Starting Saturday night against Oregon in Gill Coliseum, Oregon State has three regular season and at least one Pac-12 tournament men’s basketball games remaining this season. Depending on your level of expectation, the 2022-23 season has been anywhere from barely acceptable to wholly pleasing. On one hand, winning 10 games with a new roster that leans heavily on freshmen after last season’s 3-28 dumpster fire is significant improvement. If coach Wayne Tinkle keeps the core group of freshmen on campus for the next two years, there’s reason for optimism. On the other hand, it’s 10 wins, hardly reason for a parade. At 10-18, it will be Oregon State’s second consecutive losing season, something the Beavers haven’t experienced in a dozen years. First, the short term. A minimum of four games remain, including three at home. Split those four, and OSU has a dozen wins. A 300% percent upgrade over last season. Granted, a low bar. But significant improvement regardless. Tinkle is looking beyond the outcome, though. “We’ve got to shake some of the timidness we’re playing with,” he said. “It’s not necessarily an effort deal. Our guys are playing hard. Maybe it’s the toll of the season and some losses has shaken some confidence. We’ve got to get everybody really being assertive and aggressive. ” Tinkle is also concerned about the Beavers’ poor shooting of late. OSU has thrown in some real clunkers during the past three weeks; in four of the past five games, the Beavers have shot less than 36% from the floor. During that same five-game stretch, Oregon State is 23 of 93 from three, an icy 24. 7%. Even in the one win among the last six games, Oregon State shot a season-low 31. 3% against USC. Bigger picture, how is Oregon State set up for the future? Have the Beavers done enough this season to ensure Tinkle and his staff return next season? Tinkle says he doesn’t worry about his future, which contractually has four years remaining after this season. “I’ve just got to stay focused on my process and the way we do things. When we have time, we build winning programs,” he said. Tinkle says this is his third rebuild of sorts at Oregon State. The first came upon arriving in 2014. A year later, the Beavers were in the NCAA Tournament. After the injury-riddled 5-27 campaign a year later, Tinkle’s next four teams were . 500 or better, capped by the Elite Eight squad of 2020-21. This latest rebuild could be the most challenging. It required a near gutting of last year’s roster, with most of replacements being freshmen. The result is a better team this season. But is it good enough? “The true supporters of our program are very excited about that young group,” Tinkle said. “It’s our job to continue to build off of it this spring. Then take another big step forward next year. That’s what we’ll do. “We know in this profession, crazy things can happen. But we certainly feel like we’ve got the support from our administration. We’re gonna keep grinding. … We’ve had to rebuild things here. The first few times were pretty successful. We’re confident that we’ll be able to get back there again. ” At the season’s outset, Tinkle admits he wasn’t sure what to expect, other it would require traveling a path with potholes. “Certainly, we feel like we’ve left some out there. But we’re competitive. We feel like with this core group, we can build from this and get back to where we expect to be,” Tinkle said. Tinkle hammered a theme of getting the program’s culture back after last season’s meltdown. Tinkle believes a lot of the old culture is back, but adds that “we can’t forget that winning is a big part of our culture. That piece wasn’t there enough for us this year. That’s the next piece, as we prepare for the offseason and look to next year. ” When OSU’s season ends, the first order of business is the transfer portal. It cuts both ways. First, Tinkle would love to keep his core group together. It’ll require a bit of a postseason sales pitch, in addition to what’s happened this season. Tinkle feels good about retaining his young talent. “That freshman class, they’re pretty tightly knit. But you never know,” he said. “There’s going to be some negative recruiting going on, but the core group trusts where we’re going. ” Tinkle also says there “may be some tough decisions on our part. … if there’s some attrition, we’ll be prepared for it. We’ll continue to add the right pieces. ” That can wait for a couple weeks. First, it’s Oregon at 7 p. m. Saturday. In their game at Matthew Knight Arena on New Year’s Eve, OSU took a run at the Ducks before senior guard Will Richardson took over, leading Oregon to a 77-68 win. It’s the start of a four-game – perhaps more –season for Oregon State. “You hope these guys can dig deep. That’s what we talked about. Let’s give everything to these next two weeks, and try to build some momentum. Put a positive spin moving forward as a program,” Tinkle said. --Nick Daschel | |.