At 6 p.m. tonight, Stanford men’s basketball visits, on paper, the least threatening opponent it will face for the rest of the season: Oregon State.

Sure, No. 23 Stanford (12-2, 1-1 Pac-10) has struggled offensively of late, averaging just 59 points over the last four games, 14 below its season average. But that’s a typical day at the office for the Beavers (6-7, 0-2 Pac-10), who last topped 65 points seven games ago, on Dec. 11.

On defense, the match-up is not even close. The Arizona schools each topped 70 in a sweep of the Beavers this past weekend. Meanwhile, four of Stanford’s last six opponents have failed to score 50.

In terms of momentum, Oregon State has lost four straight. Its best win all season came against 5-7 UC-Davis. Stanford, meanwhile, won its last outing in a grueling 52-46 decision over Southern California last Saturday. While the game — and Stanford’s historically low 27 percent shooting performance — was an abomination, USC is easily the best team Stanford has defeated this year.

On the stat sheet, Stanford comes out way ahead again. While the Cardinal checks in at No. 35 in the RPI — the computerized rankings that factor heavily into NCAA Tournament seedings — the Beavers are 260th out of the 341 teams in Division I. That’s the lowest of any BCS conference school by 34 slots. Losses to squads like Colorado State, Alaska-Fairbanks, Tennessee Tech and Montana State tend to do that to a team’s resume.

Even so, coach Trent Johnson reread the paragraph in Coaching 101 where it says to always talk up your opponent, channeling his inner Lou Holtz to praise the Beavers in his Tuesday press conference.

“Any day now, any minute, they’re going to get on a roll,” Johnson said. “Going to Corvallis, we’ve never had any success in terms of playing well . . . . There’s some talent on that team — there’s some young talent.”

Tossing aside the cliche about how basketball is decided on the court, not on paper, Stanford’s players are laughably better than Oregon State’s.

Sophomore center Brook Lopez (16 points, eight rebounds per game) has a future in the NBA (almost certainly after this season, no less) and is playing like it, especially on the offensive end. Twin seven-foot sophomore center Robin Lopez could eventually join his brother on the NBA stage and is dominant defensively (2.4 blocks, six rebounds per game), though turnovers and foul trouble have often limited him on the offensive end (10 points per game).

“When he’s playing within the system, he’s playing aggressive and he’s taking things to the basket, he’s going to be fine,” Johnson said.

Juniors Anthony Goods (13 points per game) and Lawrence Hill (nine points, six boards per game) have had up-and-down seasons, especially Hill, but both are viable scoring threats. Junior point guard Mitch Johnson and senior forward Taj Finger are the team’s most improved players, and senior forward Fred Washington remains the team’s best defender.

“It’s hard to complain about anything when you’re 12-2, but seeing what I can do in practice and not doing it in games is very difficult,” said Hill, who hopes this weekend will jump-start him out of a season-long slump. “Creating my shot is something I can do, but creating a play that can lead to a good shot or a pass is something I need to work on. It’s like I haven’t flipped the switch yet. I think it’ll be better soon.”

For the Beavers, meanwhile, forward Marcel Jones (12 points per game) is perhaps the conference’s most underrated player, Kansas transfer C.J. Giles is talented if inconsistent and outside threat Seth Tarver leads the Beavers with 13 points per game on 40 percent three-point shooting. Stanford won’t have to spend too long in the film room worrying about the rest of the Beavers’ squad, though. Particularly down low, the combination of centers Roeland Schaftenaar and Omari Johnson is far-and-away the conference’s worst, and the Lopez twins should have a field day in the paint.

Stanford’s win over the Trojans was key to staying in striking distance after a week of Pac-10 play, given that UCLA wore down host Stanford 76-67 just two days earlier. The Cardinal is just one loss behind No. 4 UCLA (13-1, 2-0), No. 5 Washington State (13-0, 1-0) and Arizona State (12-2, 2-0) on the eve of a huge weekend for the conference: Washington State visits UCLA on Saturday in a clash of top five programs.

After the Beavers, Stanford visits Oregon at 1:30 p.m. in a nationally-televised game on Sunday. The Ducks are 10-4 and also 1-1 in the conference, and will be looking to keep pace at MacArthur Court, the Pac-10’s toughest road environment.

“We were very fortunate to have a split this past weekend,” Johnson said. “We need to play better. There’s 16 games left and no easy games for us.”