Oregon State's AC Green set some amazing streaks, perhaps most incredibly staying a virgin through a 16-year NBA career and until his marriage in 2002 (see Fox Sports story). As a freshman on this Oregon State 1982 team he stepped in as the starting center and helped lead the Beavers to a third straight Pac-10 championship, No. 4 ranking, and Elite 8 run.
This card was from Green's freshman season, so he was good but not yet dominant, and his the other future NBA players Lester Conner and Charlie Sitton have stronger cards. Green stepped in to a void the year after Oregon State lost three players from their defending Pac-10 champs to the NBA in Ray Blume, Steve Johnson and Mark Radford. Later the great Gary Payton and his son Gary Payton II went from Oregon State to the NBA.
Patrick Ewing finally shut Oregon State down in the Elite 8, holding the rest of the team to 35% shooting, but the only one unfazed was Green who hit 3 of 4 shots in a 10-point performance. Two games later, Georgetown led UNC in the title game 62-61 when Jordan hit the first of many game-winning shots. More famous still were the following few seconds as the Hoyas worked down for a potential game-winning shot only to have Fred Brown, thinking a teammate was behind him, pass the ball back to James Worthy who ran out the clock. Coach John Thompson famously hugged Brown to let him know all was ok.
Green went onto finish second all-time in career rebounds and fourth all-time in scoring and then won multiple titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. Anyone who has talked to an NBA player about the number of suitors who come to their hotel doors at night can appreciate what it took to stay a virgin as a star in Los Angeles.
This great Oregon State team ranks 47th of the all-time great teams in our score tracker, behind those two (Jordan's UNC is ranked 7th and a Ewing Georgetown team 33rd), and was seeded No. 2 of our new 16 teams and thus drew the newest team and 15-seed, James Madison University 2024, which started this season with an upset at Michigan State to start a 13-0 start that propelled them to No. 20 in the AP rankings, though www.kenpom.com is not as impressed with them at 62nd. This is the same year the JMU football team debuted in the Top 25 in only their second year at the top level of football.
Oregon State dominated this match-up, but JMU keep within range during an incredible streak of 20 possessions during which JMU scored an incredible three or more points on 7 possessions to get within 66-71 with only eight possessions or 4:35 to play.
However, the Beavers clamed down on the defense with steals and blocked shots by Conner, Danny Evans and a stop by Green to only allow 2 points the last eight possessions to win 68-82 win and advance to the second round.
The following is the box score, followed by the scoresheet to show the running score, and then some screen shots to show the set up. The bottom image shows the setup with a game note. Games typically start with each of the 10 players having 2 points each for the 20-20 tie. However, if some players averaged less than two points per game (such as Oregon State's Alan Tait, Jamie Stangel and Jeff Wilson) then you can start them at 0 points and give those extra points - 6 in this case - to other leading scorers.
In this case we started the 2nd NBA player on the team Connor with 5 points - added a 3-pointer made to the 2-pointer made that most teams start with in the game. We changed Evans starting 2-pointer with a 3-pointer so he starts with 3 points instead of 2. Finally we gave Green a 2nd basket at the opening to start him with 4 points instead of 2. As long as your total is 20 points at the outset, you can tweak but only if some of the 10 players averaged less than 2 points per game.
One strategy note from the game, with 12 possessions, JMU switched to a "try for 3-pointers" strategy to try to catchup from a 54-65 deficit. This should only be used if a team is running out of time to catchup or needs a 3-pointer on their final trip down the court to tie. It gives a team a chance for the bigger come-from-behind, but on average you will lose 2 points for every 1 point you gain from changing a 2-pointer to a 3-pointer.
It paid immediate dividends on possession 12 when Noah Friedel had a "5" on the 20-sided die, which would normally be in his 5-8 2-point shot made range. However, when the strategy is used then half the numbers in this range are changed to a 3-pointer made (5-6 for Freidel) but the other half are changed to missed 2-point shot and rebound to the high defensive rebound rating. The 3-pointers can no more than double the number of 3-pointers on the card, and any numbers remaining in the range stay a 2-pointer made. Changing it to a 3-pointer cut the Oregon State lead to 57-66.
The only other possession the strategy effected was with 3 possessions left when JMU's Terrence Edwards drew a "6" on the 20-sided die. Due to the strategy, his normal 3-7 range for 2-pointers made was adjusted to a 3-4 for 3-pointer made (it can no longer double the original 1-2 3-pointer made), with a 5 still a made 2-pointer, and then his 6 on this roll falling within the 6-7 range a missed 2-pointer with AC Green getting the rebound as the high rebounder and never a chance for the offense to grab an offensive rebound when they miss in this range.
Here is the box score:
| Pos | JMU 2024 | Pts | 3pt | 2pt | FT | Att | Reb | Stl | Blk | Fl | Height, PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-PG | Michael Green | 10 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6'0,11.5 ppg |
| 2-SG | Noah Freidel | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6'4,10.9 ppg |
| 3-SF | Terrence Edwards | 12 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6'6,17.2 ppg |
| 4-PF | Julien Wooden | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6'8,9.8 ppg |
| 5-C | TJ Bickerstaff | 14 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 6'9,15.8 ppg | |
| 1-PG | Bryant Randleman | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'4,1.7 ppg |
| 2-SG | Xavier Brown | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6'2,7 ppg |
| 3-SF | Quincy Allen | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'8,3.8 ppg |
| 4-PF | Raekwon Horton | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6'6,7 ppg |
| 5-C | Jaylen Carey | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'8,6.8 ppg |
| 15 Turnovers | 68 | 8 | 19 | 6 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 1 | 10 | ||
| Pos | Oregon St. 1982 | Pts | 3pt | 2pt | FT | Att | Reb | Stl | Blk | Fl | Height, Season |
| 1-PG | William Brew | 11 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6'1,9.2 ppg |
| 2-SG | Lester Conner | 21 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 6'4,14.9 ppg,NBA |
| 3-SF | Danny Evans | 14 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6'5,11.3 ppg |
| 4-PF | Charlie Sitton | 13 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6'8,12.9 ppg,NBA |
| 5-C | A.C. Green | 10 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6'9,8.6 ppg,NBA |
| 1-PG | Alan Tait | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'2,0.5 ppg |
| 2-SG | Jamie Stangel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'7,1.4 ppg |
| 3-SF | Jeff Wilson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'7,1.2 ppg |
| 4-PF | Rob Holbrook | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6'86.7 ppg |
| 5-C | Greg Wiltjer | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6'11,5.4 ppg |
| 13 Turnovers | 81 | 6 | 28 | 7 | 8 | 13 | 10 | 1 | 10 |
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