During one of the more remarkable postseason runs in college basketball history last season, Oregon State poked a little fun at Pac-12 media pollsters.
The Beavers were picked to finish last in the conference, then finished 10-10 and in a tie for sixth place. But thanks to Arizona’s self-imposed ban from postseason play, OSU was lifted into a No. 5 seed that received a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament.
The Beavers went on to edge UCLA in overtime in the quarterfinals, then beat Oregon and Colorado to win the Pac-12 Tournament and capture the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
They were off. T-shirts they sold after the Pac-12 Tournament featured the “2” in “12” X’d out so it showed only No. 1 remaining.
And by the time the Beavers reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, there were “12->16” T-shirts, noting how far they were going in the NCAA tournament after that 12th-place conference prediction.
“A lot more of that got played out, and I promise it wasn’t us,” OSU coach Wayne Tinkle said at the Pac-12’s preseason media day. “It wasn’t supposed to be this big rally cry. We didn’t put it on the outside of our shooting shirt. It was just kind of an internal deal that got blown up.”
But it was fun, anyway, signifying the Beavers’ rise not only from that preseason prediction but a rough early season that included losses to Washington State, Wyoming, Portland, Stanford …. and especially Arizona.
The Wildcats crushed OSU 98-64 on Jan. 14 in Corvallis last season thanks in large part to Bennedict Mathurin and Jordan Brown. Mathurin had 31 points on 10-for-12 shooting and eight rebounds in his first career start, while Brown had 25 points and five rebounds off the bench.
The Beavers had an excuse in that they were coming off a week-long COVID-19 pause just two days before UA’s win in Corvallis. But they were still 4-5 overall against Division I teams at that point, showing no signs that they would somehow turn into an Elite Eight team.
OSU somehow regrouped to beat ASU, USC and Oregon over its next three games and, after three straight road losses that included another one to the Wildcats in mid-February, won four of its last six games to pull into a sixth-place tie that turned into postseason magic.
Credit for an assist might go to then-UA coach Sean Miller.
“The neat thing is, Sean texted me after that (Jan. 14) game and said, ‘Listen, we caught you at a very vulnerable time,’” Tinkle told Blue Ribbon Yearbook before the season. “It was … words of encouragement, like, ‘Keep banging away, you guys are gonna be fine’ kind of deal, but we used that next day in preparation for Arizona State, as a real come-together moment.
“We had a lot of guys who thought we were going to be this great team and successful, but they didn’t really understand the important pieces needed to make that happen.”
Nearly a year later, Oregon State is struggling to make the same sort of adjustments. This time picked to finish in a fourth-place tie with the Wildcats in the Pac-12’s official preseason poll, the Beavers lost standout guard Ethan Thompson and starting guard Zach Reichle but still had a strong returning core plus a number of experienced transfers..
Tinkle has started nine different players, many of them new. Guard Dashawn Davis came from junior college, guard Tre’ Williams transferred from Minnesota, junior forward Ahmad Rand transferred from Memphis and forward Dexter Akanno came from Marquette.
The Beavers also returned several of their postseason heroes, including forward Warith Alatishe, guard Jarod Lucas forward Maurice Calloo and center Roman Silva.
That mix of talent has not meshed well so far. The Beavers have lost seven straight games, including their Pac-12 opener against Cal on Thursday.
They could finish 12th or, who knows, maybe get it all together over the next month and make another postseason run.
You might even say it’s looking like mid-January 2021 all over again for the Beavers.
“One hundred percent,” said UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who is scouting the Beavers this season. “They had lost to Washington State, Wyoming, Portland and Stanford and we got after them pretty good. But after that they went on their big run.”
There wasn’t a big run at Cal, just a 12-0 streak at the end of the first half that pulled the Beavers within a point at halftime. OSU fueled their offense with good defense during that run, but failed to sustain a short second-half run and lost 73-61.
“We kept telling our guys to keep doing what’s working and then the same things that have been rearing their heads in all these games (happened) — we get off-page,” Tinkle said on his postgame radio interview after the Cal game. “We really squandered some possessions offensively. … then they built that thing to double figures, and doubt creeps in. That’s what’s been eating at this team.
“(The Bears) were the more mature, more physical team, more disciplined team. We’ve learned those lessons far too often now. This is seven in a row and in probably five or six of them, it’s been the same thing — guys not trusting to stick” with it.
So which way will the Beavers go now? After Sunday, OSU faces low-major opponents in four straight games before hosting Utah and Colorado over New Year’s weekend.
There’s plenty of time to fix problems, even if the Wildcats do smack them again Sunday.
“We know how to build this thing,” Tinkle said after the Cal game. “Yes, we’ve had some tough ones. But I saw some encouraging things out there and some other things that we’ve got to correct but we’re going to correct them. And we’ve worked our asses off to get this culture going.
“The one thing we’re never going to do is compromise. I can’t tell you when but we’ll get it turned (around), and we’ll stay positive because that’s our only thing.”
