Oregon State Men’s Basketball Notebook: Beavers looking to play fast

With battle-tested veterans, key returning talent, and up-and-coming newcomers, Oregon State looks to get back to the NCAA Tournament in Wayne Tinkle’s fifth season with an up-tempo attack. BeaversEdge.com senior writer Brenden Slaughter was at OSU’s annual media day on Tuesday and has the most newsworthy story-lines.

MORE

Oregon State Basketball Practice Nuggets

Oregon State Beavers Football: Tuesday Report

Oregon State delivers its message to Vohasek

Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up now!

Entering his 5th season as Oregon State basketball’s head coach, Wayne Tinkle has experienced all the highs and the lows. Whether it was reaching the NCAA Tournament in his second season and breaking the Beavers’ 26 year tournament drought or suffering through an injury-riddled five win 2016-17 campaign, Tinkle and the Beavers have been there.

While the last two seasons have been frustrating for Tinkle and Co. due to injuries and inconsistent play, Tinkle believes that those tough lessons helped the team learn a lot about themselves and how to move forward with a winning mentality.

The last two years helped lay the groundwork for what the Beavers expect to be a very solid group this season headlined by rock-solid team chemistry.

“It’s amazing at how quickly it’s gone by,” Wayne Tinkle said. “We’re really excited. We’ve been through just about everything. We’ve had some really thrilling years and some really tough years. The thing that I like is that we love our group. They’re very focused on one thing and that’s winning games.”

Despite the Beavers losing seven letterwinners from last years squad, OSU isn’t short on battle-tested upperclassmen leaders. Stephen Thompson Jr., Tres Tinkle, and Gligorije Rakocevic are the proven veteran leaders on this team and it’s already showing.

Tinkle, who figures to be one of the Pac-12’s best this season after averaging 17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.7 assists last season, has seen an uptick on Thompson Jr.’s vocal leadership.

“He’s stepped up his leadership role tremendously,” Tres Tinkle said. “In practice you notice his urgency… he’s playing like it’s his last year. He’s hitting shots, his defense has stepped up, and he’s been more vocal which is going to be big for us.”

One of the challenges for this leadership trifecta will be getting Oregon State’s newcomers up to speed. The Beavers welcomed seven newcomers this season in guards Antoine Vernon, Jordan Campbell, and Kye Blaser and forwards Warren Washington, Jack Wilson, Payton Dastrup (ruled ineligible this season), and Kylor Kelley.

“I’m really excited about our group, but we need to get more out of the new guys,” Wayne Tinkle said. “They’re not comfortable being vocal yet, which they need to be, so we’re trying to get them to bring effort everyday. We want them to go out and play with their tails off. That way you can play through mistakes because we know those are going to be there early for our young guys.”

Coach Tinkle is relying on the Beavers’ veteran leaders to help bring the young players along, and not be afraid to show tough love.

“What we’ve tried to tell them is to be supportive and positive, but if they’re not bringing the effort, don’t be afraid of getting after them,” Wayne Tinkle said. “Really good leaders aren’t necessarily the most popular guys, but they get the best out of their team. We need more guys to help Tres out in that role because he’s a guy who will be vocal. When the new guys are on the floor they’re going to lack a little bit of direction, so the more vocal we can be the quicker we’ll get to where we want to be.”

Tres Tinkle added a little context to what the in-game mentorship has been like as an upperclassmen.

“If someone is lethargic out there, you gotta kinda get in their face and wake them up,” Tres Tinkle said. “There’s been times where I’ve gotten after Warren (Washington) and then the next thing you know he’s got back-to-back dunks and a couple blocked shots.”

During Tuesday’s open practice session, Rakocevic in particular was as vocal and engaged as he was shouting out defensive signals and making sure young bigs Jack Wilson, Kylor Kelley, and Warren Washington were in the right places.

“It’s early, but they aren't as consistent as we need right now,” Coach Tinkle said. “They all did some nice things at our scrimmage on Saturday. We really like that we have some numbers in the post and that’s something that we haven’t had in years past.”

With the Beavers having a mix of veteran playmaking leaders in Tinkle, Thompson Jr., and Rakocevic alongside dynamic playmakers in Ethan Thompson, Zach Reichle, and Alfred Hollins, OSU already has the makings of being a very solid team in the Pac-12.

Combine all that with the influx of new talent that the Beavers expect to get better as the season goes on, OSU could boast one of the most complete teams in conference.

“We’ve probably got the deepest team we’ve ever had here,” Coach Tinkle said.

For the past few seasons, Wayne Tinkle and his staff haven't had the depth and personnel needed to run a more wide-open offense that features more of an up-tempo game. Coming into last season, Tinkle wanted the Beavers to get up and down the floor more, but didn’t have the depth necessary to play at such a high pace.

That’s no longer the case as the Beavers boast a large amount of depth in every position on the roster.

“We definitely want to play more up-tempo and get more shots up and down the court to put more points on the board,” Thompson Jr. said. “With our personnel, that style of play suits us much better this year. Our bigs are very athletic and can run the floor and our guards are pushing and making plays in transition. Those two compliment each other and should help us play much better this season.”

Tres Tinkle is excited to see how the Beavers can play the up-tempo style.

“We’ve been running (up-tempo) in practice more than we have in the past few seasons, because we want to get out and run in transition,” he said. “Big G is in good shape, Kylor (Kelley) can really run the floor. If you can get your bigs down the floor quickly, it’s a huge advantage.

Rakocevic, who came to OSU weighing right around 285, has slimmed down to just under 260 pounds and is in the best shape of his life, which bodes well for the Beavers’ new floor-spacing scheme.

“We’re really excited,” Rakocevic said. “As a team we want to win and so we need to take it day by day and continue to improve to show people that we can play as a team and win games.”

If the Beavers are to have success pushing the ball in transition, they’ll need to be rock-solid on the defensive end.

“We’ve shown flashes in practice where in a four-minute scrimmage we put 27 points up, so we’ve shown we can score in bunches when we’re hitting shots,” Tres Tinkle said. “We’re always going to rely on our defense to create offense for us. When things are clicking, we’ve got some of the best scorers in the league on our team and got guys like Ethan, Alfred, and Zach who are stepping up and have more confidence this season after having one under their belt.”

Thompson, who figures to be the Beavers’ primary ball-handler this season as a sophomore is excited about how the teams’ depth is allowing for the players to play at their preferred pace.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” Thompson said. “I’m trying to play at a faster pace and be more vocal in terms of keeping other guys accountable.

The Beavers won’t have the services of Brigham Young transfer Payton Dastrup this season as the NCAA denied his appeal to play this season without having the sit out a year. The 6-foot-10 former three-star recruit played in 56 games during his BYU tenure and would have given the Beavers added frontcourt depth, experience, and shooting.

Dastrup will have to sit out the 2018-19 season but will be a redshirt-junior with two years of eligibility remaining in 2019-20.