Lets take a little bit of a step back. To start the season, the press picked Oregon State to finish dead last in the Pac 12. I am not sure the start of the season suggested any different. Sure, they opened up with a win against Cal and a loss at Washington State. But then they lost to Wyoming (the 6th place team in the Mountain West Conference) and Portland (the last place team from the West Coast Conference).

The Beavers did start to win a few more games – certainly an improvement over a team expected to be last in the conference, but nothing that screamed a team that would make the NCAA Tournament. As of February 20th, after a close loss to Colorado, the Beavers were 11-11 for the season and 7-9 in the Pac 12. Oregon State won three road games against Cal, Stanford, and Utah before losing at home to Oregon to finish the regular season. At 14-12 with a 10-10 record in conference, Oregon State was not on anyone’s radar for the NCAA Tournament. Their NET ranking wasn’t in the top 80 – they were not even on the board to get consideration as an at large.

Then, the Pac 12 tournament started – they started by upsetting UCLA in overtime. Many thought that loss to a non-tournament team might even knock UCLA out of the tournament. But no one really expected that the game was anything other than a shocking conference tournament early round upset. Then, the Beavers beat Oregon by 11 points. Suddenly, they were one victory away from the Pac 12 Tournament Championship and an automatic bid to the Big Dance.

Then, Oregon State jumped out to an early lead in the Pac 12 championship against Colorado, and managed to hang on for 70-68 victory. The Beavers have now won 6 of 7 games – all away from home – and have earned an improbable trip to the NCAA Tournament.

But the Beavers were not done – they knocked off the Midwest 5 seed Tennessee 70-56, and they shocked the 4 seed Oklahoma State 80-70. And this afternoon, the Beavers played stifling defense against Missouri Valley champion Loyola-Chicago. The Ramblers only shot 33.3% from the field (including 21.7% from three-point range). The Beavers held the Ramblers to just 16 points in the first half to get an 8 point lead. They extended that lead to as many as 13 early in the second half. It looked like the Ramblers would make a run – and they managed to cut the lead to as little as 4 points when Marquise Kennedy made a lay-up with 92 seconds left in the game.

But on the next possession, Oregon State ran the clock down, and Ethan Thompson found Jarod Lucas open for a three-point shot that would give the Beavers a 7 point lead. Loyola kept trying to chip away at the lead, but the Beavers hit their free throws, and held on for a 65-58 victory. And with that victory, the 12 seed Oregon State Beavers became the first team to earn their way to the Elite 8.

It has been an amazing March for the Beavers. On February 20th, the Beavers looked like they were one of the many teams simply finishing out their season – where they would be watching the NCAA Tournament from home in Corvallis, Oregon. 10 games later, they are waiting to see whether they will be playing Houston or Syracuse for a spot in the Final Four.

You can’t make this stuff up – March Madness is truly incredible.