OSU
Sports History Minute - November 3, 2000
Oregon
State: Get ready for roundball!
As
Oregon State men's basketball opens its 2000 campaign
Monday night (Nov. 6) against Start Bratislava of
Slovakia, long-time OSU roundball fans are marking
this year as the 20th anniversary of the achievements
of Ralph Miller's 1981 Orange Express squad, an
extraordinary group of elite athletes who held the
No.1 spot in the polls for more than 25 weeks and
finished the season with a 26-2 record.
The
campaign itself was unforgettable, especially in
games against Washington and UCLA.
Versus
the Huskies in Seattle, the Beavers were down by
10 points at half. Their No.1-ranking was in serious
trouble. An overtime victory featuring the stellar
play of All-American Steve Johnson (30 points scored
after intermission) set up a series of games with
UCLA that would prove to be historic.
The
dominant Division I college basketball program in
the '60s and '70s, UCLA came to Gill on Jan. 29,
1982, picked to win it all and sporting a No. 5
national ranking. Again, OSU's Steve Johnson came
through with a 27-point performance, good enough
for an 81-67 win with reserves finishing the game.
A
few weeks later, Oregon State recorded its first
victory ever at UCLA with an 82-76 win. Johnson
came through again, scoring 26 points in 30 minutes.
As
exciting and historic as the '81 season was, it
ended with a giant flop in a loss that still ranks
as one of the most disappointing in school history.
Sporting
a 26-1 record and a No. 1-ranking to start the first
round of the tournament, coach Ralph Miller's Orange
Express fell two points short to a Kansas State
team (50-48) the Beavers should have chased from
the floor.
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Top:
The 1981 Beaver basketball team,
nicknamed Orange Express, rolled
through its season to a 26-1 record
and a #2 ranking in the nation.
Above: Ralph Miller, 1981's Coach
of the Year.
Left: In 1981, Steve Johnson became
OSU's highest scorer and the NCAA's
most accurate field goal shooter
(at the time). He was named a first-team
All-American. |
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The
1981 team was a part of a three-year run at OSU (1980-83)
that still ranks as one of the great achievements
in the history of NCAA men's basketball.
Beginning
with the 1980 squad, the Beavers were 77-11 over
the next three years, a record topped at the time
only by DePaul's 79-6 mark. Miller's troops were
35-1 at Gill during the period, including a record
24 victories in a row.
Miller
was named national UPI and AP Coach of the Year
in 1981. AP gave him the same award in 1982. All-Americans
during the period included Ray Blume in 1980, Steve
Johnson in 1981 and Lester Conner in 1982. All PAC-10
selections included Mark Radford in 1981 and Charlie
Sitton in 1982.
--
By George
Edmonston Jr.
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