As the dust clears on the crazy first two rounds of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Tournament in Indiana, the PAC-12 is standing very tall in the bracket. Take your pick of massive overachievers over on the westside; UCLA, USC, Oregon State, and Oregon, and find each still fighting for the title. The most unlikely contender from the “Conference of Champions” is Oregon State.
The longest of long shots out west, Oregon State drew a #12-seed after their first ever PAC-12 Tournament Championship. The Beavers finished the regular season in 5th place in the PAC-12, going 10-10. They have been in the doldrums of the league for years, never finishing higher than 4th in HC Wayne Tinkle’s 7 years at the helm. That was in 2018-19 and was the only time they had a winning record in the conference(10-8) and still did not make the tournament.
The last time Oregon State was dancing, they had Gary Payton and Stephen Thompson; ok, not GP and Stevie for Crenshaw, but their sons, in the 2016 Dance, losing 75-67 to #10-seed VCU in the first round. Last time OSU made it out of the first round was 1982, when Lester Conner, Charlie Sitton and freshman A.C. Green drove them to the Elite Eight, losing 69-45 to Sleepy Floyd, Patrick Ewing, and Georgetown in the West Regional Final.
The Beavs now sit in the Sweet Sixteen after winning 5 straight games and 8 out their last 9. How hot can one team get? How about shooting 48% from the field, including 35% from 3 during that run. And looking deeper into the 3-point numbers, they had games shooting 10-22, 10-25, 10-19, 9-22, and when it mattered most, against #5-seed Tennessee in the first round of the tourney, they hit 10-21 from the land of plenty on route to a 70-56 victory. Jarod Lucas hit 4-9, Zach Reichie was 3-4, and Maurice Calloo added 2-3 off the bench. Ethan Thompson was just 1-4 but was 5-12 overall for 13 points and added 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
Balance has been the story of OSU’s late season run through the conference tournament and first 2 rounds of the NCAA. Balanced scoring? check, the Beavs have had 4 players score in double figures in 3 out of 5 games. Balanced rebounding? check, Roman Silva and Warith Alatishe had 12 rebounds a piece and Thompson added 7 as they outrebounded Oklahoma State 49-28 in the second round of the NCAA.
Balanced scoring from the free throw line? check, as they shot 32-35 from the line, including an amazing 15-16 for Thompson, 7-7 for Lucas, and Callaloo with 4-4 from the stripe in the same foul-filled second round game against the Cowboys. Oregon State fouled less with 24, opposed to the other OSU’s 29, and powered to a 80-70 victory.
Steady-as-you-go is a trademark of Ethan Thompson’s family. The tree includes his brother, Stephen Thompson Jr. and his dad, Stephen Thompson Sr. Junior was a stud for OSU for 4 years; 3 as a starter, avering 14.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.5 steals a game, including dropping 34 points and 10 rebounds in a 79-74 win over USC in 2019, during a 4th-place finish season in the PAC-12. He got to play the last two years with Ethan and was coached his entire college career by his father Stephen Sr, who is an assistant coach for OSU. Stephen Sr was a high-flying swing man out of Crenshaw, who left Syracuse as school’s 4th all-time leading scorer. He also shot 68% in 15 tournament games for the Orange.
For Ethan, he is starting to step out of the shadows of his brother and dad. This year he is averaging a career-high 15.6 points a game and a career-high 81% from the free throw line. It helps when you go 15-16, 10-13, 10-12, 9-10, 12-14, and 11-11 in games throughout the year. And the 11-11 from the line was in a 83-79 OT win over UCLA to start Oregon State’s PAC-12 tournament run, allowing them to even have a shot at making the NCAAs. He added 13 points and 10 rebounds in the victory over the Vols last Friday and 26 points and 7 rebounds in the second round over the Cowboys Sunday.
Family trees are strong in Wayne Tinkle’s yard as well. His wife Lisa McLeod is a former college baller at Montana and his daughter Joslyn plays professionally for Sydney Uni Flames, and his daughter Elle played for Gonzaga. His son, Tres played 5 storied seasons for Wayne at OSU, scoring 17.7 a game, shooting 46% from the field and 33% from 3. He added 7 rebounds per and played 34 of 40 minutes a game. He currently plays in the G-League for the Raptors 905. Wayne was no slouch either as a player first at Montana and then in the CBA, and then averaging 24 points a game in the Belgium League, then in Greek League, and even the International Basketball League to end his career.
As the HC of the Beavs since 2014, Tinkle is 112-108 at OSU. He previously coached at his alma mater Montana for 8 years following Larry Krystkowiak and was 158-91 with 3 NCAA appearances for the Griz. This year started out pretty well with wins over Cal and Northwest University, but then it got shaky, with 3 straight losses to Washington State, Wyoming, and then to in-state Portland in overtime, 87-86 despite 31 from Thompson and 18 from Calloo. From there, patterns started to form, win 3, lose 2, win 2, lose 3. Then they got rolling on their current streak and have not looked back.
Tinkle, Thompson and the Beavers are in uncharted waters now, the current OSU players were 20 years away from being born when the last squad made the Elite Eight in ’82 and Tinkle was 16. Oregon State hasn’t won the PAC12 since Gary Payton walked and talked them there in 1990. The 2020-21 Beavers have already overachieved every single media outlet’s expectation this year, including the 2020-2021 PAC-12 Men’s Basketball Preseason Media Poll, who had them dead-last in the conference. Would anyone have argued back then? How about now?
