1980–81 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball team

1980–81 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball
1980–81 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball
Pac-10 champions
NCAA tournament, Second round
Conference	Pac-10 Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 2
AP	No. 2
Record	26–2 (17–1 Pac-10)
Head coach	Ralph Miller (11th season);
MVP	Steve Johnson
Home arena	Gill Coliseum
	Seasons ← 1979–80 1981–82 →

1980–81 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 2 Oregon State	17	–	1	.944	26	–	2	.929
No. 3 Arizona State	16	–	2	.889	24	–	4	.857
No. 10 UCLA	13	–	5	.722	20	–	7	.741
USC	9	–	9	.500	14	–	13	.519
Washington	8	–	10	.444	14	–	13	.519
Arizona	8	–	10	.444	13	–	14	.481
Oregon	6	–	12	.333	13	–	14	.481
California	5	–	13	.278	13	–	14	.481
Stanford	5	–	13	.278	9	–	18	.333
Washington State	3	–	15	.167	10	–	17	.370

Rankings from AP Poll^[1]

The 1980–81 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball team represented the Oregon State University as a member of the Pacific 10 Conference during the 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. They were led by 11th-year head coach Ralph Miller and played their home games on campus at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon.

After winning their first 26 games of the season, Oregon State fell to No. 5 Arizona State in the regular season finale to finish at 26–1 (17–1 Pac-10), repeating as conference champion, and were ranked second in both polls. Despite dropping the regular season finale, they did not drop in the rankings, and were seeded No. 1 in the West region of the NCAA tournament.

The Beavers received an opening round bye, and were shocked by No. 8 seed Kansas State, 50–48,^[2] at Pauley Pavilion. The Wildcats would reach the Elite Eight before falling to eventual runner-up North Carolina. Oregon State finished the season at 26–2.

Roster

1980–81 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown
G	32	Lester Conner	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	Jr	Oakland, California
F	52	Charlie Sitton	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	Fr	McMinnville, Oregon
F/C	55	Steve Johnson	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)	230 lb (104 kg)	Sr	San Bernardino, California

Head coach

Ralph Miller

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Source:^[3]

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular Season
Nov 29, 1980*	No. 7	No. 18 Brigham Young	W 75–68	1–0	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Dec 4, 1980	No. 6	Cal State Northridge	W 78–47	2–0	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Dec 6, 1980*	No. 6	at Pepperdine	W 82–76	3–0	Firestone Fieldhouse Malibu, California
Dec 8, 1980*	No. 5	at Portland State	W 102–58	4–0	Peter W. Stott Center Portland, Oregon
Dec 13, 1980*	No. 5	Portland	W 92–57	5–0	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Dec 26, 1980*	No. 4	vs. Northwestern	W 90–70	6–0	Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon
Dec 27, 1980*	No. 4	vs. Rhode Island	W 103–55	7–0	Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon
Dec 28, 1980*	No. 4	vs. Oregon	W 67–57	8–0	Memorial Coliseum Portland, Oregon
Jan 3, 1981	No. 2	at No. 13 Arizona State	W 71–67	9–0 (1–0)	Gill Coliseum Tempe, Arizona
Jan 5, 1981	No. 2	at Arizona	W 61–49	10–0 (2–0)	McKale Center Tucson, Arizona
Jan 9, 1981	No. 2	Stanford	W 76–62	11–0 (3–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Jan 10, 1981	No. 2	California	W 80–53	12–0 (4–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Jan 17, 1981	No. 1	Oregon	W 82–55	13–0 (5–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Jan 22, 1981	No. 1	at Washington State	W 66–53	14–0 (6–0)	Friel Court Pullman, Washington
Jan 24, 1981	No. 1	at Washington	W 97–91	15–0 (7–0)	Bank of America Arena Seattle, Washington
Jan 29, 1981	No. 1	No. 10 UCLA	W 81–67	16–0 (8–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Jan 31, 1981	No. 1	Southern California	W 55–48	17–0 (9–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Feb 6, 1981	No. 2	at California	W 69–54	18–0 (10–0)	Harmon Gym Berkeley, California
Feb 7, 1981	No. 2	at Stanford	W 62–57	19–0 (11–0)	Maples Pavilion Stanford, California
Feb 12, 1981	No. 2	at Oregon	W 78–61	20–0 (12–0)	McArthur Court Eugene, Oregon
Feb 14, 1981*	No. 2	at St. John's	W 57–45	21–0	Nassau Coliseum New York, New York
Feb 21, 1981	No. 2	Washington State	W 81–53	22–0 (13–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Feb 23, 1981	No. 2	Washington	W 89–63	23–0 (14–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Feb 27, 1981	No. 2	at USC	W 73–64	24–0 (15–0)	L.A. Sports Arena Los Angeles, California
Mar 1, 1981	No. 2	at No. 13 UCLA	W 82–76	25–0 (16–0)	Pauley Pavilion Los Angeles, California
Mar 5, 1981	No. 2	Arizona	W 80–62	26–0 (17–0)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
Mar 7, 1981*	No. 2	No. 5 Arizona State	L 67–87	26–1 (17–1)	Gill Coliseum Corvallis, Oregon
NCAA Tournament
Mar 14, 1981*	(1 W) No. 2	vs. (8 W) Kansas State Second round	L 48–50^[4]	26–2	Pauley Pavilion Los Angeles, California
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. W=West. All times are in Pacific.

Source:^[5]^[6]

Rankings

Awards and honors

Steve Johnson – Consensus First-team All-American, Pac-10 Player of the Year

NBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	NBA Club
1	7	Steve Johnson	Kansas City Kings

^[7]

References

^ "2017-18 Men's Basketball Media Guide". Pac-12 Conference. p. 72. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
^ "Kansas State Wins By 50-48". The New York Times. March 15, 1981. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
^ "1980–81 Oregon State Beavers Roster and Stats". Sports Reference. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
^ Layden, Tim (March 14, 2012). "March 14, 1981: When the NCAA tournament became Madness". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
^ "2020-21 Oregon State Men's Basketball Media Guide" (PDF). Oregon State University Athletics. Retrieved September 11, 2022.
^ "1980–81 Oregon State Beavers Schedule and Results". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.
^ "1981 NBA Draft". Basketball-reference.com. Retrieved September 11, 2022.

[1] "2017-18 Men's Basketball Media Guide". Pac-12 Conference. p. 72. Retrieved February 16, 2018.

[2] "Kansas State Wins By 50-48". The New York Times. March 15, 1981. Retrieved September 11, 2022.

[3] "1980–81 Oregon State Beavers Roster and Stats". Sports Reference. Retrieved September 11, 2022.

[4] Layden, Tim (March 14, 2012). "March 14, 1981: When the NCAA tournament became Madness". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved September 11, 2022.

[5] "2020-21 Oregon State Men's Basketball Media Guide" (PDF). Oregon State University Athletics. Retrieved September 11, 2022.

[6] "1980–81 Oregon State Beavers Schedule and Results". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.

[7] "1981 NBA Draft". Basketball-reference.com. Retrieved September 11, 2022.

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v t e Oregon State Beavers men's basketball
Venues	Men's Gymnasium (1915–1949) Gill Coliseum (1949–present)
Rivalries	Oregon (series)
Culture & lore	Benny Beaver "Hail to Old OSU"
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA Final Four appearances in italics