CORVALLIS The hits arrived shortly after the conclusion of the Oregon State men’s basketball season for 2023–24. A number of players left via the transfer portal, including standouts Tyler Bilodeau and Jordan Pope.
According to Coach Wayne Tinkle, he doesn’t like to pout. However, his three-year plan to turn freshmen into polished juniors and seniors in order to revitalize Beaver basketball was failing.
According to Tinkle, those were difficult days.
Tinkle adds cautiously that he places no blame on anyone. NBA rosters rarely include collegiate players. Even if a player is not at Oregon State, Tinkle said good for them if they have a chance to land a six-figure name, image, and likeness agreement.
Most coaches attend the Final Four to network and socialize, but Tinkle did not. Rather, he took his dogs to northern Idaho. After a few days of walking, Tinkle was able to devise a new plan.
The first step was to replace Eric Reveno with an assistant coach. The following step, a full-scale assault on the worldwide player market, was sparked by the new appointment, Chris Haslam.
Nine players, including seven with international ties, were added to the Beavers’ roster during their signing frenzy. Having grown up in England, Haslem assisted in bringing players to Corvallis from France, Lithuania, Denmark, and England.
A team with skill, experience, swagger, and the ability to wow an Oregon State basketball fan base eager for victory was the end result. When the Beavers made their debut at No. 49 in the NCAA NET rankings earlier this week, their record of 5-2 was confirmed.
Nate Kingz, a junior guard who missed the previous season due to knee surgery, expressed surprise at how effortlessly and swiftly a team comprising players from nine different nations came together.
In essence, we were beginning again with the entire team, Kingz stated. We can be pretty good, I believe. When we start distributing the ball, it spreads like wildfire.
Iranian-born 6-foot-9 forward Parsa Fallah transferred from Southern Utah. Fallah looked more closely at Tinkle’s past, but he was aware of OSU’s recent run of three straight losing seasons.
According to Fallah, one poor season does not define you as a coach or a program. Coach Tinkle had a lot of successful victories, but I also got the impression from our conversation that he genuinely cared about his players. He has much coaching experience and is skilled in his field.
Tinkle, who developed teams at Oregon State and Montana through high school recruiting and development, found the shift to a roster centered on a heavy international transfer system to be difficult but necessary. Knowing that one year could be the last, it’s now important to be present and make the most of each player each year.
I’ve sold out on developing guys for the past four or five years, which is something I need to improve on. According to Tinkle, such was our method in the past. I’m just kind of realizing that you could have to fire folks who aren’t progressing as quickly as you want them to, or you might lose others who are searching for a high paycheck and are advancing at the rate you desire.
Tinkle has been working on his international plan for years, even though he only developed it this spring. Over the past few summers, his coaching staff has been to Europe. Three years ago, Tinkle made a significant move when he signed German forward Michael Rataj, who is currently a junior and arguably the greatest player for the Beavers.
What generally caught Tinkle’s attention regarding players in the European system is a quality he values.
He claimed that most of them have a strong sense of loyalty to their clubs. We believe that they have a different level of maturity and a different way of thinking about remaining faithful to the person who is providing you with the opportunity. Mike demonstrates it. He was grateful for the incredible chances we provided him during his freshman and sophomore years.
At the defensive end, Oregon State is establishing its identity. The Beavers are tied for 17th place in blocked shots (5.6 per game), tied for 14th place in field goal defense (36.6%), sixth in scoring defense (58.1 points per game), and 35th in rebounding margin (plus-8.4) out of 355 Division I teams nationwide.
To Kingz, it’s easy.
“That’s our coach’s mindset,” he remarked. You will be eliminated from the game if we don’t play defense or put in a lot of effort on the defensive end.
The Beavers, according to Tinkle, have an inside-out balance that they haven’t had in a number of years. They feature perimeter scorers like Kingz, Rataj, and Liutauras Lelevicius, as well as inside threats like Fallah and 7-foot-1 Matthew Marsh. The Beavers are shooting nearly 50% overall and 39% from three.
The Beavers’ previous matchup with UC Davis was a positive sign for the early season. After suffering back-to-back defeats to North Texas and Oregon, Oregon State replied with their most comprehensive showing of the year, thrashing the Aggies 90-57.
It’s difficult because we lost those games by three points. However, you must let it go. We all made the decision to take lessons from the past. According to Fallah, we arrived for practice, locked in, and concentrated on UC Davis. Practice was not enjoyable, which is why it was a fantastic game.
Although the Beavers are aware of their unexpected NET ranking—they finished 2023–24 ranked No. 165—it doesn’t affect them. Kingz is rather enraged by the fact that Oregon State might have a 7-0 record if they hadn’t blown significant second-half leads to North Texas and Oregon.
I wonder what (the ranking) would have been if we hadn’t lost two games. There we were. It certainly hurts a little. “But damn,” Kingz remarked, “we just keep working and trying to get better.”
Oregon State will have new chances in December when they welcome Idaho at Gill Coliseum on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The Beavers have games like UC Irvine (Dec. 14) and the Diamond Head Classic, where they might play Nebraska and Loyola Chicago, that will help their CV. The cumulative record of those three clubs is 22-1.
Fallah is impatient.
It’s not about them, in my opinion. “I think it’s about us,” he remarked. I believe we can defeat any team in the nation if we focus and give it our all during practice.
The contact information for Nick Daschel is 360-607-4824, [email protected], or @nickdaschel.
Your support is essential to our journalism. Sign up for OregonLive.com now.
Latest Beavers news
-
With Ducks locked into the CFP, here s what we do and don t like about the new playoff system
-
Oregon State sells NFL-level development and regionality to its 18-man early football signing class
-
Oregon State s Ben Gulbranson the quarterback frontrunner for 2025 if he returns to the Beavers
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!
