During the team's media day on Tuesday afternoon in Portland, Oregon State men's basketball players noted their high expectations for themselves and each other as they get set to kick off the 2026-27 season.
Led by first-year head coach Justin Joyner, the Beavers also expressed a lot of gratitude for their summer trip to play in Canada, their recent exhibition match against Michigan, and what those experience did for their chemistry.
"It was really great getting to play in Canada early on, but getting to play that exhibition, I feel like we really showed that we can hang with anybody. What we're building here in Corvallis, it's gonna be special," BYU transfer forward Xavion Staton noted of the team's five-point loss to the defending national champions.
Staton, a former four-star recruit, joined the Beavers this offseason after one season in Provo that was shortened to nine games due to injury. Staton looks forward to playing the versatile role of a modern big man in Joyner's system. The seven-footer averaged a double-double as a high school junior before transitioning to prep school.
"My versatility is being able to connect guys and handle the ball on the perimeter, stuff like that. I'm starting to shoot the ball well, so I wanna keep building in to stuff like that," Staton said.
After two seasons in the West Coast Conference, the Beavers return to a Pac-12 schedule within the league's new format. While it will be easier said than done, Staton and company are looking to contend for a league title.
"We know how good our competition is. But once conference play comes through after non-conference, we're looking to win the Pac-12, and I'm gonna stand on that heavy. It's about trusting our work and what we do, and I believe we can get it done," Staton exclaimed.
In the backcourt, Buffalo transfer Daniel Freitag proved his scoring ability in the Mid-American Conference with an average of 19.8 points per game last season.
When asked if his primary role on this Beaver team would be to score, the junior gave an interesting answer.
"After a successful summer of doing quite a bit of scoring I thought so. But through the fall and in that exhibition with I think nine points, it made me realize that we have depth and we have everything we need," Freitag remarked. "I've always prided myself on not being one-dimensional. So if it's scoring one night, facilitating another, I'm willing to do whatever. And every day it's somebody new. The practice before it might've been Jamai and Chris Johnson's turn[referencing the big exhibition game from Deshawn Gory]. When you have that many guys who can score efficiently, it gives you a lot of confidence."
Freitag also looked to his team's flawed, but admirable preseason performance against Michigan as an indicator of how the season can go.
"I think when you can go into the defending national champion's gym, shoot 21-of-32 from the foul line, lose the turnover margin by ten and still only lose by five...you've got a pretty good team," Freitag said. "Being down 13 with a minute and a half left in a half and got into the break down just three, it speaks levels to our depth, our maturity and our will to bounce back. And that should give us a lot of confidence."
Adding to the Beavers' backcourt depth will be San Francisco transfer Legend Smiley. Smiley also noted just how close his team came to a victory over Michigan earlier this month and what it could mean for their league campaign.
"Our mistakes, if we close those up, that's about a ten-point win in our eyes," Smiley said. So you know we're cleaning that up, but the confidence we got going into the [Cal] exhibition game, but mostly the season, we feel we should be one of the best teams in the Pac-12."
Smiley's transition to Joyner's organization seems to have been a smooth one after shooting 42 percent from three-point range for the Dons last year.
"It's a lot, he's a winner, so I'm trying to pick his brain as much as I can," Smiley said of his relationship with his new coach. "And I'd never played with them guys on the court, so playing against somebody else and seeing how we mesh and play together as a team, that was very important for us. When we went to Canada we played the same team twice and the second time we played they made it a good game. We were down at a point and had to come together and find a way to win. So that experience alone helped us going into Michigan."
In the coming year, Oregon State brings in a dozen new players to complement lone returner Josiah Lake II. However, Smiley noted the team's shared goals are making it easy to build chemistry in the early going.
"With guys that love to be in the gym, love to learn the game and be around the game, it makes it much easier. You're not dealing with the outside noise as much and everyone wants to buy in and be a team."
Oregon State continue their preseason exhibition schedule in Corvallis Saturday against Cal. They'll open the regular season on Monday, November 2 at home against Weber State.
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