Three Takeaways from Justin Joyner's First Oregon State Press Conference

The Wayne Tinkle era is over. Now, Justin Joyner is in charge.

Today, Oregon State introduced their new men's basketball head coach with a press conference on campus, headlined by university president Jayathi Murthy, athletic director Scott Barnes, and Joyner himself. This piece shares three of our takeaways.

President Murthy Revealed a Key Reason Why Joyner Picked Oregon State

When Oregon State hired JaMarcus Shephard - one of the best assistant coaches at one of the nation's true blue chip programs - to lead it's football program, many fans asked a simple one word question: how? How could a school like Oregon State, with reduced revenue amidst the shockwaves of conference realignment, afford such a valuable & coveted coach?

For Shephard, the answer was obvious: he'd never been a head coach before. Similarly, Joyner has another obvious reason to don orange & black: family. These were president Jayathi Murthy's first words to her new men's basketball coach:

"On behalf of this incredible university, the OSU community, and Beaver Nation, welcome to you and your family, even though your wife Tracy is the women's soccer coach at the University of Oregon, we now consider you [gestures to Tracy] to be a Beaver yourself."

Joyner later offered this somber story about distance during his first days in Ann Arbor:

"We had a great life at St Mary's. We really did. Like, I lived 5 to 10 minutes away from St Mary's College. Tracy was commuting to Davis, but we lived together. We were a family, and it was awesome. When I left, I remember the first two weeks on the job at Michigan, every morning I'd wake up and I'd be almost in a depression just because I wasn't there with my family."

Tracy Joyner took over Oregon's women's soccer program in late December 2024, at the same time when Justin was amidst his first season assisting Dusty May at Michigan. Since then, they've been separated by thousands of miles. Now with husband & wife currently employed at the Beaver State's top two public universities, conveniently located less than an hour apart, the Joyner family is reunited.

Joyner Will Remain With Michigan Until the Wolverines' Tournament Run Ends

Immediately, Justin Joyner addressed the elephant in the room: his availability.

"Ah, wow. Well, first and foremost, thank you so much. I am so honored to be the leader of this men's basketball program. Unfortunately, well it's actually fortunate, it's tough not being here [at Oregon State] on a day-to-day basis, just with what I have going with Michigan men's basketball. We got some work to finish. We're going to try and get to a Final Four, and go and win this whole thing, but I wish I was here in large part because of the people here and the student athletes that need us."

In his own comments, Joyner's new boss Scott Barnes stressed the urgency of this hire.

"We did move quickly in pursuing a timeline that was optimal for our new head coach, his ability to retain players, to build a staff, and to prepare for the transfer portal. We took advantage of the time at the end of the regular season, just prior to conference tournaments starting, to interview in person."

Barnes sounded optimistic that Joyner can make strides on the recruiting trail, as soon as his time at Michigan comes to an end.

Justin Joyner Wants to Up the Tempo

Nearly ten minutes into his first comments with local media, Joyner shined light on his coaching philosophy.

"I think I take a little bit of Michigan, I think I take a little bit of St Mary's, and I think I take a little bit of Justin Joyner in kind of how I was raised and what I believe in. But I do think we have a really good winning formula. The first thing I would say is offensively we want to play fast. We want to play fast. We want to get out and we want to play fast. We want to run, and we want to hunt great shots in transition."

Joyner stressed that team speed would open up efficient scoring opportunities across the court.

"We want to really lean in on playing fast. We want to take care of the basketball at a high level. That's very much Randy Bennett, take care of the ball, it gives you a great chance of winning. But we want to lean in to a shot profile that is conductive to the math, right? We want to shoot a ton of threes. We want to hunt great threes in transition. Great threes in the halfcourt. We want to make sure we do a good job of getting rim twos, baskets around the rim, and drawing fouls around the rim."

Next season, expect Joyner's Beavers to up their pace and spread the floor.