Oregon State Basketball: Why Tyler Cochran is the most important team transfer for 2024-25

Historically speaking there hasn’t been a ton of basketball success at Oregon State, though Wayne Tinkle is responsible for all of the recent progress. The Beavers surprised the world by advancing to the Elite Eight back in 2021, though they also won just 3 games the following season. The program’s last three seasons were all pretty mediocre, with this past year’s 13-19 finish the best of the bunch, and things won’t get any easier in the future.

Oregon State has been left behind by most of their former conference rivals in the Pac-12 and will be temporarily joining the WCC. As a result, there’s been quite a bit of roster turnover, with several players transferring away from this situation. In fact, their top three scorers in Jordan Pope, Tyler Bilodeau, and Dexter Akanno all transferring, with the first two fresh off prominent sophomore seasons. A few young pieces do return, including rising junior Michael Rataj, last year’s top rebounder.

Tinkle and his staff have been busy rebuilding the rotation, landing a few freshmen and junior college players, though they’ve also effectively used the Transfer Portal. They grabbed a couple of center prospects, getting Southern Utah’s Parsa Fallah as well as Matthew Marsh out of Wake Forest. One of the major additions was Damarco Minor, a point guard who had success at SIU Edwardsville and should assume a big role with the Beavers.

Another newcomer assuming a major role is Tyler Cochran, a former combo guard who played brilliantly at Toledo after previous experience at Northern Illinois and Ball State. Fresh off the best offensive season of his career, Cochran heads out west to finish his collegiate career after averaging 14.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game with the Rockets. Not only did Cochran earn Second Team All-MAC honors but he’d also lead the league in steals for a second time while earning MAC Defensive Player of the Year.

Aside from the conference change and uncertain future, it’s also rough that the Beavers lost so much of their young talent from last season. They’ll only get Cochran for a short time, though he’s a major addition and helps fill one of those major holes on the roster. He’s a decent shooter from all over the court and will be the best defensive player in this backcourt, and perhaps one of the best veteran guards in the WCC.

Both Cochran and Minor will assume leading roles in this backcourt and there’s enough talent here for the Beavers to not flounder in their new league. Even with those players like Pope and Bilodeau around, Oregon State struggled last season and likely has a tough road ahead either way. It’s unlikely that we’re going to see much prominence from this program moving forward, but very few people expected that Elite Eight after all.

The new faces in Corvallis have greatly boosted the talent level but it’s likely nowhere close to making the Beavers an NCAA Tournament team, especially in a league dominated by Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s in recent years. That being said, can this team surprise us after three straight rough seasons? Does Cochran settle well into a starring role in this lineup?