Tres Tinkle ready to put injury riddled past behind him

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Pain. That’s what Oregon State forward Tres Tinkle felt in his right wrist as he went up to block a would-be dunk from Fresno State’s Paul Watson last season.

After the game, Tinkle acknowledged that his wrist was sore but he thought that he would be fine. Regrettably, X-Rays would confirm that Tinkle had indeed suffered a broken wrist.

Initial estimates for Tinkle’s injury were 4-6 weeks. Given that timetable, it was assumed that the Beavers would have their star playmaker back by the first or second week of Pac-12 play. It was a blow to the Beavers, but one that they thought they could overcome until Tinkle returned.

The problem was, Tinkle never returned to the court.

Despite the early diagnosis that indicated that he would return in just over a month, his wrist didn’t heal as quickly as expected. Despite numerous doctor visits, his wrist was healing at a much slower pace.

“It was super tough,” Tres Tinkle said. “Obviously I was really hurt when I first broke my wrist, but knowing the 4-6 week timetable really eased my mind up. As time went on it wasn’t healing and it was one of the toughest things and darkest things I ever went through and I thought to myself, do I want to continue to play if I keep getting injured, but I knew I loved the game too much and I couldn’t let myself think like that.”

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While Tinkle’s wrist continued to heal slowly, the losses began to mount for the Oregon State basketball team. Wayne Tinkle’s squad only won one Pac-12 game last season with the loss of Tres - and couldn’t overcome losing their best all-around player.

Losing a player for the season is never easy as a coach, but when it’s your son, it’s especially hard.

“It was extremely hard because we aren’t used to losing,” Wayne Tinkle said. “Sitting there with your son who you know as a dad and a coach and dealing with his frustrations of not being able to compete with his brothers and for his dad led to a lot of emotions.

While losing Tinkle for the season was difficult, the elder Tinkle learned a lot about himself during the season of taxing trials.

“We survived it and I think I’m a better person, a better husband, a better coach and our guys are better for it,” Wayne Tinkle said.

In his two seasons in a Beaver uniform, Tinkle has had to go through numerous injuries. At the end of his freshman season, he didn’t get to partake in the NCAA Tournament as he suffered a foot injury. When you couple that with last season’s wrist injury, Tinkle hasn’t had the start to his college basketball career that he would have hoped.

“I was always wondering, why me?” Tres Tinkle said. “At the end of the day I can’t think like that. I just have to think that everything happens for a reason and this is going to set me up for a better future. It made me tougher and I learned a lot of valuable life lessons. It made me better on the court as well as I became more mature, mentally tougher and wanting to work harder than ever before. I want to make up for those things that I missed and I want to play in the tournament and I will do everything in my will-power to achieve that goal.”

While last season’s campaign might have been cut short for Tinkle, he was given a medical redshirt and knows that he has the ability to be the Beavers do-it-all guy this season as a sophomore.

“It’s great. Obviously having that year is going to help a lot as I felt that I was able to mature a lot more physically and mentally,” he said. “Coming back as a sophomore I’m excited. I think we are going to do a lot of great things. We just have to buy in and keep working every single day.”