Oregon State comes into its home game tonight against the UA men’s basketball team much like the rest of the Pacific 10 Conference — inconsistent and unpredictable.

In a year in which the Pac-10 is at its all-time low, the Beavers (7-8, 1-2 Pac-10) are glad they can even be compared to the rest of the conference, considering the status of their program two years ago.

“”It’s great to have three road conference games done and still be a game out of first place,”” said Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson during the Pac-10 media conference call. “”It gives everybody a little bit more to pay attention to each week and it’s going make for a good race to the wire.””

In 2008, the Beavers finished with a horrific 0-18 conference record. But after the hire of Robinson, who is President Barack Obama’s brother-in-law, OSU showed drastic improvement, going 18-18 during his first year at the helm. 

Now in his second year as the Beavers’ head coach, Robinson has seemingly changed the culture of the program. The Beavers have transitioned from the worst Pac-10 team into a team that is capable of winning on any given night.

The Princeton-style offense places an emphasis on teamwork, constant movement and discipline. Since Robinson’s installation of the new style, Oregon State’s offense has allowed the Beavers to stick around in games where in the past they would have let up.

The change in culture was evident when the Beavers went on the road to take on state rival Oregon. The Beavers ended a 16-game losing streak on the road against the Ducks.

The win came after three grueling days of practice, a result of a 99-48 beat-down on their home court at the hands of Seattle University on Jan. 6.

“”It was sort of like they went back to their old habits before I got here,”” said Robinson of his players’ performance against Seattle. “”We had a few days before the Oregon game to reemphasize what we did to get away from playing that way.””

In order to reiterate what he expected of his players, Robinson threw more intense practices at his team so it could forget about the loss to Seattle.

“”I tried the make the practices on Wednesday so hard that the team would forget about the game against Seattle,”” Robinson said.

With Arizona coming into town, the Beavers hope to avoid reverting back to old habits and continue to progress under Robinson.

“”The main characteristic of a Oregon State team now is that no matter what the talent level is, we always play hard and execute precisely,”” he said.