After an injury-riddled 2016-2017 campaign, the Beavers enter 17-18 with expectations of returning to the big dance.

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Entering his fourth season as Oregon State’s head coach is Wayne Tinkle. After coming to Corvallis from Montana to replace Craig Robinson, Tinkle has done tremendous work building up a once storied program. He took the Beavers to the Big Dance for the first time in 26 seasons in 2016, breaking the second longest streak in NCAA D1 history.

Heading into last season, the Beavers still had high hopes despite losing Mr. Do-it-all in Gary Payton II and other senior leaders. However, it never materialized as multiple Beavers suffered injuries of varying severity, including Wayne’s son Tres Tinkle who was lost for the season after putting up big numbers in the pre-season.

With all of the negativity of last season in the past, the Beavers hope to use last season as motivation and as a learning experience.

“Last year was rough,” Tinkle said. “We had a lot thrown at us that we didn’t see coming. But we survived it and got tougher going through it and got a lot of experience. We know it will pay dividends as we move forward through this season.”

Guard Stephen Thompson Jr. is back after nearly turning pro and said the team continues to remember last year's disappointment as motivation to do better this year.

“It’s still in our minds as we go into practices, but we try not to look at it too much as a negative thing, but as a learning point,” Thompson Jr. said.

When talking about this year's expectations, Tinkle noted that he doesn’t just want to win a few more games than last season. He wants big-time improvement.

“We knew that last year wasn’t probably going to be the year that we peaked as far as our talent,” Tinkle said. “This year is a year that I believe we can flip things around and making this one of the bright stories in the country. As we move forward, if we can stay healthy, I certainly think we should be where we are competing for postseason play.”

Forward Drew Eubanks, who like Thompson Jr. tested the NBA waters, is back for his junior season with only one thing on his mind.

“I just want to win,” Eubanks said. “That’s my main goal this offseason was putting in work and trying to get better for the team. All I’m really focused on is winning and I know we have the tools to do that.”

Unlike Tinkle, Eubanks was clear with what he wanted his goal to be for the upcoming season.

“NCAA Tournament for sure,” Eubanks said. “We should get that as long as we stay healthy and stick to what the coaches want. We could also make a run at the Pac-12 championship in the regular season or the tournament.”

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During the media session, many players showed a big smile on their faces when they started to talk about the potential of OSU being more of a run-and-gun team this season. While the Beavers won’t necessarily be the Showtime Beavs, they are going to get out and run a whole lot more than they have in the first three seasons under Tinkle.

Tinkle notes that he can finally do this because of the depth and playmakers that he has on the roster.

“We were shorthanded our first few years and we had to play at a snail's pace to give ourselves a chance,” Tinkle said. “But now we have the depth, and it’s something that we hope to get to. But we still have to get stops. The kids all want to play up-tempo but that means that we have to condition for it and work towards it and defend.”

While the Beavers might not exactly be taking a page out of Pat Riley and Magic Johnson’s playbook, the team is certainly excited to put on a fast-paced product for the fans.

“We are going to get out and run,” Eubanks said. “That’s why I started to get in better shape and conditioning more was to stay on the floor and play more minutes.”

Tres Tinkle added that the Beavers are finally able to do what they’ve been wanting to do on offense since his arrival in Corvallis.

“We can definitely promise Beaver Nation that we are going to be running the floor and in transition,” Tres Tinkle said. “We want to show them something that they haven’t seen in many years.”

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As many Beaver fans found out last spring, two Beavers declared for the NBA draft. Those two Beavers were Drew Eubanks and Stephen Thompson Jr. Both players went through the draft evaluation process and luckily for the Beavers, ultimately decided to return to school for their junior seasons.

By bringing back Eubanks and Thompson Jr. the Beavers have set themselves up for much more success this season.

Tinkle noted that Eubanks and Thompson Jr. learned a lot about themselves as players by starting the process, but is happy to have them back in a Beaver uniform.

“It’s big. I don’t think either one of them needed to be humbled through it, but they learned a lot about what it takes,” Wayne Tinkle said. “We obviously know how hard it takes to get to that level. Both of them are now more eager to learn than ever to get better at their games. If they continue to stay focused, listen, and learn it’s going to continue to pay dividends and improve our team's success.

With Eubanks electing to come back, he made it clear to his teammates and coaches that he wanted to come back to OSU with one goal in mind.

“The big reason was, I just wanted to win,” Eubanks said. “I didn’t want to leave Oregon State the way that we did and winning has been the only thing on my mind this offseason.”