Commentary

By Kevin Hampton
Gazette-Times reporter

Forget about Oregon State’s win over cellar dweller Arizona State and the narrow loss to a soft University of Arizona team.

For that matter, clear your mind of UCLA’s highlight reel show against the Beavers last week in Pauley Pavilion.

The question remains: Should Jay John continue to lead the OSU men’s basketball program?

The answer is no.

OSU director of athletics Bob De Carolis answered yes to the question recently when it was posed to him by the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

Is his reply a vote of confidence? It might as well be, at least for a year.

Truth is, De Carolis stands to save Oregon State plenty of money by keeping John, who has three years left of a five-year contract extension paying approximately $325,000 a year.

If De Carolis were to let John go after this season, Oregon State would be stuck with the bill for his contract on top of the salary for a new coach each of the next three years.

It would put a strain on a budget already pushed to the limit by the ongoing Raising Reser project and other expenses.

If the Beavers had a beefier bankroll, John might well be in trouble after this season.

Many OSU fans certainly think so. Then again, some called for the head of football coach Mike Riley after a few losses last fall and, well, there’s not much traffic on www.firemikeriley.com these days.

Coaches can’t be judged on a week-to-week basis. As bad as some of the games were this season — and the UCLA beatdown was as bad as it gets — John’s career at OSU has to be taken into consideration as a whole.

The expectations aren’t high.

The glory years are long gone and even the most die-hard followers of the program are not dreaming of regular berths in the Big Dance.

The game has changed. Big-time recruits, even those from Oregon, rarely give the Beavers a glance. The days of Ralph Miller and the Orange Express winning Pac-10 titles with home-grown talent are over and no coach will bring them back.

But when OSU fans shell out $20 a ticket for reserved seating, they expect a team to be competitive and to break through for some postseason play every now and then.

John is in his fifth year at Oregon State and he’s had one team finish above .500. That’s not to say any of his first four teams have been unmitigated disasters. All have won at least 12 games and the David Lucas-led 2004-05 team went 17-15.

Yet there hasn’t been enough wins or a brand of basketball exciting enough to keep people in the stands.

It was during that season that the Beavers put together one of their best games during John’s tenure. John, however, wasn’t on the bench. He was forced to leave a game at Washington at the half with a hypertensive episode. The next game the Beavers ran Arizona State out of Gill Coliseum in an 88-66 win, playing a free-flowing style that disappeared as soon as he returned.

Lucas was able to carry the Beavers and they made the postseason for the first time since 1990, but a one-and-done in the NIT made it hardly one to remember.

John’s teams have been forgettable since.

The biggest disappointment has come in the Pacific-10 Conference. The Beavers went 6-12 in his first two years, then up to 8-10 before falling to 5-13 last year and are standing at 2-11 this season with both wins over the Sun Devils. At 10-16 overall, the Beavers could wind up with their worst record under John.

It’s not just the losing that has Beavers fans murmuring. It’s the fashion. The Beavers lost 75-47 to Nevada and 91-46 to Southern California in Gill Coliseum, and 85-41 to Hawaii and 82-35 to UCLA on the road.

Many observers thought the Beavers packed it in during their loss to UCLA. They seemed disinterested and disconnected as the Bruins put on a slam-dunk show that got plenty of airplay on ESPN.

One problem John has faced is the difficulty of recruiting and developing good big men. Lucas played bigger than his 6-foot-7 frame, rebounding and scoring inside. Kyle Jeffers was supposed to fill the role, but has been inconsistent. Nick DeWitz looked like a star in the making while he played alongside Lucas, but faded as a senior when the load was on his shoulders. Sasa Cuic has a small forward’s game.

John may have found his center in former Kansas recruit C.J. Giles and the Beavers look to have some talented freshmen coming in. It’s up to John to win with them.

He’d better do it quick. The fans are tired of losing basketball.

The Beavers drew an average of 7,018 fans during the NIT season. Attendance was down to 6,618 a game last year and has been sparse this season.

Less than 6,000 showed up to Gill Coliseum for the Arizona game last week. That’s a game that, along with UCLA and Oregon, should sell out every year.

We all know the question. Those empty seats scream the answer.

Win and the fans will come. And they’ll bring money.

Kevin Hampton is a sports reporter for the Corvallis Gazette-Times. He can be reached at kevin.hampton@lee.net.