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Oregon State secures commitment from coach’s son

Wayne Tinkle

Wayne Tinkle

AP

Since Wayne Tinkle took over the Oregon State program in May of 2014, the Beavers have landed a quartet of four-star recruits. Most of those commits had family ties to the coaching staff.

Tres Tinkle, the team’s top returning scorer at 13.1 points per game, decided to play for his father. Stephen Thompson Jr., son of the Oregon State assistant coach by the same name, committed on the same day. Both were double-digit scorers as freshmen. They will be fixtures for the program for however long they remain Corvallis.

On Monday night, Oregon State landed another building block for the future: Stephen Thompson’s younger brother, Ethan, a four-star 2017 recruit. Ethan, who picked the Beavers over Stanford and Syracuse, announced his decision on Twitter.

The 6-foot-4 shooting guard is the first commit in Oregon State’s Class of 2017.

Did it take the best of recruiting pitches to convince Tres to play for his father? Probably not. Was it strategic to hire an assistant coach who had two highly-touted sons? Yes, it was. But let’s give credit to the Oregon State coaching staff. They’ve had success on the recruiting trail outside of the family, like when the Beavers landed four-star JaQuori McLaughlin, a four-star 2016 recruit. More importantly, Oregon State has also had back-to-back winning seasons in Tinkle’s tenure (more than his predecessor, Craig Robinson, had in his six seasons), and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1990 this past March.

Rivals has Ethan Thompson rated in the top 50, a higher ranking than any other commit under Tinkle.