Tinkle gets it: Ex-Beavers are ‘cashing in while they can’
Guard Josiah Lake II is expected to return to Oregon State for his junior season in 2025-26. Most of his teammates from this past season will not, however (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)
It wasn’t so long ago that this might have been a quiet week for Wayne Tinkle. With the basketball season over and in the midst of a dead period, maybe even time for a golf game or two, or a trip to his vacation home in Idaho.
No longer. Tinkle and his Oregon State coaching staff are playing host this week to “five or six” potential transfers from the portal, all visiting Corvallis as well as other locales. There have been no commitments yet, though Tinkle says he hopes he will have some to announce as early as next week.
The recruiting is necessary because Oregon State has lost six of its top eight players, including all five starters, to the portal from its 20-win team of the past season. Gone are forward Michael Rataj to Baylor and guards Nate Kingz to Syracuse and Demarco Minor to Pittsburgh. Reserve guard DaJohn Craig landed at Coastal Carolina. Center Parsa Fallah and small forward Liutauras Lelevicius haven’t announced destinations.
Tinkle probably should have had 6-9 freshman Maxim Logue from France sit out the Beavers’ season-ending College Basketball Crown Tournament 76-75 loss to Central Florida. Logue, who had played sparingly all season, was sensational, scoring 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting (and 6 of 7 at the foul line) to go with 10 rebounds. Suddenly, the youngster’s phone was flooded with calls from agents. A week later, he was in the portal.
“It is a different world,” Tinkle said Tuesday during a break from his hosting duties. “Even a couple of years ago, who would have thought we would be talking about this stuff?”
The NIL and transfer portal are inextricably tied together. Tinkle has heard that Rataj will be getting in the neighborhood of $2 million to play for the Bears.
“Back in early February, I told some people that Mike was going to go for at least $600,000 or $700,000,” Tinkle says. “They didn’t think that would be the case. Since then, the market has gotten really inflated. I wouldn’t think it is sustainable, but for now, it is what we are dealing with.”
Syracuse, the coach has heard, will bestow $700,000 on Kingz. Fallah’s asking price — and he will evidently get it —is between $600,000 and $800,000. Lelevicius’ market value is said to be a half-million.
A year ago, Tinkle lost his top two players — sophomores Jordan Pope and Tyler Bilodeau — to Texas and UCLA, respectively, for figures that were probably between $300,000 and $500,000. That was bad enough. Now, the money is flowing like water through the Nile. To lose so much talent is upsetting for Tinkle, who recently finished his 11th season as the Beavers’ coach. But he gets it. And he doesn’t blame the players.
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“Our fan base needs to understand, the guys are not running away from anything,” Tinkle says. “This is not about culture. They were happy at Oregon State and with our program. It is a money grab. Some of these guys will never make that amount as a pro — ever. They are cashing in while they can.”
So for now, Oregon State is like a farm system for the big-money schools.
Says Tinkle: “It has been hard when you identify talent, you bring it here, you develop it, and then when you are about to bear fruit, you are losing them to schools with deeper pockets.”
The amount of money allegedly being offered, and accepted, by transfers throughout the country is somewhere between frightening and obscene.
“My sources tell me that there are 20-some teams that will have an NIL budget of over $10 million for this next year,” Tinkle tells me. And we are talking just basketball.
“The Final Four this season were all one seeds with the biggest NIL budgets,” he says. “Schools are shopping around and putting together the most talented teams that cost the most money.”
In the West Coast Conference — where the Beavers will reside for another year before the new version of the Pac-12 opens play in 2026-27 — word is that Gonzaga will double its current NIL allotment, to $10 million from $5 million this past year. The average NIL money for the schools in the upper half of the WCC in 2024-25 — Saint Mary’s, USF, Santa Clara — was in the $1-3 million range.
“Let’s say an average of $1.5 million, and the word is out that figure will double next year, too,” Tinkle says.
