FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
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THE BULLETIN • WEdNEsday, MarcH 24, 2021
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BASKETBALL
Tinkle familiar with
Loyola Chicago
Playing Loyola Chicago
in the NCAA Sweet 16 on
Saturday will have extra
meaning for Wayne Tinkle.
Oregon State’s men’s
basketball coach grew
up in Chicago, where his
father — also named
Wayne — was dean of
students at Loyola.
Tinkle brought up the
connection during his
postgame press confer-
ence Sunday night after
the 12th-seeded Beavers
had advanced with an
80-70 win against fourth-
seeded Oklahoma State
in an NCAA tournament
second-round game in In-
dianapolis.
“I grew up on their
campus,” Tinkle said.
“Some of my most fond
memories were in the
summer, going to his of-
fice at Water Tower Place,”
just a few blocks from
Lake Michigan.
Tinkle would go to
work in the morning with
his dad, who would ask
people to keep his son out
of trouble.
He recalls at 5 or 6 years
old watching Ramblers
men’s basketball games.
The team was coached
by George Ireland, who
guided Loyola to the 1963
national title. Ireland fin-
ished his 23-year career
with the Ramblers with a
school-record 321 wins.
The Tinkle family even-
tually moved to Spokane,
Washington. But Chicago
and Tinkle’s time there still
bring back memories.
“Coach (Porter) Moser
is doing a great job and
they’re a hell of a team.
But this is really going to
mean something extra
special for me and my
family,” Tinkle said.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NCAA TOURNAMENT
Beavs
bow out
Top-seed South Carolina
dismantles Oregon State
59-42 in the 2nd round
BY KRISTIE RIEKEN
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO —
A
liyah Boston scored 19
points and top seed South
Carolina dominated
after a close first quarter to beat
eighth-seeded Oregon State
59-42 in the women’s NCAA
Tournament, advancing to its
Eric Gay/AP
Oregon State’s Taylor Jones (44) grabs a rebound over South Carolina’s Victaria Saxton, left, during the second round of the wom-
en’s NCAA tournament in San Antonio on Tuesday night. Jones led the Beavers with 13 points.
seventh straight Sweet 16.
The Gamecocks (24-4) led by a
point after one quarter but built a
12-point lead by halftime and were up
53-29 by the start of the fourth.
“This is a huge lift off of our shoul-
ders because that was a hard game,”
coach Dawn Staley said. “I know the
score doesn’t say that. But ... Oregon
State is a really good, efficient bas-
ketball team. If you allow them to do
what they set out to do, they’re very
good at it.”
South Carolina, which won a na-
“They were disruptive all day, closed gaps really quickly defensively.
During a key stretch of that second quarter (they) turned us over, turned
it into quick points at the other end, which is obviously a staple and a
hallmark of what they do. It’s when they’re at their best.”
— Scott Rueck, Oregon State women’s basketball coach
tional title in 2017, improved to 8-1
in the second round under Staley and
will appear in the regional semifinals
for the 11th time overall.
“Our players didn’t want to pack
and head home,” Staley said. “They
wanted to stay a little bit longer. A lot
of them, this is their first tournament
experience … and the deeper we go in
this tournament, the more experience
we have, the better off we’ll be this
year as well as in years to come.”
Taylor Jones scored 13 points for
Oregon State (12-8), which ended a
streak of four straight Sweet 16 ap-
pearances. Jones fouled out with
about three minutes remaining.
Staley’s plan was to get Jones into
foul trouble — and it worked, with
Jones limited to 18 minutes.
See Oregon State / A7
— Albany Democrat-Herald
NFL
MLB
Mariota expected
to stay with Raiders
Marcus Mariota is ex-
pected to re-sign with the
Las Vegas Raiders for the
2021 season, according to
a report.
The backup quarter-
back and former Oregon
Ducks star will sign a re-
structured contract with
a $3.5 million base salary,
but with incentives that
could boost his compen-
sation to $8 million. Mar-
iota is expected to be the
backup to Derek Carr.
Mariota’s renegotiated
contract marks a signifi-
cant reduction from the
$10.625 million he was
originally slated to re-
ceive in the final year of
the two-year, $17.5 mil-
lion contract he signed
in 2020. However, the
Raiders didn’t want to pay
Mariota and reportedly
issued an ultimatum last
week to Mariota — ac-
cept a $7 million pay cut
or be traded or released.
A restructured contract
makes it easier to trade
him if a team has a need
to acquire a quarterback
either in training camp or
during the season.
Mariota reportedly had
been unwilling to accept
a restructured deal to fa-
cilitate a trade a month
ago, possibly in an effort
to force the Raiders to re-
lease him, which would
have allowed Mariota to
pick a team that was in
need of a potential start-
ing QB and negotiate a
new contract.
