One thing Robinson has yet to accomplish, however, is curtailing the program's habit of embarrassing non-conference losses.
It was excusable in Robinson's first season when Howard, Yale and Montana State each toppled Oregon State. It was a little more perplexing in year two when the Beavers lost to lightly regarded Texas A&M Corpus Christi by 24 and to Seattle by 51. Now it's just downright baffling to see a supposedly improved Oregon State team off to a 3-4 start that includes losses to Seattle, Texas Southern and Utah Valley.
The explanation Robinson provided for the 70-68 home loss to Utah Valley last week was especially discouraging. He said the Beavers are still going through a "recovery process" dating back to 2007-08, even though only three players on the current team were even part of that 6-25 season.
"I always talk about this process as recovery, so if you slip off the wagon, you slip all the way back to where you were," Robinson said.
What has plagued the Beavers thus far this season has been a lack of consistency from game to game.
In some games, they haven't rebounded or defended the three-point shot well. In others, they've missed an abundance of free throws. In Saturday's 83-57 wipeout at Colorado, Oregon State received minimal production from leading scorers Calvin Haynes and Omari Johnson and allowed Colorado to shoot a ridiculous 58.6 percent from the field.
The good news for Oregon State is that the last two seasons started equally poorly yet the Beavers rebounded to win seven and eight Pac-10 games, respectively. Furthermore, they expect highly recruited redshirt freshman Roberto Nelson to finally join the team later this month after sitting out the past year-plus as a result of academics.
It's a shame for the rest of the beleaguered Pac-10 that Oregon State continues to rack up RPI-killing losses in November and December, but don't be surprised to again see a much improved Beavers squad by mid-January.
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