Craig Robinson and the Oregon State men's basketball program officially landed their second big name of the 2010 recruiting class on Tuesday when they announced that Devon Collier had signed a letter of intent to attend OSU.

Collier is a 6-foot-8, 215-pound power forward from The Bronx, N. Y., who plays for St. Anthony's High in Jersey City, N.J. He is ranked in the top 100 by several recruiting sites.

Scout.com has Collier ranked No. 16 at his position and considers him a four-star player.

"We're really excited about Devon," Robinson said. "He's 6-7 bordering on 6-8, actually. Left-handed, very athletic.

"We're really fortunate to get a kid from that part of the country and also a kid at that level of talent to come all the way out here to Oregon State, so we're really excited."

Collier chose the Beavers over Providence, St. John's and Seton Hall. He also had interest from Maryland, Memphis, Rutgers and West Virginia.

"We just wanted him to feel like that if you're not afraid to come across the country, your basketball as well as your non-basketball experience will be as rich if not richer than just staying around the area there," Robinson said.

"I think he really felt that when he came out here."

Robinson said Collier made a trip to Corvallis with one of his AAU coaches and the coach told Robinson that Collier liked it so much he didn't want to leave.

"That's a credit to our guys who hosted him," Robinson said. "We have a great team of kids who do a great job of hosting players and it also has a lot to do with the atmosphere out here. He had a lot of fun. I think that if you're not afraid to take a trip, this is a nice place to be."

Freshmen impressive

Robinson said he was impressed with freshmen Jared Cunningham, Angus Brandt and Joe Burton in the Duel in the Desert tournament.

"They really played as though they weren't freshmen for parts of the game," Robinson said. "Jared Cunningham has continued to get better and better. He's easily one of the fastest players I've seen with the basketball.

"Angus Brandt has probably been the most consistent. He's been the same at practice, in the exhibition games and now in three real games as anyone of the three freshmen."

Burton had 15 points and nine rebounds in the loss to Texas Tech.

"That's next level. That's Pac-10-type play," Robinson said. "So I'm really pleased with those guys."

The good and bad

The Beavers had some rough spots exposed over the weekend that they need to iron out. Robinson said they must improve in every area. He did say the Beavers are doing a better job of rebounding.

The Beavers were outrebounded 35-34 in the loss to Texas A&M Corpus Christi but won the other two matchups, 42-25 over South Dakota and 35-23 over Texas Tech.

"I think that we've been rebounding the ball much better than we ever did last year, even at the end of the season," he said. "And that was a point of emphasis for us."

Turnovers have been a different story. The Beavers had 14 in their win but 25 against the Islanders and 20 against the Red Raiders.

"The biggest challenge we have is going to be turnovers," Robinson said. "We had 20 turnovers in the Texas Tech game. We can't afford to let the other team have than many extra opportunities.

"So (Tuesday) at practice I tried to focus in on pointing out that when we're in practice and we're playing for five minutes and we have five turnovers, that's how you end up with 40 turnovers if you have one every minute."

Nelson update

Robinson said the Beavers are still waiting for the NCAA to give the OK on freshman Roberto Nelson.

"He's keeping everything going in the event he gets cleared and then he gets signed up for classes, his professors are being helpful, all that kind of stuff," Robinson said.