President Barack Obama likes to keep tabs on his brother-in-law's team and its coach, Oregon State's Craig Robinson, whose program hosts Colorado tonight. (Associated Press)

Colorado`s quest to end an 18-game road losing streak against Division I opponents begins against Oregon State as part of the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series.

The nationally televised game (FSN), which the Oval Office will be keeping tabs on, is scheduled to tip off just after 9 p.m.

Second-year Beavers head coach Craig Robinson is Michelle Obama`s brother. The president and first lady attended Oregon State`s 64-57 victory at George Washington last Saturday, and the team was given a private tour of the White House during the trip to Washington D.C.

Now, for one night, the Buffs (5-2) have the attention of the Beavers (2-3) and the country`s most powerful hoops fan.

“You have to prove now that you’re a better team because you have a pretty good Colorado team coming in here,” Robinson said during a press conference earlier this week. “They have some losses but were in every game against some really good teams.

“It will be a very interesting game. Their style of play is similar to ours. They run some similar forms of the type of offense we run, and I think it will be a chess-match of a game from that standpoint.”

Robinson was the Ivy League’s player of the year at Princeton in 1982 and 1983, playing for legendary coach Pete Carril. Prior to taking the job at Oregon State last season, Robinson served as an assistant under former Princeton head coach Bill Carmody at Northwestern.

CU head coach Jeff Bzdelik, who enjoyed great success running a Princeton-style offense at Air Force, finally has the Buffs executing the precision cutting and passing schemes to near perfection.

“With Craig being one of the original Princeton group they run a lot of different things, maybe because there’s parts of it they have that a lot of other people don’t,” said CU associate head coach Steve McClain, who had some classic battles as head coach of Wyoming against Joe Scott’s (another former Princeton player and head coach) and Bzdelik’s Air Force teams over the years. “But a lot of it is very similar to what we run.”

The Beavers experienced a remarkable resurgence under Robinson last season, finishing 18-18 overall, including winning the College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament. During the 2007-08 campaign, Oregon State suffered through an 0-18 record in Pac-10 play.

Robinson was 7-11 in the conference last season, and the Beavers were picked to finish fifth in the preseason Pac-10 media poll this year.

“This year we’re talking about making the NCAA Tournament and finishing in the top half of the league, real formidable goals but achievable goals,” Robinson told the Oregonian before the season tipped off. “There is the air of expectation.”

So far, the Beavers are not living up to the hype with head-scratching losses to Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Sacramento State on the non-conference resume. Oregon State is also 0-1 against the Big 12 this season with a loss at Texas Tech.

Meanwhile, the Buffs — picked to finish last in the Big 12 by Bzdelik’s peers — earned some respect during heartbreaking losses against Gonzaga and Arizona at the EA Sports Maui Invitational last week.

According to the NCAA, CU’s win over host Chaminade in the tournament finale counts as a true road win, albeit against a Division II foe.

“That’s another area where we have to prove to people that we’re making strides,” Cory Higgins said of winning outside of Boulder. “It’s going to be a huge game for us. We have a lot to prove.”

Higgins scored 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting during CU’s methodical 78-54 victory over San Francisco on Tuesday. The junior guard is third in the Big 12 in scoring (20.7 ppg) and field goal percentage (58.3 percent).

“We need to get off to another good start. We need to keep a close watch on Cory Higgins, who will probably be an NBA player,” Robinson said. “We cannot let him go crazy on us and we have to continue to be good on the boards like we have been.”

CU is 0-2 in the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series, losing a home-and-home set with Stanford the past two seasons.

“I think we can play with anybody,” Buffs newcomer Marcus Relphorde said. “I know (the Buffs) had a lot of close games last year they weren’t able to pull out, but I feel like instead of just playing it close, now the mentality is to win.”