Oregon State’s NIL budget for basketball this past year was likely between $700,000 and $800,000. Kyle Bjornstad, executive director of the Dam Nation collective, won’t confirm that figure. But he does say that the budget for basketball will “at least double” for next season.
“We are gaining ground, but still behind the pack (atop the WCC),” Tinkle says.
Bjornstad points out that none of the WCC schools, except Oregon State and Washington State, have football programs. He estimates that football gets about 75 percent of NIL money at Oregon State.
“Those schools don’t have to share revenue with football,” he says. “With us, football gets the largest share of the pie by far. Our donors dictate where they want their dollars to go. I can’t make somebody give to a specific sport.
“But we are absolutely putting our best foot forward and will be investing substantially more in basketball than we did last year. I am talking to all the athletes. We are working with them. We have delivered on all of our promises. We are continuing to raise the bar, but it is crazy. I have heard some of the numbers floating around out there, and I don’t know for certain, but I would argue that a lot of them are inflated.”
Tinkle makes it clear he isn’t blaming or criticizing Bjornstad.
Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle says the Beavers are behind in the NIL arms race (courtesy OSU athletics)
“Kyle has worked really hard the last year and a half to get us to try to catch up,” Tinkle says. “I have had a good relationship with him. You want to make sure the guys are getting the NIL money they are promised. You see stories about how some kids are getting (shortchanged or jilted) across the country. Our people are doing a good job of not overpromising. They want to be able to deliver.
“But we can’t recruit at lower levels and expect to win at the level we did this year. We have to find a solution. We have to be competitive in the portal and in retention of guys we want to keep.”
Agents have taken over the transfer portal game.
“That is primarily who we talk to nowadays,” Tinkle says. “We don’t talk to many coaches.”
Tinkle says some agents began contacting players early last season.
“Some at the start of the season,” he says. “Some after they see that the players are starting to have success. We also heard that (representatives of) some schools were reaching out to our guys as early as December.
“Some of (the agents) are reaching out unsolicited to players they don’t even have as clients yet and are trying to recruit them. Some will even call other schools on their behalf without getting the OK (from the player) while the season is going on. Then they reach out to the player on social media or whatever and say, ‘This school showed interest in you. They see your value.’ ”
In an interview with OSU radio play-by-play voice Mike Parker aired during the pre-game show before the season finale, Tinkle put it this way: “With agents being allowed to be involved in everything, there are calls, texts, direct messages, all that stuff the last month of the season to anybody who is having any success. (They are) being promised the world. … it can’t help but poison them. … we know we can’t afford a million dollars (to any player), but we are going to need the money to get a potential first-team all-leaguer to replace them. If we can’t get to that, the years of making runs like our this year will be few and far between.”
Bjornstad says he talked with every Oregon State player about NIL funding during the season. He also says he talked with all the agents, some of them who are peddling potential transfers.
“Whether it is the kid, the parents or their agent, I am involved in all those conversations,” he says. “Agents are becoming more prevalent by the month. They get to the players well before decisions are made and they craft and mold what the decisions are. They are all different. Some are great; some are not so great.
“I actually enjoy dealing with them, though. I am convicted of doing this right. I want to make sure the athletes are taken care of. I have no problem pushing back whatsoever. I can sniff it out pretty quick. Are you talking to me because this kid really wants to be a Beaver, or are you about getting the highest bid? Through it all, I know we are taking good care of our kids.”
In early February, Tinkle had discussions with each of his top seven or eight players. He tried to get the lay of the land in what the players were being told their NIL value was. He wanted to keep their minds on the current season and not the future.
“We knew this year in particular, there were a lot of agents reaching out to our guys, along with potential poaching from other schools,” the OSU coach says. “The agents were encouraging them to get in early and take advantage of both (NIL money) and revenue-sharing. They said if you don’t (go into the portal) and it gets past April 7, you will be limited to (funding produced by) revenue-sharing, which was nonsense.
