Men's College Basketball 2021-2022 Season Preview: Oregon State Beavers

The Pac-12 doesn’t get a whole lot of respect in college basketball lately, but that’s the conference’s own fault, as it’s been a fairly pathetic conference over the last couple of seasons. Many of the teams took advantage of the largest transfer portal ever, and we will see a lot of new faces this season. There will be plenty of hype surrounding the UCLA Bruins after their unlikely final four run last year while teams like Oregon, Arizona and USC try to gain relevance once more. There is plenty of excitement surrounding the WSU Cougars and their juicy roster, but the amount of projected bottom feeders could lead to another disappointing season for the Pac-12.

Nevertheless, there will be firepower on each of these rosters and Pac-12 Thursday DFS slates tend to be some of the most chaotic of the week. Let’s break down each team and identify the players to watch for this upcoming season.

In this one, Oregon State.

(Check out our full college basketball season preview!)

Oregon State Beavers 2021-2022 Season Preview

2020-2021 record: 20-13 (10-10 Pac-12), sixth in Pac-12
Postseason: Lost in NCAA Tournament Elite Eight

Key Departures | Oregon State Beavers

Ethan Thompson (playing professionally)
Dearon Tucker (transferred to Indiana State)
Tariq Silver (transferred to Austin Peay)
Zach Reichle (ended college career)

Key Additions | Oregon State Beavers

Tre Williams (transferred from Minnesota)
Xzavier Malone-Key (transferred from FDU)
Chol Marial (transferred from Mayland)
Ahmad Rand (transferred from Memphis)
Dexter Akanno (transferred from Marquette)
DaShawn Davis (JUCO transfer)
Glenn Taylor Jr. (3 star recruit)

Returners | Oregon State Beavers

Warith Alatishe (9.5 PPG/8.6 RPG/1.2 SPG/1.4 BPG)
Jarod Lucas (12.7 PPG/2.3 RPG)
Gianni Hunt (5.2 PPG/2.7 APG)
Roman Silva (5.6 PPG/2.9 RPG)
Maurice Calloo (5.8 PPG/2.4 RPG)
Rodrigue Andela (4.3 PPG/4.4 RPG)

Oregon State Beavers Outlook for 2021-2022

The Beavers are still riding the high of running the table in the Pac-12 tournament to get the auto bid to the tournament at 14-12. If that wasn’t enough, they then made an even more ridiculous Elite Eight appearance, the program’s first Elite Eight since 1982. They do lose the heart and soul of that team in Ethan Thompson but otherwise return most of the other relevant pieces. Wayne Tinkle’s system runs just fine without an alpha and is at its best when multiple people are contributing. This roster is built perfectly for that system, but it might not be great for DFS or fantasy in general.

Targeting the Beavers isn’t typically a winning proposition either as they play a high-level defender under Tinkle. Jarod Lucas and Gianni Hunt return to form the starting backcourt for the Beavers. Lucas was a 39% three-point shooter last year while Hunt was a 37% shooter from deep. Warith Alatishe was a pleasant surprise last year and became a DFS stud the last month and a half of the season. He has a 13.9% offensive rebounding rate, a combined rate of 37% and a block rate of 6.1%. His offensive game improved as the season went on and we could potentially be looking at a double-double guy this year.

Juco transfer Dashawn Davis is intriguing after he averaged 21.3 PPG, 6.1 APG and almost 3 SPG last year. Xzavier Malone-Key (12.3 PPG) and Tre Williams (5.8 PPG) will factor into the rotation as well. The rest of this roster is a relative unknown as most profile as being little used role players at this time.

(Check out our rankings of the top 100 teams and top 100 players for men’s college basketball in 2021-2022.)

Summary

The Beavers are well coached and a defensive juggernaut. They’re one of those quintessential better “real life” teams than they are a fantasy team. That said, there are still some pieces to like here in Warith Alatishe, Jarod Lucas and Tre Williams.