Oregon State men’s basketball has new look, clear vision for 2025-26 season

The Oregon State Beavers men’s basketball team has a new look, a clear vision and big ambitions.

Head coach Wayne Tinkle is on the hunt for his third trip to the NCAA tournament in year 12 with the Beavers. Oregon State’s 20-13 record last year, its first of two seasons in the West Coast Conference, was the program’s best since the 2020-21 season. The Beavers finished with the same record during the 2020-21 and 2024-25 seasons. The two years are also the Beavers’ most recent winning seasons.

“We let a couple (games) slip away down the stretch,” Tinkle said of last year’s finish. “I think we lost our focus, just because of the landscape at that time. These guys want to build off that. So how do you build off of that? It’s winning more games, trying to finish higher in the WCC and trying to get to the NCAA tournament.

“I think those are all legitimate goals for this group, but it’s early. We’ve got a long way to (go).”

Tinkle got a first taste of what his 2025-26 team looks like this past weekend. Oregon State beat Cal, 76-66, in an unannounced, closed-door scrimmage on St. Mary’s campus Saturday. It’s an encouraging sign for the Beavers, who return just six players — none of whom started more than seven games — from last season’s roster.

Nine out, nine in

Tualatin High School product Josiah Lake II is back for year three as a Beaver after making six starts at guard as a sophomore. He led the six returners in minutes, playing the fifth-most for the Beavers last season. Junior forward Isaiah Sy made a team-high seven starts on the wing for Oregon State a year ago. Ja’Quavius Williford, Gavin Marrs and Johan Munch played occasional minutes, while Kaan Yarkurt redshirted.

The transfer portal hit the Beavers hard. Their top-four scorers — forward Michael Rataj, center Parsa Fallah and guards Damarco Minor and Nate Kingz — all departed this offseason. Two found work in the ACC, with Minor landing at Pitt and Kingz with Syracuse. Rataj earned a reported $2 million to join Baylor, while Fallah went to Oklahoma State.

Oregon State hit the portal back, bringing in nine new faces to replace the nine it lost. This year’s Beavers team is taller, thinner and, above all, distinctly international.

Oregon State has 15 players on this year’s roster, 10 of which were born outside the United States. The Beavers represent nine different countries — Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United States — and three continents this season.

Center Yaak Yaak (a Colorado-Mesa transfer) and forward Stephen Olowoniyi (Indiana State), both juniors, represent Australia. Sy and freshman guard Keziah Ekissi are the roster’s pair of Frenchmen. The Beavers’ only seniors, fifth-year guard Malcolm Christie (Oakland University) and forward Jorge Diaz Graham (Pitt), both transferred and hail from Canada and Spain, respectively.

Forwards Yarkurt (Turkey) and Munch (Denmark) are entering their second seasons in Corvallis. Two freshmen, guard Matija Samar (Slovenia) and forward Olavi Suutela (Finland), enter their first seasons of college basketball state-side this year.

Guards Dez White (a Missouri State transfer and Missouri native), Lake II and Williford (Tampa Bay, Florida) are Oregon State’s domestic offerings in the backcourt. The Beavers pair of seven-footers, Marrs (Ellensburg, Washington) and Coastal Carolina-transfer center Noah Amenhauser (Goodyear, Arizona), round out the roster’s Americans.

Their diversity — and how quickly they’ve meshed together — is a point of pride for the Beavers, Tinkle said.

“One thing about our program — whether (we’re) heavily European or all American — (they’re all) coming from different backgrounds,” Tinkle said. “(They) really embrace each other for their differences, not alienating one another. It’s something I think our society as a whole should really learn from. But the neat thing is, they bring different cultures, different styles (and) different upbringings… It’s great to see how well they’ve embraced that.”

Play-style tailored to its parts

Tinkle also said Tuesday that the roster’s international influence is a product of college basketball’s current landscape.

“It’s not like we (as a program) are committing to just going (after) euros,” Tinkle said. “It’s just kind of the landscape with NIL and revenue-share and how all that takes shape. We love the guys that we have. They’re more willing to come to the States now because of rev-share and NIL, where, in years past, they would just stay and play for their club team and make a bit of money. What’s really neat is their desire to get an education, too.”

Tinkle added that Oregon State’s brand of basketball fits the European mold better than the NBA’s on-court product. The Beavers want to spread the floor, move the ball around on offense and create defensive turnovers; rather than build around isolation mismatches.

“It’s good team basketball,” Tinkle said.

Eleven of the 15 players on Oregon State’s roster this year are listed at 6-foot-6 or taller. Six of them — Yaak, Marrs, Munch, Diaz Graham, Suutela and Amenhauser — surpass or are pushing seven-feet tall.

The length, particularly on the wings, makes up for what the Beavers lack in anchoring-weight under the basket. Amenhauser, the 7-foot-2, 270-pound center, is the only player on Oregon State’s roster listed north of 250 pounds. With Fallah at center last year, the Beavers were successful under the basket and in the paint. Tinkle says they aren’t abandoning the approach, but are tailoring it to fit the new-look Beavers’ longer and more athletic play-style.

“So many guys think back-to-the-basket just means playing bully-ball,” Tinkle said. “We really teach and develop the importance of throwing it in there just to get the defense to collapse… If teams want to try and double-team, we’re going to have shooters around (the perimeter).”

Tinkle said he joked with assistant coach Chris Haslam about Oregon State finishing at the top of the country in three-point attempts. The Beavers (19.4 3-point attempts per game) ranked 315th of 355 teams in the category last season. North Florida led the country with 1,147 tries, averaging nearly 36 per game.

“We shot it really well from three (against Cal),” Tinkle said. “(We went) 14-for-27, but they were good shots. So, it didn’t really surprise us that we shot that well of a percentage.”

Season’s beginning

The Beavers’ 2025-26 season unofficially begins Friday with an exhibition game against DII Western Oregon at Gill Coliseum. Oregon State’s regular-season kicks off at Gill against North Dakota State on Nov. 2.

Exhibition vs. Western Oregon (DII) 

When: Saturday, Oct. 25

Where: Gill Coliseum; Corvallis, Oregon

Time: 2 p.m. PT

TV: N/A

Game 1: vs. North Dakota State

When: Monday, Nov. 3

Where: Gill Coliseum; Corvallis, Oregon

Time: 6:30 p.m.

TV: TBA