How Oregon State Men's Basketball Can Win the WCC Tournament
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March is upon us, and Oregon State Men's Basketball will be looking to spark a WCC conference tournament run later this week in Las Vegas.
The Beavers, who have a triple-bye into the quarterfinals on account of finishing fourth in the regular season standings, will have to win the whole thing in order to qulify for the big dance later this month.
Though it will certainly be a long-shot with the likes of Gonzaga and Saint Marys in the mix, Wayne Tinkle had shown before that his Beavers are capable of pulling off an electrifying March run. In what will be his final game(s) at Oregon State, coach Tinkle will be looking to once again spark some magic.
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The tournament starts on Thursday, but the No. 4-seeded Beavers will not play until Sunday night in the quarterfinals. There are four potential opponents that they will face, depending on the results from Thursday and Friday.
12-seeded Pepperdine and 9-seeded Portland meet in the first round on Thursday, to see who will advance to take on 8-seeded Washington State on Friday. The winner of this second-round match up will earn the right to advance to the third round, where 5th-seeded San Francisco will be waiting. The winner of this third-round game will advance to take on the Beavers in the quarterfinal at 5:30 PM on Sunday. If Oregon State does end up taking on San Francisco, the Dons will be looking for some revenge after the Beavers beat them by 30 last month.
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The road certainly doesn't get easier from here. If Tinkle's Beavers win in the quartefinal, they will advance to take on top-seeded Gonzaga in the semifinal on Monday night at 6 PM. The winner of this game will then play in the championship on Tuesday.
Oregon State, who went 9-9 in WCC regular-season play this year, will be looking to avenge last year's WCC conference tournament performance, after they were ousted by Pepperdine in their first game in Vegas in 2025.
They will also be looking to snap a huge drought in conference tournaments, as the Beavers haven't won a conference tournament game since 2021, when they made it to the elite eight. The Beavers will be coming off a full eight-days of rest, and currently have their sights set on Sunday night's quarterfinal.
Ben Pahl is a sportswriter and broadcaster based in Portland, Oregon. His work covering college and professional sports has been featured by the Orange Media Network at Oregon State University as well as KBVR.fm. His other career stops in sports include the Portland Pickles baseball club and the NBA G-League's Rip City Remix.