Oregon State Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for Beavers

Last season, the Beavers took advantage of a down year for the Pac-12 and secured a first-round bye in its conference tournament. But with the league reloaded for 2019-20, can Oregon State basketball compete again?

After a long, long stretch of service as a bottom-dweller in the Pac-12, Oregon State basketball has finally clawed their way back to some respectability and consistency. The Beavers finished 18-13 overall last year, ending up in a three-way tie for fourth place in the league at 10-8. Unfortunately for OSU, the conference was down overall, belying its “Power 5” moniker by falling to seventh in the KenPom conference rankings. Their rating put them below both the Big East and American Athletic Conference. Despite more than half the conference finishing in the KenPom Top 100, five of those seven teams fell outside the Top 50.

The Beavers were one of those teams.

Oregon State ended the year with a KenPom ranking of 81, well below the lowest-rated at-large selection: Bobby Hurley’s 57th-ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. And while a Big Dance ticket was already a long shot, the Beavers’ flame-out in their opening Pac-12 Tournament game against Colorado was the finishing touch on a rough end to promising year. Earlier in the year, OSU went 8-4 in the non-conference, grabbing some (ultimately forgettable) wins over Old Dominion, Penn, Missouri State, and Pepperdine. They also suffered some (ultimately forgivable) losses to Missouri, Saint Louis, Texas A&M, and Kent State.

But when the Beavers jumped out to a 3-0 start in league play, beating a banged-up Ducks team in Eugene and sweeping the L.A. schools at home, people began to take notice.

The team wasn’t able to capitalize fully on their early success, though. Oregon State went 7-8 down the stretch and could not seem to click for any length of time. In one week, the Beavers went to Colorado and Utah and came out with two wins. In their next game, they lost to Stanford by 23 at home. Later, a three-game losing streak in February against both the Arizona schools and Washington just about closed the window on OSU’s postseason hopes. Finally, the loss to Colorado slammed the window shut, marking the end of two Beavers’ college careers.

While the team does return most of its players from last year, Oregon State will be without the services of two graduated players. Stevie Thompson, the school’s fourth all-time leading scorer, had a great four-year run in Corvallis playing alongside brother Ethan and for his father-slash-assistant coach, Stephen Sr., for the last two years. His production and leadership were a major factor in Oregon State’s success under head coach Wayne Tinkle.

The other departed player is Gligorije Rakocevic. Though “Big G” may not be as well-known nationally as Thompson, the 6’11” Montenegrin was the team’s starting center at the outset of the season. But an injury cost him a few games in the early part of the season and led to the emergence of Kylor Kelley. Rakocevic was more of a depth piece off the bench after that but still provided valuable minutes behind (and for spells, alongside) Kelley.

With Stevie and Big G out the door, Tres Tinkle now stands as the only remaining member of Oregon State’s 2016 NCAA Tournament team. The father-and-son duo of Wayne and Tres Tinkle will aim to lead the Beavers back to the Big Dance this season, but they face a tough road ahead. If the Beavers’ coach can pull it off, he would add to his already-strong case as the school’s best coach since Ralph Miller.

So, just where does Wayne Tinkle stand among OSU head coaches?