NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Montana of last decade
By Joey Loose
1. Tres Tinkle – Oregon State
There was simply no question that Tinkle would top this list, having by far the most impressive careers of anyone from Montana in recent years. A 6’7 forward from Missoula, he was a top 100 prospect in 2015 who made the easy decision to play for his father at Oregon State. But this wasn’t nepotism, Tinkle was an impressive talent ready for the Pac-12 stage, and he showed it over the next five seasons, losing much of his sophomore year to injury.
As a freshman, he averaged 13.1 points per game and helped lead the Beavers to the NCAA Tournament, though he missed the end of that season due to an injury. Most of his sophomore year was lost to injury, but his next three seasons were very productive. Tinkle averaged at least 17 points and 6.5 rebounds in each of those three years with the Beavers. He racked up a consider amount of double-doubles and was Oregon State’s most important player throughout the back-end of his career.
Tinkle was named All-Pac-12 First Team for three straight years, a pretty impressive honor, while leading the conference in points as a redshirt junior. By the time his career was over, he was a staple on Oregon State historical leaderboards, and sits in solid shape on the conference’s all-time leaderboards in points, free throws, and defensive rebounds. Tinkle was not drafted after that very impressive career and has spent the past few seasons overseas, playing most recently in the professional league in France.
Next. Most important player on each top-25 team. dark
We’re done with today’s look at the best college basketball players from the last ten years from the state of Montana; how does this state’s list compare to some of the others we’ve already done?