[1] No elite collegiate basketball programs beat down his door, and Conner found himself relegated to pursuing an alternate path forward in his chosen sport.

[1] Conner quickly won a starting role with the team, opening up the 1980–81 season playing small forward next to future NBA players Steve Johnson, Mark Radford, Ray Blume, and Charlie Sitton.

[3] Conner would produce for much of the year off the bench as an invaluable sixth man, gaining notice as a highly skilled passer, gritty rebounder, and lock-down defensive specialist.

[5] The DePaul result was announced in the midst of an OSU annihilation of the Cal Golden Bears, with the home team up 56–28, bringing the crowd of 10,087 to a deafening standing ovation lasting more than a minute.

[6] The 1980–81 Beavers flirted with perfection, going 26–0 before suffering a shocking 20 point home loss to Alton Lister, Fat Lever, and the 24–3 Arizona State Sun Devils to close the year.

[7] Conner would finish the year fourth on the team in scoring, with an average of 7.0 points per game, and pulling down 119 rebounds — second on the Beavers to star 6'11" center Steve Johnson.

[8] Conner's senior season, 1981–82, looked like trouble for Oregon State, with both guards and center Steve Johnson leaving for the NBA, along with two rotation players, with those lost needing to be replaced by athletes of clearly lesser talent.

[9] The Beavers had a new tool in the kit, however, with the addition of an acclaimed 6'8" freshman from Benson High School in Portland named A.C. Green, who narrowly chose OSU over coach George Raveling and Washington State University.

[12] While the over-achieving Beavers again found themselves knocked out of the NCAA Tournament before they were ready, they won games in their first two rounds before running into Patrick Ewing, Sleepy Floyd, and the Georgetown Hoyas and a 24-point drubbing.

[14] Conner was voted the 1982 Pac-10 Player of the Year, following his Oregon State teammate Steve Johnson as recipient of the award,[15] and was tapped as a 1982 AP All-American.

On Feb. 2, 2010, taking over for one game[19] for an absent O'Brien, Lester Conner instituted a few strategic changes such as moving Roy Hibbert closer to the basket and emphasizing an attacking, uptempo style preferred by the players.