SALT LAKE CITY -- The staff at the Marriott Downtown City Creek had a busy Thursday morning. A multi-level marketing company in the nutritional supplement game was holding a seminar on the bottom floor. They were busy training a mostly female-group to rope their friends, social media followers and neighbors into buying packets of goodness. But it was the sales pitch upstairs in the Skylight Ballroom that got my attention.
A digital projector and screen was set up on one end of the room. A breakfast buffet waited alongside the wall. There were large round tables and chairs positioned in the middle of the room. This is where I found Oregon State men’s basketball coach Wayne Tinkle sitting on Thursday morning, gulping his morning coffee.
“I’m the coach,” Tinkle said. “It’s on me.”
The Beavers are 3-15 this season. They look like a disjointed mess on the court. Anyone who has watched them for an extended period of time knows that Oregon State is soft, selfish, and not at all resilient. The hard-scrabble culture that Tinkle and his staff constructed in seven previous seasons -- including last March’s Elite Eight appearance -- is now absent.
What is wrong with OSU men’s basketball?
Among the prevailing theories:
♦ Tinkle took too many transfers last offseason. He misfired on a few. A couple of others don’t appear interested in anything more than getting a few baskets and posting them to social media after the game. There’s a clear division between the old-guard players from last season and the newcomers. It would explain how splintered the Beavers appear in critical stretches.
♦ Star guard Ethan Thompson left after last season. He had the ball in his hands a lot and was a calming presence. Zach Reichle graduated, too. Then guard Gianni Hunt quit earlier this season. That trio was key in helping OSU win the Pac-12 Conference Tournament and blitz through the NCAA field last March. Reichle, a senior, was what coaches call “a culture keeper.” When teammates strayed from the overall mission Reichle was the first to grab them and issue a reminder that they were playing for something bigger than themselves.
♦ This “team” isn’t really interested in being a team. One current OSU player told me that the coaches used the extended first road trip of the season to try and foster some old-fashioned team building. Roommate assignments were strategic. The intention was to pair players who were unfamiliar with each other together. On the first night of the trip the Beavers players took it upon themselves to reorganize and switch rooms, picking who they felt most comfortable sharing space with. Tinkle and his staff must have blown a gasket when they did bed checks.
“I won’t make excuses,” the coach said on Thursday. “We need to pull together here. We need to be tougher. We need to be more resilient. This is not a talent issue. I believe in our talent.”
Disappointing, isn’t it?
The earmark of Oregon State men’s basketball hasn’t ever really been blue-chip talent. Tinkle has typically recruited players who played very hard, worked together, and often frustrated more gifted opposition. It requires a specialized mental mindset. Talent is great. It wins games. But mental toughness and a willingness to sacrifice for the greater good is a tentpole for long-term success and continued culture. As former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett offered once, “Give me a group of guys I can lose with.”
This group isn’t that. Not in its present form anyway.
Blame Tinkle?
Sure. It’s his team. He’s paid well to coach it. But on some fundamental level I’m left wondering if the OSU players understand they’ve become a case study in how to blow up years of culture in just a couple of months. I traveled to Salt Lake City to see the Beavers play Utah. They’ll tip tonight and give it a go against a very beatable Pac-12 foe. Only 10 players made the trip, though. Another one of them missed a practice this week, but made the trip and still expects to play. I stood in the lobby of the team hotel surrounded by a sea of multi-level marketing propaganda and was struck by the irony.
Oregon State’s players need to sell each other on making the rest of this season matter. They need to view teammates as vital. I suspect the OSU players feel beat down and hopeless after losing so often this season. On a personal pride level, though, I wonder if the individuals on this Beavers’ team understand that the rest of the world is looking at them and thinking a few things.
Soft.
Selfish.
Not at all resilient.
Does any of that matter to the 2021-22 Oregon State men’s basketball team? Are they willing to play hard tonight against Utah, especially when things go bad? Are they capable of sacrificing for each other and being happy when someone else makes a basket? Will they pull together when something goes awry in tonight’s game? Or will they wilt? I’m not ripping them here in this column because I want to kick them when they’re down. Rather, because I think they need to understand how the rest of us view them.
Interested in changing that narrative?
Don’t tell me. Show me.
I’d like to see Jarod Lucas play with fire in his eyes again. I’d love to see Warith Alatishe do all the little things he did so well last season. I’d like to see the bench players rise to their feet when Roman Silva blocks a shot or takes a charge and hug each other with joy. Because I haven’t seen enough of any of that and a lot of other things this season.
Tinkle told me over coffee he still believes in the talent of his team. He and his staff spent extra time reviewing film in the last week and searching for answers. I wonder though, if this isn’t a basketball issue at all. Feels to me like Oregon State’s players need to get real with themselves. Time to buck up and pull together. I hope they hate this column. I also wonder if they’ll bother to read it.
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Email: John@JohnCanzano.com
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