Beavers basketball coach shares his opinion with revived booster club

By Steve Lathrop
Albany Democrat-Herald

ALBANY — Jay John is starting to feel at home.

Speaking to a crowd of about 30 enthusiastic fans at the revived Albany Beaver Huddle on Tuesday at Pop’s Branding Iron Restaurant, the Oregon State men’s basketball coach said his program is just now where he was hoping it would have been when he arrived.

“The infrastructure was unsettled when I arrived but now it’s where I wanted it to be when I first got here,” John said. “Our staff is approaching it as if we just got hired.”

Some solid recruits and finally getting the program established from top to bottom are what John credits with his enthusiasm.

“It’s taken us awhile to get established in Oregon,” John said. “Now we have made significant progress in the caliber of player we have.”

John, who was also on hand to boast about his new locker rooms, said the beginning of improvements for Gill Coliseum are now scheduled.

“The improvements we’ve made at Reser will start to morph in Gill,” said John, who stopped in Albany on his way to a recruiting trip to Georgia. “We try to sell kids on the value of the program not the material aspects, but those are improving.”

The locker room improvements came about largely through his own fundraising efforts.

“We need Gill fixed,” John said. “The structure is sound and with improvements it can be a great facility for another 40 years.”

John is confident the current direction of the athletic department will help in gaining those improvements and also in helping his own program.

“Everything good trickles down. When the football team wins it helps us. When the baseball team wins a national championship that helps us,” John said. “The perception is that those guys at Oregon State win and that’s what you want.”

John’s perception is that the entire athletic department is in good shape.

“People make the difference and we have great people at OSU. That’s why we’re seeing great success,” he said.

And John told the Huddle members that he expects his basketball team will start to share further in that success.

“I’m excited about who we are,” John said of his team. “I believe the next four years will be good.”

The coach likes his freshmen and is starting to recruit from that base.

“Transfers don’t bleed orange and black,” John said smiling. “Freshmen buy into a program.”

John pointed out that he will have six freshmen this year, two redshirts and four true freshmen.

“There’s more to it than talent. The ability to play hard and trust in each other, and play as a team can bring success,” John said. “I think we’ll have a tighter group that works harder and will be competitive all the time in practice.”

There are other things to look forward to in the coming season according to John. A preseason he calls, “our best schedule ever,” including all but three of those games at home, and the appearance in Gill of two of last year’s Final Four teams — LSU and UCLA — will be highlights.