SPORTS
Saturday, October 26, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
No. 15 Oregon hopes for consistency this season
“To watch Payton grow over
four years, he was our point guard
on our Final Four team, and last
year really exploded to take us
to the Sweet 16. He’s a talented
young man that’s driven,” Altman
said. “He works very hard at his
game. You love players like that.”
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
EUGENE — Payton Pritchard
wants Oregon to dominate from
the start this year.
The Ducks are No. 15 in the
AP preseason poll. They were
ranked at the start of last season,
too, but before their surprising run
in the NCAA Tournament they
had a number of early losses that
dropped the team out of the Top
25. They fi nished 25-13 overall
and 10-8 in the Pac-12.
This season, the Ducks don’t
want to be a surprise.
“We’re really motivated for this
year because I felt like last year,
I guess my last two seasons, my
sophomore and junior seasons, we
played down in the regular sea-
son,” Pritchard said. “Defi nitely
didn’t play how we wanted to and
fi nish how we wanted to, so we’re
looking forward to the beginning
of this season. We kind of want to
make a statement and change the
narrative of how it’s been lately.”
Oregon rebounded last season
by winning the Pac-12 tournament
for an NCAA berth, then defeated
Wisconsin and UC Irvine as a No.
12 seed before falling to Virginia
in the Sweet 16.
This season the Ducks were
selected to win the Pac-12 title
in the preseason media poll. But
they’ll have a decidedly new look.
Oregon returns just three schol-
arship players from last season’s
team: Pritchard, Will Richardson
and Francis Okoro. Starters Kenny
DEPARTURES
AP Photo/John Locher, File
In this March 16, 2019, fi le photo, Oregon celebrates after defeating Washington 68-48 in an NCAA college bas-
ketball game in the fi nal of the Pac-12 men’s tournament in Las Vegas.
Wooten, Paul White and Louis
King have all moved on.
Oregon landed some high-pro-
fi le prospects with a recruiting
class considered among the top
fi ve nationally, including 6-foot-11
center N’Faly Dante from Kansas
and 6-foot-9 power forward C.J.
Walker from Florida. Also joining
the Ducks is national junior college
player of the year Chris Duarte.
Shakur Juiston and Anthony
Mathis are graduate transfers.
The newcomers will work
around Pritchard, who averaged
12.9 points, 4.6 assists and 3.9
rebounds last year and was named
the Pac-12 tournament’s most out-
standing player. He went through
the NBA draft process after last
season but ultimately decided to
stay at Oregon for his senior year.
“We have a lot of work to do.
We have a lot of new players. I
think they’re talented and are a
good group, but we’ve got a lot of
new faces to try to blend together
and try to get to work together,”
said Oregon coach Dana Altman,
who is in his 10th season.
CLOSING IN
Pritchard is closing in on sev-
eral Oregon records his senior
season. If all goes well, he should
leave the Ducks as the career
leader in assists, steals, wins and
career games played. With 1,803
career points, he likely won’t break
Ron Lee’s career record (2,085)
but could surpass Luke Jackson for
second place.
Heralded recruit Bol Bol left
Oregon after just one season,
during which he was limited to
just nine games because of a foot
injury. The son of the late Man-
ute Bol was a second-round pick in
the NBA draft and is currently on
a two-way contract with the Den-
ver Nuggets.
Louis King played just one sea-
son at Oregon as a freshman before
declaring for the draft, but he was
not selected and is now on a two-
way deal with the Detroit Pistons.
Kenny Wooten, who was a sopho-
more last season, also declared and
went undrafted. Picked up by the
Knicks, he was waived before the
start of the NBA season.
THE WAITING IS THE
HARDEST PART
Dante won’t be able to play
right away because he was not
cleared in time by the NCAA after
graduating early and reclassify-
ing as a 2019 signee in August. He
has said he’ll enroll for the win-
ter term on Dec. 14, which means
he’ll miss at least nine games. A
native of Mali who has a 7-foot-5
wingspan, Dante chose Oregon
over Kentucky.
Beavers have lofty goals in Tres Tinkle’s last season
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
CORVALLIS — Wayne and
Tres Tinkle are looking to make
their last father-and-son season at
Oregon State memorable.
Tres Tinkle, the son of head
coach Wayne Tinkle, is a senior
this year. He considered leaving
for the NBA in the offseason but
ultimately decided to return to the
Beavers. That means he’ll have one
more chance to do something with
his dad that Oregon State hasn’t
managed since his fi rst year: Make
the NCAA Tournament.
But fi rst, a Pac-12 title is on Tres
Tinkle’s wish list.
“All that stuff is kind of why I
came back,” he said. “I think this is
our best chance with this group of
guys to do something like that.”
Tinkle averaged 20.8 points,
8.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists last
season, when the Beavers fi n-
ished 18-13 overall and 10-8 in
the Pac-12 — their best fi nish in
the league since 1989-90. Oregon
State fell to Colorado in the quar-
terfi nals of the Pac-12 tournament
to cap the season.
The younger Tinkle has moved
beyond thinking he has to “prove
it up” because he’s the coach’s kid,
his dad said.
“The way he’s approached
his teammates and the way he’s
approached his leadership has
shown great maturity,” Wayne Tin-
kle said.
The Tinkles aren’t the only fam-
ily in the Oregon State program.
Ethan Thompson, the son of assis-
tant Stephen Thompson, is a junior
this season. Older brother Stevie
graduated last year.
Like Tres Tinkle, the younger
Thompson also considered the draft.
“It’s hard when you’ve got guys
like, ‘OK, now I’m going to test
the waters,’ and you worry about
what that does to your locker room.
But I thought both Ethan and Tres
showed great maturity in that they
still worked with their teams, when
we met to work out, and then they
did what they had to do on the side
to prepare for that experience,”
Coach Tinkle said.
Tinkle and Thompson are joined
on the roster by senior Kylor Kelley.
Four freshmen and three junior col-
lege transfers are newcomers to the
team. Among them is 7-foot-1 post
Roman Silva out of San Bernardino
College.
The Beavers were picked to fi n-
ish seventh in the league in the Pac-
12 preseason media poll. Rival Ore-
gon was picked to fi nish fi rst.
THE LAST DANCE
Tres Tinkle didn’t play as a
freshman when the Beavers last
made the NCAA Tournament in
2016 because of a foot injury. The
Beavers fell to VCU 75-67 in the
opening round. Gary Payton II
was a senior that year.
Introducing James Whittum, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon
Good Shepherd Medical Group’s Advanced Orthopedic &
Sports Medicine Institute is excited to announce the addition
of new Orthopedic Surgeon, James Whittum, MD. Dr. Whittum
is devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the
bones, joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles, and brings over
25 years of experience to our community.
“
I’m excited to join Dr. Jeremy Anderson in an established clinic
and be an integral part of the growth of this community.
”
Welcoming
New Patients
Advanced Orthopedic and
Sports Medicine Institute
541.289.7075
620 NW 11th Street, Suite 201
Hermiston, OR 97838