New season, solid returnees: Tinkle sees better things on horizon
Wayne Tinkle will enter his 10th season at the Oregon State helm with nine returnees and some newcomers he hopes will provide immediate help (courtesy OSU sports communications)
Updated 7/4/2023 6:30 PM
It has been a rough two years for Wayne Tinkle following Oregon State’s Cinderella run to the Elite Eight in 2021.
A stunning 3-28 record followed in 2021-22. The Beavers rebounded to 11-22 (5-15 in Pac-12 play) last season. With a strong group of sophomores returning, Tinkle expects more improvement in 2023-24.
“We are going to have much more continuity than we had the last two years,” says Tinkle, 57, who will be entering his 10th season at the OSU helm. “We will have more familiarity, more experience, and we will have some guys back healthy who weren’t last year.”
Since last season ended, there have been a couple of disappointing departures. Glenn Taylor, Oregon State’s best player last season as a 6-6 sophomore forward, has transferred to St. John’s, where he will play for new coach Rick Pitino with the Red Storm. (Little-used freshman guard Nick Krass made the other post-season player move, transferring to Ole Miss.)
“Glenn made a big step in the right direction last season,” Tinkle says. “He is a great kid who did a lot for us. Now he is going across the country to play for a storied coach. We parted on good terms. We wish Glenn well.”
Last week, assistant coach Tim Shelton revealed in a story in The Oregonian that he was leaving after just one season on Tinkle’s staff and has accepted an assistant’s job at Colorado State. Shelton said it was difficult to leave OSU, where he was happy, but didn’t believe NIL opportunities there were comparable to competing schools.
“My biggest fear (was) that guys here don’t feel like we have enough resources to keep them,” Shelton said. “When they do well … we’re asking them to do that for very little to nothing. We didn’t get those kids because of money, but we need to be able to retain them. We’re not going to be Arizona. Not going to be Washington or Oregon. That’s fine. That gives us an extra chip on our shoulder. But we can’t be last in those resources.
“When it came down to my decision, I was worried about that … you’re like, ‘Man, are we going to get lapped before we get in the race?’ ”
When I contacted Shelton on Wednesday, he had little to say.
“I’m not answering any more NIL questions,” he told me. “I’m over that. I’m working now.”
Shelton said he has signed his contract with Colorado State, though his hiring has not been announced by the school. Colorado State is a member of the Mountain West Conference. Shelton played at San Diego State and coached at Fresno State, both Mountain West schools.
Tinkle said he, too, has moved on.
“We are going to miss Tim,” Tinkle says. “I’m sorry he is leaving. But I love what we have going with Coach Rev (Eric Reveno) and Coach (Marlon) Stewart. And I like the nucleus of players we have coming back, along with the new additions.”
For next season, Stephen Thompson — an assistant on Tinkle’s staff for eight years before sliding to an assistant athletic director/player development role last season — will again become an assistant. Athletic director Scott Barnes has approved two new positions — one each for men’s and women’s basketball — as a video coordinator. The person hired for that position can also help with on-court coaching, though he can’t recruit off-campus.
The nine returning scholarship players went through six weeks of workouts from the middle of April to the end of May — four hours a week for strength and conditioning, four for on-court skill development.
“I’m enthused with the way our group came together,” Tinkle says. “The chemistry, the buy-in to team — it will all pay off next season.”
It was critical for Tinkle to retain freshmen Jordan Pope, Tyler Bilodeau and Michael Rataj, all starters and three of the Beavers’ best players last season. All left Corvallis after finals week last week for a five-week break before returning to Corvallis in late July. Pope lives in Oakley, Calif.; Bilodeau hails from Kennewick, Wash. Rataj, a native of Germany, headed for his home land to play with his national U-20 team this summer.
Sharpshooting guard Jordan Pope, one of the Pac-12’s premier freshman last season, will be one of the on-court leaders for the Beavers in 2023-24 (courtesy OSU sports communications)
“Mike will get some great experience there,” Tinkle says.
Tinkle had a similar directive to each of his prize sophomores-to-be: Build up your bodies.
“Mike had a good spring lifting,” Tinkle says. “All of them have already gotten stronger. As much as Jordan is going to be on the floor for us next season, he knows he has to add 10 to 12 pounds. Tyler as well.”
The 6-2, 165-pound Pope was runner-up for Pac-12 Freshman of the Year last season, leading the Beavers in scoring (12.6 points per game) and assists (2.3). Bilodeau and Rataj, both listed at 6-9 and 220, got muscled around at times by older, thicker, more experienced foes. That has to change next season if the Beavers are to make another step forward.
They will be the team leaders along with Dexter Akanno, the 6-5, 210-pound fifth-year senior who has started 43 games the past two seasons. Akanno had a few big games but was markedly erratic offensively, averaging 7.9 points while shooting .355 from the field and .254 from the 3-point line.
“Dexter put pressure on himself to be a scorer, and wasn’t as consistent as he will be next season,” Tinkle says. “It will be about understanding what we need from him. We want him to focus on simpler things — defense, passing — and give us some leadership.”
The Beavers got little from the pivot last season. Tinkle is hopeful that will change next season.
KC Ibekwe, a 6-10, 290-pound native of Coquitlam, B.C., who didn’t pick up a basketball until his freshman year of high school, showed promise in his brief appearances as a freshman last season. He has good hands, can rebound and led the team with 21 blocked shots though playing only 192 minutes. Ibekwe clearly needs to drop poundage and get into better shape.
