Oregon St Oregon Basketball

Oregon State's Tres Tinkle (right front) and Oregon's Dillon Brooks (right back) have both battled injuries and see their teams struggle in their absences. Only Brooks will play Saturday in the 347th Civil War.

(AP Photo/Ryan Kang)

By Tyson Alger and Danny Moran

For the Oregon and Oregon State basketball programs, the offseason was marked by loss.

Oregon graduated Dwayne Benjamin and Elgin Cook, two players pivotal to the Ducks' Elite Eight run a year ago. They were talented and versatile veterans, but losses many believed UO could overcome. The roster was still deep and the team expected further growth from preseason All-American Dillon Brooks.

In Corvallis, the Beavers would deal with the departure of Gary Payton II, the face of the program like his father before him and the senior leader of a team that reached its first NCAA Tournament in 26 years.

Unlike the Ducks, many projected the Beavers to take a step back from their recent success. But there was hope in Tres Tinkle. The sophomore would take the reins from Payton as the go-to star of the team after his stellar freshman year ended prematurely due to a broken foot.

But before either versatile forward could lead their respective teams as planned, they were lost to injury.

The way the two teams have responded to those injuries -- and the timelines of each player's return -- sets the stage for Saturday's 347th Civil War, a game in which Brooks and the Ducks are heavy favorites against the Tinkle-less Beavers.

A big loss in Corvallis

Picked to finish ninth in the preseason Pac-12 media poll, observers figured Oregon State was destined to fall off following its best season since 1990. The Beavers lost five seniors, none more prominent than two-time first team all-conference guard Gary Payton II.

Payton had done it all in his final season. He took over primary point guard duties and had the fourth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the conference. The 6-foot-3 senior became the first OSU player since 1982 to lead the team in points, rebounds, assists and steals. After the season, emerging guard Derrick Bruce transferred and Malcolm Duvivier, one of two returning seniors, did not return for personal reasons.

Tres Tinkle took a far greater role in the Oregon State offense this season, especially after fellow sophomore Stephen Thompson Jr. injured his left foot.

But early in the season, Tinkle seemed more than willing to try to fill that sizable void, and he had little choice when a left foot injury sidelined sophomore teammate Stephen Thompson Jr. for six games after the Beavers' season-opening win.

Eight months removed from breaking his right foot and three weeks from being cleared for all basketball activities, Tinkle recorded back-to-back double-doubles to start the season and was named Pac-12 player of the week as OSU started the year 2-0.

Tinkle did so by playing past minutes restrictions. Head coach Wayne Tinkle said after the Beavers beat UT San Antonio on Nov. 13 that he discussed the dilemma with his coaching staff on the sideline. He had wanted to remove his son from the game, while director of basketball operations Kurt Paulson said he should not.

The Beavers needed him too much.

"He can't play those amount of minutes right now," Wayne Tinkle said after the game. "He'll tell me different, but moving forward hopefully we'll be able to get him some more rest."

On Nov. 25, the night he broke his right wrist, Tinkle scored 31 of Oregon State's 58 points, shooting 8 of 15 from the field, while grabbing 10 rebounds and six steals. The Beavers still lost.

Tinkle went on to average 34.8 minutes in the six games he played. According to the analytics site KenPom, 30.7 percent of OSU possessions ended with Tinkle shots or turnovers when he was on the floor. If that number remained consistent, only Dillon Brooks (32.9 percent) would have surpassed it among Pac-12 players. He also provided a versatile floor presence at the '4,' utilizing his efficient rebounding skills and ability to draw fouls at the rim.

Tres Tinkle (left) and Stephen Thompson Jr. have not played in a game together since Nov. 11.

Despite his big performances, there were challenges. He had a team-high 3.2 turnovers per game, shot 16 percent from the three-point line and could not help the Beavers overcome surprise home losses to Lamar and Fresno State without Thompson.

Yet in the 11 games Tinkle has missed, OSU has continued to be the least efficient offense in the Pac-12. Often going for several-minute stretches without a field goal, the Beavers average 65.7 points per game while using a slow-it-down style meant to limit possessions. Thompson returned to the lineup on Dec. 1 and has taken on a similar offensive load to Tinkle, but the team has not found a consistent scoring option off the bench and often still struggles with turnovers.

