Oregon State was coming off a 27-win season that ended in the Elite Eight of the women's NCAA Tournament last March when the Beavers lost most of their team and most of their conference.
Eight players from last year's roster who had eligibility remaining, including the top six scorers, left Oregon State after that deep postseason run. And the Pac-12, their conference home for 38 seasons, was down to them and Washington State because of realignment.
But the Beavers (19-15) got back into the NCAA field again this year, with an automatic berth as West Coast Conference tournament champions. They are a No. 14 seed that has to go to the other side of the country to play at North Carolina (27-7) on Saturday.
“I’m ecstatic," said 15th-season coach Scott Rueck, who took Oregon State to the Final Four in 2016. “So happy for the team. ... Believed and stayed positive when things didn't look quite right, and then things started to look better, and all of a sudden we've got a team worth of being in the Big Dance.”
While the Pac-12 is being rebuilt, Oregon State and Washington State are playing in the WCC as affiliate members.
The Beavers finished fourth in the regular-season standings, then won three games in as many days at the conference tournament. Kelsey Rees hit a game-winning shot to beat San Francisco in the opener before they beat top seed Gonzaga in the semifinals, and overcame Portland in the championship game.
“We might have had a little chip on his shoulder, but we just stayed so tight, and so together. And that’s what got us so far,” said sophomore guard Kennedie Shuler, one of the five returning players.
Oregon native Tiara Bolden, a senior guard averaging 8.2 points a game, joined the Beavers this season from La Salle, where she played only one season after junior college.
“My mind is literally blown away,” Bolden said after the Beavers watched the Selection Show together Sunday night. “I’m still like jittery, still shaking just for us. Like seeing us on the screen, it was definitely incredible.”
The Beavers lost five of their first six games to start the season, and after a four-game conference losing streak in January were 9-13 overall. Rueck is sure that there were times when his players doubted what they could do, and probable even wondered if it was worth it.
Since that January skid, Oregon State has won 10 of its last 12 games. The losses were in overtime against Gonzaga and a 69-66 setback at Saint Mary's.
“We’re built like a traditional team ... you start the year as an inexperienced power (conference) team, that's ultimately what we are,” Rueck said. “We didn’t have the experience and we didn’t know who we were yet, and roles had to be defined and people had to step up, and over the course of the year that’s happened.”
This is the ninth appearance over the last 11 NCAA Tournaments for the Beavers, who before now hadn't been a double-digit seed under Rueck. The Beavers were a No. 3 seed hosting a No. 14 seed last year — that has been reversed this season — and were No. 2 seeds in both 2016 and 2017.
“I remember first-round games that we had to escape," Rueck said. “Everybody’s good this time of year.”
Including these Beavers.
“Here we are, with an opportunity to prove it again, against a really good team on their home floor. And so we’re excited about that,” he said. “But I think the makeup of this group, certainly the experience we have as coaches, the character of this team and the journey that they’ve been on, the way we’ve been playing lately, gives us all some hope.”
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Oregon State players celebrates after defeating Portland in an NCAA college basketball game in the final of the West Coast Conference women's tournament Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Oregon State players celebrate after defeating Portland in an NCAA college basketball game in the final of the West Coast Conference women's tournament Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