Sophomore center KC Ibekwe showed promise last season but must get in better shape to become a major threat (courtesy OSU sports communications)
“That’s the challenge,” Tinkle says. “KC has to get to where he can play more minutes and get up and down the floor. Offensively, he came along this spring. He looked more comfortable with the ball in his hands.”
Tinkle says Chol Marial — the 7-2 native of Sudan who played only nine games last season due to foot injuries — is healthy. If he can stay that way, he will help, especially at the defensive end.
“He raised some eyebrows this spring,” Tinkle says.
Oregon State will add a pair of freshman recruits with size, too — Gavin Marrs, 6-11 and 200 from Ellensburg, Wash., and Thomas Ndong, 6-10 and 220 out of Montreal.
Tinkle says Marrs reminds him physically of ex-OSU center Kylor Kelley, with more potential at the offensive end, “and every bit as athletic.”
“Gavin just has to stay healthy,” Tinkle says. “He missed a lot of his junior and senior seasons because of injuries. He came to Corvallis a couple of times this spring and scrimmaged with our guys and showed he has plenty of skill. He has to put on some weight, but he has good hands, makes jump hooks with both hands, and he can put it on the floor.”
Ndong spent last year at the NBA Academy/Latin America, an elite training center for high school-age prospects in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He played for Team Canada in the 2022 FIBA U18 Americas Championships.
“Thomas is a pretty dang good athlete,” Tinkle says. “He is hard-nosed, gets after loose balls and rebounds and is a high-level finisher at the basket. We lacked that last season. We were 340th (out of 358 Division I schools) at finishing around the rim. That will improve next season.”
Oregon State also returns three players who didn’t see much action in 2022-23 — small forward Jayden Stevens and guards Justin Rochelin and Christian Wright.
The 6-7, 190-pound Stevens played only 196 minutes, averaging 1.9 points while shooting .300 from the field and .211 from 3-point range.
“We would like to have redshirted him last season, but we couldn’t because of some injuries,” Tinkle says. “He is one of our best athletes and has the makings of a strong defender, but he’s another guy who needs to get bigger and stronger. We’d like him to put on 20 pounds.”
Rochelin, a 6-5 transfer from Arizona State, played only 10 games and 132 minutes during his freshman season at OSU due to leg injuries.
“Justin is a big-time athlete who can make open 3’s and is a good defender,” Tinkle says. “We missed him last season. He had a healthy spring and should be able to earn a spot in our rotation.”
The biggest disappointment by far on the Oregon State roster last season was Wright, the point guard who transferred in after being a part-time starter at Georgia the previous season. Wright missed part of the season due to a knee injury. He averaged 2.2 points and 1.0 assists while playing 14.3 minutes in 19 games, showing little quickness or initiative to create opportunities for himself or teammates when he drove the middle. Wright finished the season shooting 9 for 52 (.173) from the field and 2 for 29 (.069) on 3-point attempts.
“Once he missed a few, it got into his head,” Tinkle says. “He wasn’t fully healthy. He shot with a lot more confidence this spring. He’ll shoot over 33 percent from 3 next season.”
Oregon State’s junior-college recruit should challenge for a starting job. Nate Meithof, who was “a late bloomer” out of McNary High, says Tinkle, started at College of Southern Idaho last season. The 6-5 shooting guard averaged a team-high 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds while shooting .515 from the field and .384 from 3-point territory for the Golden Eagles, who were ranked No. 1 in the nation much of the season. They entered the National Junior College Athletic Association Championships at 29-1 and were seeded No. 2, but fell 75-70 to 15th-seed Vincennes in the second round despite 22 points from Meithof.
“We’re really excited about Nate,” Tinkle says. “He is a systems guy. He knows how to execute plays. Knows how to play and space the floor, and yes, he can shoot and score.”
The Beavers have also landed a pair of promising walk-ons.
One is Josiah Lake, a 6-2 guard who led Tualatin to an upset victory over West Linn and the state 6-A championship in March. Lake — whose father by the same name played for Eddie Payne at OSU in the late 1990s — averaged 25.2 points for the Timberwolves as a senior.
Also on the 2023-24 roster will be Grey Garrison, a sweet-shooting 6-7 forward out of Sehome High in Bellingham, Wash. Garrison averaged 19 points and eight rebounds in leading the Mariners to an 18-6 record.
Last season, Oregon State’s defense was acceptable, allowing opponents to score 67 points a game on .427 shooting from the field and .338 from 3-point range. It was a different story at the offensive end, where the Beavers shot .410 from the field, .317 from beyond the arc and averaged only 61.2 points and 10.8 assists per contest.
“We were hard to watch on offense at times,” Tinkle admits. “A lot of times, we ended up calling for a ball screen and rushing to get a shot off late in the shot clock. It was due to lack of experience and some lack of wherewithal from a mental standpoint.
“We got a lot of good work in on that in the spring. I liked our ball movement and player movement. The familiarity is going to help us be a lot more fluid when we have the ball next season.”
Tinkle has four years and $11.4 million left on a contract that calls for him to make $3 million in 2026-27. Beaver Nation wants to start seeing results — at least a more watchable team than the ones of the previous two seasons. That’s what Tinkle wants, and expects, to begin to show next season.
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