Highly respected assistant coach Justin Joyner gets his first head coaching job with the Beavers as Oregon State basketball hopes to get off to a good start in the new-look Pac-12.
The tradition continues! It’s another year of our countdown of the top 100 preseason teams in college basketball until the start of the season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Oregon State basketball.
Oregon State has been in limbo for a while, pretty much ever since head coach Wayne Tinkle led them on a surprise run to the Elite 8 in 2021. The run forced them into keeping Tinkle for a few more years, even though he clearly wasn’t the right man for the job anymore. They let him go in February last year, and he opted to finish the rest of the season out.
While Oregon State hasn’t been a prime destination for strong head coaching candidates for a very long time, they got one of the most respected up-and-coming names in the carousel. Former Michigan assistant coach Justin Joyner now comes to Corvallis with hopes of resurrecting a once-proud program.
Obviously it won’t happen overnight, but Joyner has already seemingly done better in the transfer portal. But the biggest get might be returning senior point guard Josiah Lake II, who led the team in scoring last year. Lake’s younger brother, Jemai, is also on the team, which had to have helped in keeping him. But also coming to town are a handful of mid-major transfers. DeShawn Gory (Fresno State), Jackson Rasmussen (Idaho), and Legend Smiley (San Francisco), are all just sophomores this year, and each had promising freshman campaigns. Combine that with a junior scoring threat in Daniel Freitag (Buffalo), a senior guard in Chris Johnson (UCF), and a trio of 7-footers, and you have a team set up for the future that may also surprise some people this year.
Head coach: Justin Joyner (1st season overall)
2025-26 record: 17-16 (9-9)
2025-26 postseason finish: No tournament
Notable departures:
- EVERYONE besides Josiah Lake II
Notable non-conference games:
- vs. Tulsa (Acrisure Series)
- vs. San Francisco (Acrisure Series)
Projected Rotation
PG: Josiah Lake II (6-3, 190, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 13.1 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 4.2 APG, 1.4 SPG, 38.1 3P%
SG: Chris Johnson (6-5, 189, Sr.)
2025-26 stats: 6.2 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 1.9 APG, 36.5 3P% (UCF)
SF: DeShawn Gory (6-6, 169, So.)
2025-26 stats: 13.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 2.0 APG (Fresno State)
PF: Jackson Rasmussen (6-9, 211, So.)
2025-26 stats: 13.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.3 APG (Idaho)
C: Dennis Evans (7-2, 231, Rs.-Jr.)
2025-26 stats: 2.6 PPG, 1.9 RPG, 0.0 APG, 1.2 BPG, 8.4 MPG (Grand Canyon)
6: Daniel Freitag (6-2, 192, Jr.)
2025-26 stats: 19.8 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.3 SPG, 36.1 3P% (Buffalo)
7: Legend Smiley (6-5, 188, So.)
2025-26 stats: 8.1 PPG, 1.9 RPG, 0.6 APG, 42.0 3P% (San Francisco)
8: Peteris Pinnis (7-2, 277, So.)
2025-26 stats: 0.8 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 0.1 APG, 4.2 MPG (Providence)
9: Kahu Treacher (6-10, 221, Jr.)
2025-26 stats: 13.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 40.4 3P% (Eastern Arizona Community College – JUCO)
10: Xavion Staton (7-1, 224, So.)
2025-26 stats: 0.6 PPG, 0.4 RPG, 0.3 APG, 4.9 MPG, 9 GP (BYU)
11: Yabi Aklog (6-11, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 133 overall ranked recruit
12: Jemai Lake (6-2, Fr.)
247Sports Composite No. 294 overall ranked recruit
Oregon State Basketball team MVP: Josiah Lake II
Lake likely wasn’t just sold on his brother Jemai also getting to play with him, but likely that his coach was once a point guard himself. It’s a great situation to be a senior point guard where your coach will push you but also potentially develop you in the same place you just spent the last three seasons growing.
And for Lake, it could be a big year. Last season he broke out onto the scene, but now gets to play in a new and improved Pac-12 conference. And with the talent around him, it could create some freer shots, but also allow him to run the point to his maximum ability. Lake could have easily gone elsewhere, so Oregon State fans should be excited that he decided to run it back amidst a total change at the helm and the roster as a whole.
Oregon State Basketball make-or-break player: Dennis Evans
One thing is for sure on this Oregon State basketball team. The guards and wings are plentiful and very talented, but the big man situation is a giant question mark. The Beavers made sure they gave themselves some options, with the 7-2 Evans from Grand Canyon, 7-2 Peteris Pinnis from Providence, and 7-1 Xavion Staton from BYU. But it was Evans who showed the most promise (though a small sample size) at his previous stop.
In 8.4 MPG at GCU, Evans blocked 1.2 shots per game. If he can even play about 20-25 good minutes per game on this Beaves team, he could be one of the biggest shot-blocking threats in the conference. There’s no denying his talent – six blocks in 19 minutes against Utah State is out of this world. And there were other examples of 2-3 blocked shots in minimal time. But Evans just didn’t see consistent court time. If he is the starter this year, he’s going to have a lot more on his shoulders, but in brief spells, he showed how much of a game-changer in the paint he can be. And with some other solid 7-footers on this roster, there is enough reinforcement to help out in a pinch.
Stat to know: Points per game
When it comes down to it, Oregon State wasn’t good at scoring the ball last season, only averaging 71.1 points per game. In fact, just two Beavers – Lake and Isaiah Sy – even averaged double digits. That is likely to change in Joyner’s system, coming from a Michigan team that averaged 87.3 PPG last season – a full 16 more than Oregon State.
To be fair, Daniel Freitag is the only huge scoring threat brought in, and there’s a good chance his 19 a game at Buffalo may still only translate to 8-10 off the bench here with the Beavers. But there are also at least six players on this team who can score 15 points on any given night, which isn’t a bad problem to have with a new, young, offensive mind in as coach. It should be a very improved team from an offensive perspective.
Oregon State Basketball 2026-27 projections
Projected conference finish: 5th in Pac-12
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Round of 64 exit/NIT appearance