Pac-12 Conference Previews: #12 Oregon State
Oregon State Beavers 2014-15 Season Preview
2013 Season Results: 16-15 overall, 8-10 conference record. 10th place in the Pac-12, 88-74 first round loss vs. Oregon State in Pac-12 tournament.
Key Losses: Roberto Nelson, Devon Collier, Angus Brandt (all graduated), Eric Moreland (went pro), Hallice Cooke (transferred to Iowa State), Coach Craig Robinson (fired)
Key Returners: Langston Morris-Walker, Malcom Duvivier
2014 Recruiting Class: Chai Baker (#42 SG in the country per ESPN), Gary Payton II (JuCo)
Craig Robinson is gone, and with him leaves the added attention of having the First Brother-in-Law as your coach. Left behind in Corvallis is a bare cupboard and 21 consecutive seasons with a sub-.500 conference record (last year’s 8-10 mark matched two other seasons as the best Beavers effort in the time since the 9-9 1992-93 Pac-10 season).
Though they did do half of their conference winning against the only two Pac-12 teams below them in the standings, this was a legitimately plucky Beavers team last season. Roberto Nelson (last seen hitting a pretty awesome NBA Summer League game winner) and his boys fought for wins over Arizona State, Oregon, and Stanford, showing they could punch above their weight.
That entire team is essentially gone, without even an NIT appearance to show for their time on campus. The Beavers return just 28.3% of their scoring from last season, worst in the conference. They are also in the bottom two of returning production in rebounding, three-pointers made, and assists. The category in which they rank highest in percentage of returning production in the Pac-12 is Blocks, where they are 8th.
In summation, last year’s 10th place team in the Pac-12 lost all of its key pieces from a team that had one of the best seasons in recent program history. That set of facts led the Oregon State Athletic Department to fire Craig Robinson and set out in search of a new coach.
Enter Wayne Tinkle, the sexiest man in college basketball. Tinkle went to three NCAA Tournaments in eight seasons in Montana, and is already inspiring hope that he can begin to fix the decaying-for-decades dam that is Oregon State Beavers basketball (more on that later).
Such a turnaround isn’t going to happen this season. In fact, this team may not be favored in a single one of its conference games. The leading returning scorer is junior guard Langston Morris-Walker, who averaged just 18 minutes and 4 points per game last season.
Not a single other returning Beaver hit triple digits in scoring last season. Oak Hill product Daniel Gomis did flash potential as a shot blocker and rebounder, and Malcolm Duvivier hit on 45.2% of his threes (though he only averaged one attempt per game).
Tinkle can really coach, and it’s unlikely that Oregon State will fail to win every single one of their league games. There’s not much more positive to be said about this group. It’s possible Morris-Walker, Duvivier, et al could make huge improvements, but all evidence suggests that this Beavers team is short on both experience and talent, a deadly combination in a conference as tough as the Pac-12.
So why are Beavers fans feeling so good right now? Oregon State currently boasts the #10 recruiting class for 2015 according to ESPN, having signed the Top 100, four-star progeny of Wayne Tinkle (son Tres, a PF) and assistant coach Stephen Thompson (Stephen Thompson Jr, a PG) to go along with four-star big man Drew Eubanks. It’s the new nepotism, baby, and Oregon State has a chance to ride it back to relevance.
In the meantime, though, Oregon State fans will have to endure a pretty ugly season of basketball. When their team hits the dregs of the Pac-12 schedule and their deficiencies are magnified, I imagine those Beavers fans watching looking something like this.
Prediction: 12th Place