Confidence, Accountability, Family: Raegan Beers Talks OSU Women’s Hoops Strong Season

750 The Game Staff

Oregon State’s women’s basketball team is dialed in, winners of five straight, and looks primed for a return to the NCAA Tournament after missing out a season ago.

Sophomore forward Raegan Beers is a big reason for OSU’s success. Beers is averaging 18.2 points and 11.1 rebounds a game, helping the Beavers to a 20-3 overall record and 9-3 in conference play.

Beers was named Pac-12 Player of the Week for a second time this season after leading the Beavers to back to back road wins at No. 20 Utah and No. 4 Colorado. She joined John Canzano on the Bald Faced Truth (Afternoons 3-6 p.m.) on 750 The Game where she learned about her latest accolade and talked about the team’s season, and the fact that they remind her head coach Scott Rueck of the Final Four team he coached in 2015-16.

“It’s been a great start to our year,” Beers said on 750 The Game. “The season’s going great. Obviously it’s more fun when you win. The fact that we remind Coach Scott of that Final Four team is such an honor because that Final Four team was absolutely amazing, so we’re excited to continue to make our run.”

A big key to the team’s elevated play, Beers says, is the player-to-player accountability.

“Obviously the coaches held us accountable last year, but this year, when someone misses an assignment, when someone gets back-doored, when someone gets scored on, something like that happens, someone within the team is going to that person and saying hey, don’t let that happen again, or hey, you’re better than that, let’s go,” she said. “That accountability is coming from within the team. When that comes from within the team it just makes your team so much stronger that players are holding each other accountable.”

With three straight road wins and a five-game win streak overall, Beers says she can feel the confidence rising within the program.

“I feel like we’re in a groove,” she said. “I feel like that came most recently with our individual confidence. That just builds the team confidence and that just fuels the fire and fuels our energy and our want to win, because we know we can.”

At Oregon State, it is all about culture. And Beers said that is

“Our saying, #WeAreFamily, kind of sums it up. When you watch our team, even if you’re new to watching our team, or have seen the team for ten years, that hashtag “We Are Family” hasn’t changed. Regardless whether we’re winning or losing. Back when Aleah (Goodman) was here and they were winning or Deven (Hunter) was here, back to last year when we weren’t winning as much, that culture and that family environment that Scott has created doesn’t change. And he does that by recruiting great players, but also great people.”

Oregon State is up to No. 11 in the AP Poll, and hosts No. 9 UCLA on Friday night followed by No. 10 USC on Sunday at Gill Coliseum.

Check out the full interview with Raegan Beers at the podcast below.

John Canzano delivers the Bald Faced Truth afternoons 3-6 p.m. exclusively in Portland on 750 The Game.