CORVALLIS – There were a few reasons why Tres Tinkle decided to return to Oregon State for his senior year, rather than dive into the world of pro basketball.
Among them: NBA coaches and officials weren’t in love with a 6-foot-7 small forward with a career 32.4 percentage from three-point range.
As basketball coaches and players like to say, time to get into the lab.
That’s where Tinkle spent the better part of the summer and fall, tightening up mechanics on several aspects of his game, most notably his shot from behind the arc.
Eight games into the 2019-20 season is a small sample size, but early returns say Tinkle found something. Heading into Saturday’s 3 p.m. game against Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Gill Coliseum, Tinkle is shooting 47.5 percent on three-pointers, making 19 of 40 attempts.
In his previous three full seasons, Tinkle shot .363, .327 and .329 from three.
Among Pac-12 players who shoot three-pointers in volume (average at least four per game), only Stanford’s Spencer Jones and Oregon’s Anthony Mathis are shooting a higher percentage than Tinkle.
Playing the role of three-point assassin is the game of Mathis and Jones. Tinkle is arguably the Pac-12’s most well-rounded player, so the fact that he can hang with the conference’s best three-point shooters is more evidence that he’s in the conversation as one of college basketball’s best players.
Tinkle leads the Pac-12 with a 21.4 point per game scoring average. He’s also fourth in rebounds (8.6) and sixth in assists (4.9).
Tinkle believes a couple factors have led to his increased perimeter shooting percentage. One is opportunity. The Beavers have more playmakers on this roster than the past couple years, Tinkle says, and it’s leading to better shot opportunities.
But it’s not as if Tinkle hasn’t had plenty of shots in the past. This year, he’s making threes at a greater percentage because he and assistant coach Kerry Rupp say the senior forward has tightened up his mechanics.
In a nutshell, Tinkle has got rid of the garbage that sometimes kept him from quickly releasing the ball.
“When I release it, it was fine,” said Tinkle of his previous seasons from behind the arc. “But it was the things before. It was a bunch of wasted motions.”
There’s a lot of fundamental-speak in what Tinkle, Rupp and OSU head coach Wayne Tinkle did to the shot. The end product was getting Tinkle to a point where he could catch the ball and immediately be ready to shoot, drive or pass.
“If he gets his feet set and he’s ready, he’s money,” Rupp said. “Even in high school, I thought he was going to be a great shooter. Just needed to tighten things up.”
The result?
“I think it looks quicker,” said Tinkle, “but a lot of it is I’m in a stance ready to shoot it.”
What has cost Tinkle a little in recent years, and will continue to be the case this season, is that he often has the ball in his hands at the end of the shot clock. When the clock reads 1 or 2, the shot can turn desperate, a poor percentage attempt. Rupp says he’s even improved in these situations.
“He’s done a good job of figuring out how to get separation and rising up over defenders,” Rupp said.
--Nick Daschel | ndaschel@oregonian.com | @nickdaschel
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