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Oregon State is not an easy place to win, least of all in the new environment college sports finds itself in.
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Ralph Miller was a very successful coach, although some of it was masked by UCLA and, at the end of his tenure, Arizona. And in recent years, Oregon, lavishly funded by Nike's Phil Knight, has made life more difficult as well, although less in basketball than football.
Since then, the closest any coach has come to .500 is the recently fired Craig Robinson, who finished at .469.
It's been a long slide and the Beavers are not in a position to hire a name coach. So the basic choices are to find a promising assistant or a coach at a smaller school.
Looks like Oregon will go the latter route, and it's an interesting choice: Wayne Tinkle of Montana.
Why would a Duke site care? Well, because in 2008, Montana came to Duke and left an impression.
Duke was probably tired from playing three games in four days, but Montana was a smart, tough-minded and well coached team.
We were really impressed. Our bet is Oregon State will be as well.