Dean Knuth / arizona daily star

Other articles by Greg Hansen:

Opinion by Greg Hansen : In this month of giving, Wildcats need a gift: support of fans Opinion by Greg Hansen : Big Game Week, always, vs. ASU Opinion by Greg Hansen : Giving thanks for Vern Friedli, ESPN and rain in desert Opinion by Greg Hansen : New club for Match Play has major 'wow factor' Opinion by Greg Hansen : Tucson schools should leave AIA Greg Hansen: Practice made perfectOpinion by Greg Hansen : It's the same old heartbreak as UA fails to win big one Opinion by Greg Hansen : Beavers, armed with Pac-10's top player, will fire 'best shot' Opinion by Greg Hansen : Cats' success fails to fill seats, no butts about it Opinion by Greg Hansen : Cats testing fans' faith, loyalty early in season

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Oregon State last won a basketball game at McKale Center on Jan. 29, 1983. How long ago was that?

It was so long ago that Beavers coach Jay John was a biology teacher at Salpointe Catholic High School. Arizona coach Kevin O'Neill was finishing his master's degree at Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa.

How long ago was that? Marycrest College no longer exists. John and O'Neill both had all of their hair and still considered themselves jocks. How's that for dating them?

A year later, in 1984, Lute Olson's first season at Arizona, John would drive to McKale after school and watch Olson work.

"I would tell him that I wanted to be a coach, a college coach,'' John said Thursday, a few minutes after his Beavers lost 76-63 to O'Neill's Wildcats. "I asked him if he had any ideas.''

Whatever wisdom Olson imparted in those long-ago days, he surely did not say: "Jay, if you want to live a peaceful life, do not be a college basketball coach. Stick with biology. You'll get a nice pension. Nobody will call you a dummy.''

Jay John is in his sixth season as Oregon State's head coach and he is no dummy. This is almost sure to be his last season at OSU and he knows it. His wife and kids suspect it.

His mother and father, both in their 80s and Tucson residents since 1946, can't escape the sad truth.

The Beavers are 72-92 under John and the running joke — if you have a dark sense of humor — is that Oregon State is likely to finish 11th in the Pac-10 this season.

On Thursday, the Beavers were better than their reputation. They played well for 32 minutes before it all unraveled in an all-too-familiar scenario.

"I thought we had them on their heels,'' said OSU guard Josh Tarver. "But it's their home and we just thought they got some calls.''

The Beavers rarely get any calls these days. Just when it appeared as if John had acquired a franchise-turning player, baggage-toting, 6-foot-11-inch Kansas transfer C.J. Giles, he was benched Thursday for being tardy at a few practices.

"We could've really used him tonight, especially on (Jordan) Hill,'' Tarver said.

So what else is new?

The Beavers have never lacked for effort, creativity or X and O expertise in John's years. He represents himself and his school with class and dignity. Alas, he has been unable to recruit enough skilled players to keep the wolves from the door.

"Every day is an absolute joy,'' he said before departing McKale to spend the night at his parents' home. "I'm coaching my butt off and enjoying it more than I've ever enjoyed coaching a team at Oregon State.''

John knows how the business works. When he was an assistant under Oregon's Ernie Kent in 1997-98, Kent's first season at the UO, the Ducks were lousy. John suggested some changes.

"It's not what we're doing,'' Kent told John 10 years ago, a story John repeated during his days as an Arizona assistant coach.

"It's just that we need to get better players.''

Kent and the Ducks have gotten better players. As a UA assistant from 1998 to 2002, John helped the Wildcats get better players; he did the bulk of the recruiting on, among others, Will Bynum, Jason Gardner, Dennis Latimore, Hassan Adams and Luke Recker.

But once he went to Corvallis, Ore., John has not been able to recruit enough skilled players to avoid five losing Pac-10 seasons in succession. The league continued to get better and better. OSU has struggled to do so itself.

His current club has lurched and sputtered and there is a clear reason for that. Freshman Omari Johnson, who torched Arizona with 19 points Thursday, has been injured and played in but five games. Giles, a midseason transfer, has also played a mere five games.

With senior forward Marcel Jones and the Tarver brothers, Seth and Josh, the Beavers are better than most think. But patience has eroded at mostly empty Gill Coliseum and it's probably far too late for John to put his team together and avoid a messy firing.

Before leaving Tucson to coach at Oregon State, John got head-coaching feelers from Boise State, Butler and Montana, all of which, in retrospect, might've afforded John a better chance to succeed as it relates to being competitive in mid-major conferences.

But he has taken his best shot at Oregon State and, if nothing else, he'll be able to leave knowing no one could've worked any harder.

"What's done is done,'' he said Thursday.

"We'll go from here. There's no looking back.''

Good man. Good coach.

Wrong place. Wrong time.