The final year of Mar-
iota’s original contract
includes incentives that
would increase his to-
tal compensation north
of $20 million in 2021.
That amount reportedly
scared off potential trade
partners.
— The Oregonian
Mariners’ Evan White hopes to
rediscover success at the plate
BY RYAN DIVISH
The Seattle Times
Sue Ogrocki/AP
Seattle Mariners’ Evan White bats in a spring training game against the
Oakland Athletics earlier this month.
PEORIA, Ariz. — The bat-
ter’s box can be a lonely place
when the opposing pitcher is
pumping mid-90s heaters and
snapping off breaking pitches
at you, the catcher is framing
up off-the-plate pitches for
called strikes and the umpire’s
strike zone resembles a floating
Rorschach test.
As a hitter, if you are looking
for any words of encourage-
ment or advice, well, it’s a con-
versation with yourself.
It’s not an uncommon sight
to see a baseball player talking
to himself for a variety of rea-
sons.
There were times last season
when Evan White would be in
the batter’s box trying to talk
to himself about how to get
a hit in that at-bat … only he
wouldn’t get a response.
The old joke of “I keep play-
ing mind games with myself …
and losing” felt applicable.
It should’ve been the best
year of his life, getting married,
signing a six-year contract ex-
tension for $24 million to get
financial security and jumping
from the Class AA level to the
everyday first-base job for the
Mariners.
Instead, COVID-19 reduced
the 2020 season to just 60
games and an early slump sunk
White into a hole he couldn’t
climb out, made him tentative
at the plate while trying to get
four hits for every swing to fix
his sub-.200 batting average
and led to striking out more
than he’d ever endured in his
baseball-playing life.
“I really felt like I kind of lost
who I was at the plate,” White
said after the season.
In an effort to get back to
who he was at the plate, White
went back to his college days
at the University of Kentucky
and the teachings of his hitting
coach, Rick Eckstein, who is
now a hitting coach with the
Pirates.
See White / A6
MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Oregon set to face Southern Cal in Sweet 16 heavy on Pac-12 flavor
BY RYAN THORBURN
The (Eugene) Register-Guard
Dana Altman was disap-
pointed the Ducks’ stay in Las
Vegas ended early.
But suddenly the men’s
NCAA Tournament in India-
napolis has a Pac-12 Tourna-
ment feel to it.
Oregon, the No. 7 seed in
the West Region and the reg-
ular-season Pac-12 champion,
is joined by three of its confer-
ence peers in the Sweet 16.
And to survive and advance
to the regional final, the Ducks
(21-6) will have to get through
No. 6 USC on Sunday at Bank-
ers Life Fieldhouse (approxi-
mately 6:45 p.m., TBS).
“The Pac-12 has shown exactly how strong it was. I’m so
proud of the conference. For us to be the champions of the
regular season, I’m proud of that. And I’m proud of the guys,
the way they responded.”
— Dana Altman, Oregon men’s basketball coach
“The Pac-12 has shown ex-
actly how strong it was,” Alt-
man said after Oregon’s 95-80
victory over No. 2 Iowa on
Monday.
“I’m so proud of the confer-
ence. For us to be the champi-
ons of the regular season, I’m
proud of that. And I’m proud
of the guys, the way they re-
sponded.”
Oregon State and UCLA are
also in the Sweet 16.
The No. 12 Beavers play No.
8 Loyola Chicago in the Mid-
west Region on Saturday. The
No. 11 Bruins play No. 2 Al-
abama in the East Region on
Sunday.
Colorado blew out George-
town in the first round but lost
to Florida State on Monday.
The Pac-12 is 9-1 in the
NCAA Tournament so far, a
record that does not include
Oregon’s no-contest against
VCU in the first round.
“We’re obviously putting
everybody on notice,” Ore-
gon State coach Wayne Tin-
kle said after his team’s 80-70
second-round win over Okla-
homa State and projected No.
1 overall NBA draft pick Cade
Cunningham. “I’m very happy
for our program, but I’m ex-
tremely happy for the Pac-12
conference. Maybe now we’ll
get some damn respect.”
It was only three years ago
when the conference only had
three teams selected to the field
with none advancing beyond
the first round of the 2018
tournament.
Oregon made the Sweet 16
in 2019 as a No. 12 seed after
playing its way into the field
by winning the Pac-12 Tour-
nament.
“I’ve been at Oregon 11
years. We’ve had some years
that we haven’t played well in
the tournament, and I thought
we played pretty good during
the year, and the tournament
didn’t prove it out,” Altman
said. “This year we had a good
conference season. Whether it’s
matchups, whatever it is, our
teams are playing really well.”
See Oregon / A7