“We kept reminding the guys in almost daily meetings that they had to stay focused. We were on a good run. We could finish strong and make some things happen. As it turned out, down the stretch, our focus and intent wasn’t quite what it needed to be.”
In Oregon State’s 77-73 loss to Pepperdine in the first round of the WCC Tournament, Rataj — who led the Beavers in scoring (16.9) and rebounds (7.2) — had one point and one rebound in 36 minutes. Leaving the OSU program may have been the hardest on him of all the players.
“Michael was emotional when he came to give me the final word (on leaving for the portal),” Tinkle says. “He had been a big part of our program for three years. He stayed true to us last year. He wanted to see it through. He wanted to help lead us to the NCAA Tournament.”
Tinkle says he told all of the players considering going into the portal, “If you are leaving, we are not going to turn our backs on you. If you want help through the process, lean on us. We know places where you can thrive, places where you might be happy.”
“Mike is the one guy who kept us in the loop, asked us our opinion about certain places and coaches,” Tinkle says. “He handled things the right way. We wish him the best. I told all the guys that we hope they get what they are asking for.”
It was particularly hard on Tinkle to see Lelevicius — a native Lithuanian with a striking amount of all-around talent and potential — leave the OSU program.
“He didn’t want to go,” Tinkle says. “He said, ‘Coach, I am going to come back, but my agents tells me I need to see what is out there.’ We thought he could be a glue guy for us next season, but I know there are some schools that really like him that have a lot of money.”
The transfer portal window closes next Tuesday. Tinkle’s roster now includes six returnees — Isaiah Sy, Josiah Lake II, Johan Munch, Ja’Quavis Williford, Thomas Ndong and Gavin Marrs. Sy and Lake — the first players off the bench this past season — have indicated they intend to stay. (Tinkle also says he “doesn’t anticipate” any changes in the coaching staff, meaning that Chris Haslam, Marlon Steward, Stephen Thompson and Roberto Nelson will return.)
Tinkle sees promise in the 6-7 Williford, a freshman from Tampa Bay, Fla., who missed most of this past season with a broken toe.
“Ja’Quavis is really raw, but he has an ability to go out there and get baskets,” Tinkle says. “He has to learn to function within the team system, but we think he can be tough with his length and athleticism.”
Two recruits who committed during the season will be coming in this summer — Keziah Ekissi, a 6-3 point guard from France, and Olavi Suutela, a 6-10 forward from Finland.
Ekissi played this season for Howard JC in Big Spring, Texas. He averaged 12.3 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists while shooting .451 from the field, .429 from 3 and .825 from the foul line. Ekissi will come is as either a sophomore or junior in eligibility.
Suutela, 19, played for HBA Marsky, a First Division I club in Finland this past season. He averaged 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds while shooting .573 from the field and .737 from the line.
Tinkle and his staff are tasked with adding another half-dozen players from the portal. There is a delicate balance between talent and what the Beavers can afford.
“You have your wish list over here and your budget over there,” Tinkle says. “You have to go after your priority guys first and then make decisions on how you fill out the roster.
“But we can’t just stick to a budget and expect to win. We have to put together a winning roster, a team our fan base will get behind. There have been some guys who really liked us and we really liked, and the agent comes in and says, ‘Here is the price range,’ and we have had to say, ‘OK, we’re out. We can’t compete with that.’ ”
Tinkle rebounded well from losing Pope and Bilodeau after the 2023-24 season. Despite the inequities in NIL funding, he believes he can fashion another competitive team next season. Tinkle is 59, with two years and $5.9 million left on his contract. Tony Bennett and Jim Larranaga are among the Division I coaches who tired of fighting the NIL/portal battle the last couple of years and stepped away from their jobs. Has Tinkle considered retirement?
“Not at all,” he says. “I have never been afraid of a fight. We have survived tough times. Our assistant coaches are actively recruiting the portal along with prep schools, high schools, JCs and foreigners. We are rolling up our sleeves and working hard to put together a good team for next year. Just gotta keep grinding.”
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