The smoking gun indicating change is afoot in the Oregon State men’s basketball program isn’t the new coaching offices under construction at Gill Coliseum.

It’s not the new scoreboards that will grace either end of arena by late December, the proposal for the new practice facility that’s been forwarded to the state or the facelift the 58-year-old landmark and the surrounding landscape will receive over the next 24 months.

It’s the attitude of the returnees from last season’s 0-18, 6-25 misadventure, the building blocks of the rebuilding project new coach Craig Robinson has started in the four months since his surprising selection as the man to reverse the program’s long-ailing fortunes back on April 7.

“Workouts have been a lot better, weights and running have been good, everybody is happy and scrimmages have been good,” sophomore forward Omari Johnson said at 7:15 last Thursday morning, speaking outside the Sports Performance Center after the team’s daily weightlifting and conditioning drills. “We’re really ready.”

The Beavers chose to train at 6:15 a.m. to better acclimate themselves to the 5:30 a.m. practices that start when preseason camp begins on Oct. 17.

“We’re trying the best we can” to become early-risers, Johnson said, laughing. “It’s been a pretty easy transition; (45 minutes earlier) will be a little bit tougher but it won’t be as bad as if we were waking up at nine” over the summer. “Everybody is excited, really excited.”

There been only one instance of tardiness in the three weeks since eight of the nine scholarship players returned to campus (Roeland Schaftenaar is in Europe, playing with the Dutch national program). And they came back in better shape and stronger than at a corresponding time last summer.

“That’s a pleasant surprise,” strength & conditioning coach Brendon Ziegler said. “Morale has been good; at 6:15 in the morning you don’t expect that with a bunch of 18-to-21-year-old kids. They’ve been a treat to work with.”

Robinson didn’t mandate the early starting time, so he’s thrilled the players took the initiative.

“That’s a very good sign. I’m very happy about that,” he said last Wednesday. “These are good kids, and they want to win games.”

The overhaul got a considerable boost on Aug. 4 when 6-foot-8 center Joe Burton of West Valley High in Hemet, Calif., and 5-8 point guard Ahmad Starks of Whitney Young High in Chicago announced their commitment for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons, respectively. They’re Robinson’s first high school recruits; Providence transfer Dwain Williams signed earlier this year.

NCAA rules prohibit Robinson from commenting on Burton and Starks until they’ve signed a letter of intent. But he did confirm there’s a sense of positive momentum growing in a program that has just one winning season since 1990.

“What we as a staff are feeling is that people see what we see - there’s an opportunity here,” he said. “We’ve gotten a nice reception from AAU and high school coaches and from high school players and their parents,” although not every recruit has accepted his scholarship offer.

“We’re starting to build some momentum where people view us as what we are: A Pac-10 school that has (available) playing time. We’re getting calls from all over the country. It’s great for confidence building.

“Recruiting has been much more positive than I thought it would be. At first the in-state kids were a little iffy on us. I think they’re starting to change because we’re getting the interest from out-of-state kids, just as we thought would happen.”

Dispirited fans who stayed away in droves last winter - OSU averaged only 4,579, with several of the smallest Pac-10 crowds in school history - seem to be responding. The Beavers received 80 $50 deposits for new season tickets during the “Rally the Legend” campaign, and director of ticket operations Matt Arend foresees an attendance bump next year.

The biggest gain is in the weekend plan, which in 2008 decreased to 200 packages from its historic level of 800 packages, he said.

Arend said he’s not expecting a big drop in sales from last year, the the return of the no-shows should lead to a positive spike. Renewals for the 2008-09 season were mailed on Friday.

“I don’t know if we’ll see a significant bump (in season-ticket sales) in the first season,” he said. “But if they hustle we’ll see a big jump next year.”

The two months before practice opens will be hectic. The staff will spend most of September on home and school visits, pursuing recruits leading up to the early signing period, which begins Nov. 12. They get two hours of full practice with the team on the court every week starting on Sept. 15.

“That will help in preparing for practice to start (full-time), when we will hit the ground running,” Robinson said. “We need every single day we can.”

His job was widely portrayed as one of the country’s worst during a prolonged coaching search that ended with Robinson’s out-of-left-field hire. However, he’s starting to see the impending facilities upgrades and increased institutional support promised during the courtship period.

“Everything that Bob (athletic director Bob De Carolis) said was going to happen, has begun to happen,” Robinson said. “A sprucing up of (Gill) is always going to be helpful for recruiting. Moving into the new offices is going to be exciting; we’ll have a new space, a little bigger.

“Those things are positives and they (help) you win games. Recruits see you doing all these things, they think you have a huge commitment to basketball, and they are excited.”

Robinson said he’s not more optimistic today than he was in April. He was already upbeat when he left an on-the-rise program at Brown for a bigger challenge on the other side of the country.

“I’ve had some of my optimism confirmed,” he said.

Nor has he been blind-sided by an unexpected roadblock.

“When people tell you this is the hardest job in the country, you manage your expectations so the ability to be surprised on the downside is minimal,” Robinson said. “I have not been surprised on the downside.

“Everything has been a little bit better than I expected.”