It’s been a rough few years for Oregon State basketball, but they’ve made what I think is an excellent hire, plucking Montana’s Wayne Tinkle away from Missoula. Montana struggled a bit this year, but they’ve been the Big Sky’s best program over the last handful of years, with Tinkle taking them to the NCAA tournament in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
Tinkle has been a lifer at Montana, serving as an assistant from 2001-06 before getting the head job. He’s won 158 games at the school and never finished lower than 4th in the Big Sky conference. Though Tinkle has some work to do, he’ll likely have one surefire recruit right out of the gate, as his son Tres is a three star forward at Missoula’s Hellgate High.
There is a long climb for Oregon State to get back to respectability, and Tinkle has never had to recruit Pac 12 caliber players, but he turned Montana into a Big Sky power, and he should have Oregon State playing better quickly.
