REPORT: Oregon State AD Reaches Out to Portland State MBB Coach Jase Coburn
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Oregon State might not need to look far for Wayne Tinkle's successor.
First reported by Portland-area independent journalist John Canzano earlier this week, Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes has approached Portland State head coach Jase Coburn to gauge interest in becoming the Beavers' next head coach.
Growing up in the Phoenix suburbs, Coburn fostered a love of basketball while attending Phoenix Suns games in the early nineties.
While Coburn was playing college basketball at Mira Costa College, a San Diego-area junior college, he shrewdly recognized that his future lay in coaching. Coburn transferred to Arizona State for his upperclassmen courses; while finishing his studies there, he began assisting at nearby Corona del Sol HS (Tempe, AZ) and juco Phoenix College.
In 2007, just a year removed from earning his bachelors degree, the twenty-three year old secured a head coaching position at McClintock HS (Tempe, AZ). Three years later, they won an Arizona state championship.
A mere four years into his head coaching career, Coburn sidestepped around the coaching ranks; he left his position at McClintock for an assistant coaching role at Howard College (Big Springs, TX). After gaining a reputation for recruiting prowess, Portland State head coach Tyler Geving brought him to the Rose City in 2013. When Barrett Peery took over the Vikings four years later, Coburn stayed alongside him. Ahead of the 2018 season, Peery promoted his assistant to associate head coach.
Following Peery's departure to Texas Tech in 2021, Portland State promoted Coburn into his current role as the head coach of their men's basketball program.
As college basketball reckoned with the transformative impacts of NIL and the transfer portal, Coburn found his footing recruiting talented hoopers to Portland's park blocks. Last season, his Vikings earned the first Big Sky Conference winning record (11-7) of his head coaching tenure. They've followed up with a strong encore so far in 2025-26, earning their league's regular season title (13-5) and a 19-10 overall mark.
On Sunday, Coburn's Vikings face a potentially season-ending elimination game in the Big Sky Conference tournament quarterfinal round. Coincidentally, Oregon State faces a similar dilemma Sunday in the West Coast Conference tournament quarterfinal.
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Matt fell in love with radio during his college days at Oregon Tech, and pursued a nine year career in sports broadcasting with Klamath Falls' and Medford's highest-rated sports radio stations. He currently lives in McMinnville wine country and is excited to talk about the Beavers again.