England) and Angelo Tsagarakis (France) are on the current Beaver team. Roeland Schaftenaar (Netherlands) will join the squad next year.

NEXT YEAR’S CLASS — The Beavers signed four players during the November letter-of-intent period. They are guard Calvin Haynes (Reseda, Calif./Taft HS), forward/center Roeland Schaftenaar (Utrecht, Netherlands), guard/forward Seth Tarver (Portland, Ore./Jesuit HS) and guard Lathen Wallace (Portland, Ore./Jefferson HS). Tarver’s brothers include Josh, a freshman on the OSU basketball team, and Zach, a redshirt freshman on the OSU football team.

IN THE PROS — Two Beavers are currently in the NBA: Brent Barry, a member of the defending champion San Antonio Spurs, and Gary Payton, in his first year with the Miami Heat. Brian Jackson is with the Arkansas RimRockers of the NBA D-League. Some recent Jay John-coached players are overseas, including David Lucas (Benfica of Portugal), J.S. Nash (TU/Rock Tartu of Estonia) and Philip Ricci (Ricoh Manresa of Spain).