The last time Oregon State faced Linfield College was during the 1947-48 season, when Slats Gill — for whom the Beavers’ coliseum is named — was the coach.
The Oregon schools, separated by 47 miles, will renew acquaintances Monday night in the opener of the 2023-24 season in Corvallis, Ore.
The Beavers have gone 14-49 over the past two seasons after making a surprising run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 2021. They were 3-28 in 2021-22 and 11-21 last season.
They have a young team, with 12 underclassmen among the 16 players on the roster.
“Very excited about this group. We’ve got a lot of guys healthy who were banged up and hurt last year,” Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle said. “The returners, that young group really had a good offseason. … Then we added some freshmen I think are going to make an impact.”
The Beavers will be led by guard Jordan Pope, who was named to the Pac-12’s preseason all-conference second team. Pope averaged 12.6 points per game last season, tops among freshmen in the conference, and was second in assists (2.3).
“Last year we were a really young team, inexperienced. Having a year underneath our belt definitely will help us this year,” Pope said. “We were in a lot of games last year that we couldn’t finish, couldn’t close.”
Linfield, an NCAA Division III school in McMinnville, Ore., finished 10-15 last season.
The Wildcats have a new coach in Levi Sieg, who spent the previous 15 years on the staff at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Southern California.
“Coaching basketball is not just a job for me, it’s a passion and a way of life,” he said. “I look forward to building the Wildcat basketball program … our goal is to compete for conference championships every year.”
Linfield’s top returnee is forward Reece Gibb, who averaged 8.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season.
–Field Level Media
