Oregon State Basketball: Wayne Tinkle With a Lot to Prove in 2024-2025
In the last season of the Pac-12, which had been notoriously weak in basketball for a number of years with few exceptions, Oregon State won just 13 total games and lost 20, with a 5-15 record in conference play. The result this offseason was a mass exodus of talent - several departures spanning all positions that left the cupboard barren for the 2024-25 campaign.
Gone are Jordan Pope (guard, transfer to Texas), Tyler Bilodeau (forward, transfer to UCLA), Christian Wright (guard, transfer to Louisiana), Dexter Akanno (guard, transfer to Utah State), Jayden Stevens (wing, transfer to Idaho), KC Ibekwe (center, transfer to Washington), and Chol Marial (center, transfer to San Jose State).
Given three of their top four leading scorers and five of their top seven have gone, it will be up to what is, essentially, an entirely new corps of players to try and rebuild a program that has struggled mightily since their 2020-2021 Elite Eight appearance.
Even that postseason run seemed a bit of a miracle – that team went 20-13 overall, 10-10 in conference, and lost non-conference games to Portland and Wyoming. This is not to say it doesn’t count; it surely does, but the season-over-season consistency has been nonexistent in Corvallis.
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This year, the Beavers will be playing in the West Coast Conference after the dissolution of the Pac-12. This transition is not quite the step down from their former grouping that people may think – the WCC has teams like Gonzaga, St. Mary’s, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and now, OSU’s former Pac-12 bunkmate Washington State, a program which brings a new coach and some players from a solid Eastern Washington program and sports a much better outlook long term.
Assuming major minutes from the key returners in guard Josiah Lake and forward Michael Rataj, the rest of the rotation could be anybody’s guess. Some incoming players like freshman wing Ja’Quavis Williford and European players Johan Munch and Liutauras Lelevicius may help to bolster the rotation, in addition to Southern Illinois transfer DaMarco Minor.
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Still, there is no replacement for a player like the aforementioned Jordan Pope, whose 17.5 points per game led all Beaver scorers last year and landed him as an all-Pac-12 player. The truth is, there aren't adequate fill-ins on this roster to make up for these losses.
Even with as much potential as guys like Rataj flashed last year, the facts are the facts: they are returning fewer than 15 points per game off of a team that was, frankly, not good. Considering the path Tinkle has been on since the 2020-2021 season, a major turnaround would be required not only for Oregon State to be competitive in the conference, but for Tinkle to remain as the head coach past this season.
Keenan Womack is a sportswriter native to Dallas, Texas, who has spent the last 12 years in Austin, the home of his alma mater, the University of Texas. Keenan has covered sports for SB Nation, Bleacher Report, Rivals/Orangebloods, a host of his own sites and now, Fan Nation. Focusing on basketball, Keenan was on the beat for the Longhorns hoops team for the last two-and-a-half years before moving on to pursue other opportunities. He is married and lives with his wife close to the Moody Center, so they can continue to catch games together.