Oregon State Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for Beavers

OSU’s league schedule features a pair of grueling stretches

All things considered, the Beavers got a pretty good draw for their 2019-20 Pac-12 schedule. The schedule dictates that OSU will only face the Washington and Los Angeles schools once apiece. The SoCal teams will travel to Corvallis, while the Beavers head north to take on Mike Hopkins‘ Huskies and Ernie Kent‘s Cougars. Washington is one of the favorites to win the league again this season, despite losing a lot from last year’s championship side. Freshmen Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels have folks in Seattle very excited. Washington State brings in a shiny new head coach in Kyle Smith, fresh off a successful few seasons with San Francisco and Columbia.

Down south, USC is coming into the season with a great recruiting class, including five-stars Isaiah Mobley and Onyeka Okongwu, and should contend for one of the first-round byes in the Pac-12 Tournament. Lastly, UCLA comes into the year with much more uncertainty after firing former head coach Steve Alford and plucking Mick Cronin away from Cincinnati. It’s never easy to travel down to L.A. and face those teams at home, so the Beavers dodged a bullet there. But the trip up to Washington could prove to be a difficult test for the team.

As for the rest of the league, the Beavs are stuck playing everyone else twice. That includes Oregon and Arizona, two squads that brought in some very good players in the offseason, albeit through different methods. Dana Altman’s busy offseason was spent mining the transfer portal for treasures – and the Ducks head coach struck gold. He is bringing in former New Mexico standout Anthony Mathis, the brother and longtime teammate of Ducks senior star Payton Pritchard, as well as UNLV grad transfer Shakur Juiston. A repeat of their Sweet 16 trip from last season and a Pac-12 title isn’t far-fetched.

Down in Tucson, Sean Miller is going young to try to reinvigorate his Arizona program after a disappointing 17-15 year last season. Joining senior center Chase Jeter on the squad are point guard Nico Mannion, one of the most hyped freshmen in the nation heading into the season, and Josh Green, a Top 15 player in his own right. Max Hazzard, who transferred in from UC Irvine after leading the Anteaters to the NCAA Tournament last season, will provide some veteran leadership in the backcourt as well. Both teams added some dangerous sit-out transfers, as well.

Aside from the Ducks and Wildcats, there are plenty of other traps lying in wait for Wayne Tinkle’s club. Arizona State is always tough under Bobby Hurley, and they bring in one of the country’s top JUCO prospects in power forward Khalid Thomas. Out in Boulder, Tad Boyle has also been building something special around McKinley Wright IV and Tyler Bey. He will likely find his Colorado team in or near the national Top 25 polls at some point during the year. Larry Krystkowiak quietly built a third-place team last year, but a 6-7 showing in non-conference play sunk any Big Dance hopes for Utah. Expect the Utes to compete night in and night out, though. The Bay Area schools, Cal and Stanford, will likely end up in the bottom third of the league. The Cardinal will try to rebound from a few mediocre seasons under Jerod Haase, while the Bears look for new life from new head coach Mark Fox, who came to Berkeley after nine seasons at Georgia.

It’s going to be a tall order for Oregon State to reprise its fourth-place finish from last season. While the Pac-12 suffered what was widely considered an exceptionally down year, the Beavers flourished. But now that the cupboards are restocked leaguewide, will Tres Tinkle and the rest of the Beavs be able to keep up?