MBB: OSU @ USC 2/3/24

Colorado State has been to one NCAA tournament since 2013. It went 1-and-done in 2022. 

Utah State has been to three NCAA tournaments since 2011 (one more than us) and was 1-and-done every time. 

Nevada has been to four NCAA tournaments since 2008, two more than us. It is 2-4; we are 3-2. 

Those programs haven't been more successful than us (CSU), or marginally more successful (USU, Nevada). All three may make the tournament this year. But until SDSU last season, the MWC was 1-11 in all NCAA games since 2017, inclusive. The league is not strong. 

That said, we are seriously underachieving.

At the conclusion of the pac12 games this weekend one thing is clearly obvious wazzu has a great NIL program. Sarcasm

Yes they lost a player and still they are a half game out of first. Apparently the NIL isn't everything when it comes to a successful team.

All I got from this is Tinkle isn’t chopped liver; he’s ground beef. 😁.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. I’ll show myself out.

NIL isn’t the reason we suck today. It WILL make it harder for us to not suck going forward, however.

The first bad season we were playing scholarship sophomores and true freshmen, and the best player was out. The only Robinson recruit left was injured and barely played, there should have been more but Robinson’s last couple of freshmen recruiting classes didn’t pan out. There was no portal at the time, so there was no free flow of experienced players looking for a home. Stevie was out, then Tres went out and Stevie came back and played on a bad ankle most of the season. I don’t know how many decent JC kids or capable transfers were out there on short notice. That year sucked, but those players became the core players of some fairly decent seasons.

Then with a couple decent years under his belt, he found transfers the next recruiting cycle. He had a full recruiting cycle to identify those transfers, and it worked and paid off fast, resulting in the elite 8 trip. The next big drop was all on Tinkle. For whatever reason, Covid was mentioned and was an extraordinary event, he managed to bring in a couple of toxic players. Hence the bad year. That year was on him, extraordinary circumstances or not.

This year’s freshman and sophomore classes look to be fairly solid, except on the road. They should be good players as juniors and seniors, and I’d like to be able to keep them, whoever the coach is. It would be nice to show prospective coaches that the Beavs at least make the attempt to have a competitive NIL program, at least comparable with those of the WAC or whatever level they are looking at competing at in the future. Right now it’s apparently not at that level, and letting it falter until there is a coaching replacement is brought in, maybe not for a few years, exudes apathy.

It’s gonna cost big bucks to buy out Tinkle’s contract, and likely another 1-2 million a year on top of that (depending on what level of competitive hire we’re looking at bringing in) to bring in a new coach. If the team falls apart this year, a coaching change very well could happen. If they keep winning at home and can’t take one on the road OSU will be sitting at 16 and 15 with 1 or more neutral court games ahead, who knows what could happen, but I suspect the odds of a coaching change at the end of the season shrinks - At which point, what happens with player retention is very important for the future. Having a NIL program that is competitive with whatever level of programs we’re intending to play against in the future is important, whether it be under this staff or a future hire.   

NIL apparently is an issue in men’s basketball, we lost a coach who very publicly said so.  The female athletes apparently have their own NIL program, and specifically the women’s basketball team has it’s own NIL program somehow, so I don’t completely buy into the idea that donors can’t direct money to a specific sport.  I get that there are donors who are reluctant to support NIL under Tinkle, but I don’t think every potential hire is going to believe the donor spigot at OSU will magically turn on for them simply because they’re not Wayne Tinkle.  IF there are donors actually interested in basketball NIL, they should probably start early and show potential replacements there is NIL support for men’s basketball at OSU.

Drunk — I know the Tinkle is the best we’ve had mantra. You suggested the donors with deep pockets should pony up more money for NIL rather than be contributing to a “help buyout Tinkle fund.” Obviously they feel increasing their donations to NIL is throwing good money after bad with Tinkle there. And I know there were injuries in that first terrible year. If I’m a big donor, I can understand that leading to a down year. But 5 wins? No, sorry. But hey it happened. You move on. Then five years later it happens again, but with no real injuries and even a worse record. I think it is perfectly understandable they have huge questions about Tinkle and wouldn’t want to increase their investment in NIL until the coaching situation is remedied.

I also didn’t say NIL wasn’t an issue. I just don’t agree that it will greatly hinder the chances of bringing in a qualified, talented coach, especially at the salary we’re talking. And I would guess that if you have a group of donors who are passionate enough about the program to help fix the big problem they see impacting the program (Tinkle), they would likely increase their investment in NIL once the “problem” is fixed.

As to Tim Shelton, we know NIL is an issue. But am I the only one who finds his statements about NIL a little self serving? He was here a year. Key role of an assistant is to recruit. “So, Mr Shelton, I see that you’ve only coached at a P6 school one year. Who did you recruit to OSU?” Well, nobody really but I’m still a great recruiter and ca do it at the P6 level. It was all the fault of NIL.”