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Members of Lute Olson's silver anniversary Arizona basketball team were honored at halftime of Saturday's Arizona-Oregon State game at McKale. One player attended.

Thank you, Harvey Thompson.

The 1983-84 Wildcats were the last losing team at Arizona, 11-17 overall, which probably explains Saturday's lack of celebration. But if nothing else, Olson's first UA team stunned the 20th-ranked Beavers 69-58 at McKale, which launched two very significant things:

It was the first of Olson's incomparable 103 victories over Top 25 teams, and it was the first in what has grown to be a 25-game McKale winning streak over the Beavers.

So thank you to the Class of '84's Troy Cooke and Ken Ensor, too. Part of your alma mater's 64-47 victory over OSU on Saturday comes back to you.

The Beavers are destined to break their 0-for-25 streak at McKale someday, perhaps next season, and for a few wobbly moments late in Saturday's game might have ruined Harvey Thompson's little party.

Alas, just as the Beavers made the Wildcats squirm, closing to within 55-47 with 2:20 remaining, with possession, OSU's first-year coach Craig Robinson was assessed two technical fouls and ejected.

By the time Arizona stopped shooting free throws, the normally charming Robinson was stewing in the dressing room, and it was garbage time.

"What set me off?" he asked. "Two of my guys fell down, and there was no call. That's what set me off."

Welcome to the Pac-10 road, Mr. Robinson. His team attempted three free throws; Arizona 20.

To his credit, the Princeton grad has this thing figured out in a hurry. Unlike former OSU coaches from Jay John to Jimmy Anderson, who never won in Tucson and rarely put up much protest, Robinson doesn't look like a guy who is going to take it without a fight.

"I'm not allowing my guys to get pushed around any longer," he said.

The Beavers aren't good. Not yet. But they appear organized, improved, well-coached and bent on crawling out of the Pac-10 basement as soon as Robinson's first full recruiting class arrives in October.

The interesting juxtaposition is that the Beavers of '09 are a lot like the Wildcats of '84 and, most likely, a lot like the talent-challenged, new-regime Wildcats we are bound to be next season.

You have to like the Beavers' attitude.

"We don't want to come close; we want to win," said OSU forward Omari Johnson, who regretted not holding his ground on the battle for positioning that led to his coach's technical fouls. "I should've banged back."

When OSU returns to McKale in 2010, the UA lineup will probably feature Nic Wise, Jamelle Horne, maybe Kyle Fogg and a couple of junior-college transfers.

It will be a more suitable time for the Beavers to bang back. It will be a time that Robinson, of all people, can give the Wildcats a few pointers on how to rebuild in this crazy what-comes-around-goes-around sport.

"I'm not going to tell them anything, because I'm not going to help them try to beat us," he said with a laugh. "It just takes a lot of time."

The Beavers are going to be a tough out in future seasons. Robinson's Princeton-style, grind-it-out approach eliminates mistakes, kills the clock and blurs the gap between talent and intelligence. He's an impressive guy who could do for OSU what Tony Bennett has done at Washington State.

Robinson inherited a roster that is similar to what Olson inherited 25 years ago at McKale. The Beavers are coming off an 0-18 Pac-10 season; Arizona was 1-17 the year before Olson arrived.

The Beavers quickly got a signature victory, stunning USC in overtime last week. Olson's first win of note came Feb. 25, 1984, against Ralph Miller's Beavers, then the league's powerhouse franchise.

The 2009-2010 Arizona coach will actually have it a bit better than did Olson, whose only full-time returning starter was junior point guard Brock Brunkhorst, who had averaged 7.8 points per game.

Yet the Olson of 1984, much like the Robinson of 2009, made the best of a bad situation, reversed the school's negative course, and wouldn't permit his team to "get pushed around any longer."

Arizona beat Oregon State again on Saturday. But it could be a fleeting thing.