CORVALLIS – Shortly after Oregon State’s 2023-24 men’s basketball season finished came the hits. Several players, like standouts Jordan Pope and Tyler Bilodeau, left for the transfer portal.

Coach Wayne Tinkle says he’s not one to sulk. But his plan to revive Beaver basketball – rebuild with three-year plan of freshmen becoming polished juniors and seniors – was coming undone.

“It was a tough few days,” Tinkle said.

Tinkle carefully adds that he blames no one. Few college players make an NBA roster. If a player has a chance to secure a six-figure name, image and likeness deal, even if it’s not at Oregon State, Tinkle said “good for them.”

Tinkle skipped the Final Four, where most coaches go to mingle and network. Instead, he headed to northern Idaho with his dogs. They went on walks for a few days, allowing Tinkle to come up with a new strategy.

The first move was hiring an assistant coach to replace Eric Reveno. The new hire, Chris Haslam, became a catalyst to the next move: a full-on assault of international player market.

The Beavers went on a signing spree, adding nine players to the roster, including seven with international ties. Haslem, who grew up in England, helped introduce players from France, Lithuania, Denmark and England to Corvallis.

The result was a team with talent, experience, swagger and a chance to excite an Oregon State fan base hungry for winning basketball. The Beavers are 5-2, a record validated earlier this week when they debuted at No. 49 in the NCAA NET rankings.

Junior guard Nate Kingz, who sat out last season recovering from knee surgery, said he was “surprised” at how quickly and easily that a roster with players from nine different countries bonded.

“We were kind of restarting the whole team, basically,” Kingz said. “I think we can be really good. When we get going, sharing the ball, it’s like a snowball effect.”

Parsa Fallah, a 6-foot-9 forward who transferred from Southern Utah, grew up in Iran. Fallah was aware of OSU’s recent run of three consecutive losing seasons, but he looked deeper into Tinkle’s history.

“One bad year doesn’t describe you as a coach or a program,” Fallah said. “When I talked to coach Tinkle, I really felt like he’s a person that cares about his players, but also at the same time, he has had a lot of good wins. He’s coached for a long time, and he knows what he’s doing.”

The pivot to a heavy international transfer portal-based roster was a tough but necessary transition for Tinkle, who built teams at Montana and Oregon State through high school recruiting and development. Now it’s about staying present and getting the most out of each player every year, knowing that one year might be it.

“Something I need to get better at is, I’ve sold out on developing guys over four or five years. That was our way in the past,” Tinkle said. “I’m just kind of coming to grips with that you might have to let guys go that aren’t improving at the rate you need them to, or you might lose some that improve at the rate you want, and they’re looking for a big payday.”

Though Tinkle’s forged his international strategy this spring, it’s been years in the making. His coaching staff has spent time in Europe the past several summers. Tinkle felt a breakthrough three years ago when he signed German forward Michael Rataj, now a junior and perhaps the Beavers’ best player.

What struck Tinkle in general about players in the European system was a trait that he embraces.

“The majority of them are pretty loyal to their clubs,” he said. “We’re thinking there’s a different level of maturity and thought process over there, of staying loyal to who’s giving you the opportunity. We see it in Mike. He appreciated the fact that we gave him unbelievable opportunities as a freshman and sophomore.”

Oregon State is forging its identity at the defensive end. Among 355 Division I teams nationally, the Beavers are seventh in scoring defense (58.1 points per game), 14th in field goal defense (36.6%), tied for 17th in blocked shots (5.6 per game) and 35th in rebounding margin (plus-8.4).

It’s simple to Kingz.

“It’s the mentality of our coach,” he said. “If we’re not playing defense or going hard at the defensive end, that’s where you’re going to get taken out of the game.”

Tinkle also says the Beavers have an inside-out balance that they haven’t had for several years. They have inside threats like Fallah and 7-foot-1 Matthew Marsh, and perimeter scorers such as Kingz, Rataj and Liutauras Lelevicius. The Beavers are shooting 39% from three, and almost 50% overall.

A promising aspect to this early season was the Beavers’ most recent game against UC Davis. Coming off consecutive losses to Oregon and North Texas, Oregon State responded with its most thorough performance of the season in a 90-57 pummeling of the Aggies.

“We lost those games by three points, and it’s tough. But you have to let it go. We all decided to learn from the past. We came to practice and locked in and focused on UC Davis,” Fallah said. “The reason it was a great game was because it was not fun practice.”

The Beavers are aware of their surprising NET ranking – their final 2023-24 ranking was No. 165 – but it doesn’t move them. For Kingz, it sort of infuriates him, knowing if they hadn’t blown sizable second-half leads to Oregon and North Texas, Oregon State might be 7-0.

“If we hadn’t let two games slip away, I’m curious what (the ranking) would be. We were right there. Definitely stings a little bit. But damn, we just keep on working and trying to get better,” Kingz said.

December presents new opportunities for Oregon State, which plays host to Idaho at 2 p.m. Saturday at Gill Coliseum. The Beavers have resume-boosting games coming up, like UC Irvine (Dec. 14) and the Diamond Head Classic, where they could face Loyola Chicago and Nebraska. Those three teams have a combined record of 22-1.

Fallah can’t wait.

“I don’t think it’s about them. I really believe it’s about us,” he said. “If we lock in and go all in at practice, I think we can beat any team in the country.”

—Nick Daschel can be reached at 360-607-4824, ndaschel@oregonian.com or @nickdaschel.

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