Oregon State Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Beavers

The potential Beavers’ starting five

The Beavers do return four of their top five scorers from last season, but the team is also relatively young, returning just two seniors and two juniors to the roster. Here is a look at what Oregon State may look like heading into 2018-19.

Tinkle and the Beavers return four starters from their season-ending loss to USC. Redshirt-junior, coach’s son, leading scorer, and rebounder Tres Tinkle. Tinkle’s 17.6 points per game last season makes him the conference’s top returning scorer. He also averaged 7.2 rebounds and dished out nearly four assists per game, making him a potential Player of the Year candidate in the Pac-12.

Also returning are the guard tandem brothers Ethan and Stephen Thompson, Jr. The brothers combined for 25.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.8 assists last season. The last returning starter is sophomore forward Alfred Hollins who could have a bit of a breakout season after scoring 5.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game last season, but over the final 10 games of the season his production jumped up to 9.4 points.

The last starting slot is likely to go to a big man to replace the 6-10 Drew Eubanks, with the top two candidates likely to be senior Gligorije Rakocevic or incoming freshman Jack Wilson. Rakocevic is a 6-11 center from Montenegro who averaged 2.7 points and rebounds but doled out a team-high 3.7 assists in a limited role last season. Wilson comes to Corvallis from California, the 7-0 big man missed his senior season with a back injury but poured in 21 and 13 rebounds as a junior.