And while the OSU defense has shown occasional improvement, it has not come with enough consistency to make up for a struggling offense that is still waiting for Tinkle and Thompson to share the floor again.

"I try to give him his space about it because I know it's a tough situation," Thompson said. "But we really need him back out there on the court and we're looking forward to when he comes back."

Following a CT scan Tuesday, no timetable has been set for Tinkle's return. Oregon State is 2-9 in his absence.

Coming together in Eugene

The best season in Oregon history ended at the Elite Eight in Anaheim, as Buddy Hield and the Oklahoma Sooners showed the Ducks just how far they had to go to become one of the premier teams in the country.

Following the 80-68 defeat, Brooks showed that he understood.

"I have to get better," Brooks said that night in March. "It takes time. It takes willingness to learn. I'm willing to get better."

But first, things got worse.

Instead of spending the summer honing his game, Brooks broke his foot. He underwent surgery late in the summer and head coach Dana Altman projected his junior forward would "be out for a while."

Still, there was plenty of promise for the Ducks. Major contributors Jordan Bell, Chris Boucher and Casey Benson were each set to return along with key additions in freshman Payton Pritchard and a healthy Dylan Ennis, who missed almost all of last season with a foot injury.

Due to this depth, the Ducks were ranked fifth in the preseason AP Top 25 poll and picked by the media to win the Pac-12.

Things changed during their second game. Without Brooks, unranked Baylor smoked the Ducks by 17 points in Waco, Texas. The Bears frustrated Oregon's offense with a zone defense Oregon couldn't penetrate. UO's 33 percent shooting would become a staple of some of its early-season games, as Ennis shook off the rust of missing a year and players like Pritchard adjusted to the college level.

In retrospect, the loss to Baylor doesn't look as bad, as the Bears are the No. 1 team in the country. But a week later, the Ducks had their worst moment of the season on the night Brooks made his return.

Brooks was cleared to play just before the Maui Invitational, setting the scene for what many believed would be tests from the likes of North Carolina and Wisconsin. Instead, the Ducks dropped their opener to unranked Georgetown 65-61 to fall to 2-2 on the season. Brooks, on a minutes restriction, scored eight points in 13 minutes.

"We weren't tough enough to finish it," Altman said after the game.

Things didn't magically get better for the Ducks after that game. But they were good enough to win the remaining portion of the nonconference schedule as Brooks' minutes increased and the rest of the roster began to find its form.

Oregon entered Pac-12 play 11-2, riding a nine-game winning streak, yet were underdogs at home against an undefeated No. 2 UCLA team that seemingly stole the Ducks' Pac-12 thunder.

Then, it clicked. In Oregon's 89-87 win over the Bruins, it wasn't just Brooks' game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer. It was his 23 points in a team-leading 35 minutes, five Ducks finishing in double figures and the Ducks firing on all cylinders.

Oregon's Dillon Brooks buzzer-beating three-pointer dealt then-No. 2 UCLA its first loss of the season.

Two days later, it continued with a 23-poing drubbing of No. 22 USC, a game in which Brooks scored 28 points on nine shots in 24 minutes.

"Dillon Brooks was unbelievable offensively tonight," Altman said.

But again, it wasn't just Brooks. Ennis, finally displaying the form that made his such a highly coveted transfer before last season, had 20 points and six rebounds. The team continued to play impressive defense as a whole.

That cohesion took center stage last week as the Ducks swept the Washington schools on the road, winning the two games by a combined 41 points.

The most impressive part? Brooks only played 25 minutes that entire week, as he dealt with foul trouble against Washington and was ejected against Washington State after his foot caught Josh Hawkinson in the groin.

"You don't normally have your best player go out so early in a game," Ennis said. "But we are a deep team."

And on Saturday, as Tinkle will watch from the bench, the Ducks will have their entire lineup -- Brooks included -- in what's expected to be a sellout crowd at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

-- Danny Moran and Tyson Alger