Wayne Tinkle after season to forget: ‘We’re going to try to fix it now’
By all accounts, Oregon State’s men’s basketball season was a disaster.
Tinkle begins work with ‘deep roster’ as Oregon State basketball prepares for 2021-22 campaign
Once a college athletic program climbs a mountain, the trek doesn’t end. In some cases, it is only getting started.
That’s what Wayne Tinkle hopes is happening with Oregon State basketball.
Tinkle, soon to begin his eighth season at the OSU helm, will be coming in off the glow of a remarkable late-season run that saw the Beavers reach the Elite Eight in March.
After starting the regular season 11-10, Oregon State reeled off nine victories in 11 games — including three straight to rule the Pac-12 post-season tournament and subsequent wins over Tennessee, Oklahoma State and Loyola Chicago in the NCAA Tournament — before finally being eliminated 67-61 by Houston a step from the Final Four.
The Beavers, who claimed the first Pac-12 Tournament title in program history, became the second No. 12 seed ever to reach the Elite Eight in their first trip there since 1982. They finished the season ranked 20th in the final Coaches’ Poll, the first time they have been ranked in any poll since March 1990, when they were No. 22 in the Associated Press rankings. At 20-13, it marked the second time since 1990 the Beavers have reached 20 wins.
Tinkle: ‘It’s the most rewarding season I’ve had, for sure’
I believe it was Cinderella who once famously observed, “A dream is a wish your heart makes.”
That and, I would add, hard work. And perseverance. And dedication in working toward a common goal.
Oregon State wound up wearing the glass slipper for all of those reasons Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
The new guys look good as Beavers open 2020-21 slate with win over Bears
I liked a lot of what I saw Wednesday night in our first look at Oregon State in the post-Tres Tinkle era, a 71-63 non-conference win over California in a mostly empty Gill Coliseum.
A few observations …
• Coach Wayne Tinkle unveiled most of the recruiting class he has been so excited about, and the newcomers not only didn’t disappoint, they shined.
How would Beaver teams of the early ’80s and ’19-20 compare? There’s really no comparison
Has anybody seen the website WhatIfSports.com? It is an interactive site that allows users to select sports teams from different eras and pit them against each other in a computer simulated game. It is an intriguing concept -- having players and teams from different eras compete as if they were in their respective primes.
I’m not sure how a computer decides whether Dr. J can rise over Giannis Antetokounmpo, but it certainly sparks debate.