The Pac-12’s active leaders in points, rebounds, assists, steals and three-point percentage both reside in Oregon.

Oregon’s Payton Pritchard and OSU’s Tres Tinkle each declared for the NBA Draft before electing to return for a senior season that will put them among their school’s all-time leaders in multiple statistical categories.

“There were options on the table from a couple teams, but for me, I think another year to grow as a player was ultimately the decision to come back and further my stock even more,” Pritchard said. “I was looking at my options and had some decisions to make, but the best decision was to come back at the end.”

Tinkle will spend a fifth year playing for his father after getting a medical redshirt season for the 2016-17 season when he played only six games before breaking his wrist. The lefty averaged 20.8 points, 8.1 assists, and 1.7 steals last year while being named a first-team, all-conference selection.

“To be honest, I was all in to the draft until late and then talking to a lot of people, I got excited about coming back,” Tinkle said. “In the draft, you learn how important winning really is. The biggest thing for me to come back is to win, go to the NCAA Tournament and the rest will take care of itself. They love that aspect of players leading a team and winning games so hearing that and not really having a certain team tell me they were going to take me, there was no reason to leave it up to chance. I can go back and have another good year and only improve my stock.”

OSU coach Wayne Tinkle joked that Tres “called me dad more than coach through that decision period”.

“I was more of a guidance counselor as far as selecting an agent and then when we got the feedback, it was decision time,” Wayne Tinkle said. “He came into my face with a big grin on his face and I said ‘What are you smiling about?’ He said he was nervous and I’m like ‘You’ve known me for 23 years’. He said he was excited to be coming back and we haven’t looked back since.”

The 6-foot-7, 225-pound Tinkle enters the season leading all Pac-12 players with 1,661 points and 670 rebounds while ranking second with 142 steals and third with 134 three-pointer and 276 assists. He has a field goal percentage of 46.8, including 32.4 on three-pointers.

“I got a ton of NBA workouts and heard from their perspective where they see me fitting,” Tinkle said. “Now taking that back and repping it out, what I am focused on this year is hip strength and core strength to make me laterally quicker so I can guard multiple positions at the next level. Also, continue to be shot ready. If I can go from 32 or 33 percent on three-pointers to 40, which I think I’m very capable of, I need to make sure I am locking in.”

Pritchard was one of four Ducks to declare for the draft and the only one to return to school. He is the conference’s active leader with 487 assists, 164 steals, and 200 three-pointers. He trails only Tinkle with 1,303 points and ranks fourth with 416 rebounds while joining Ron Lee and Luke Jackson as the only players in school history with 1,000 points and 400 rebounds and assists.

“I got a lot out of my NBA workouts and my confidence grew,” he said. “I figured out things about my game and stuff that I can really use to help myself. It was a good experience overall.”

Pritchard could become the school’s all-time leader in assists and steals while cracking the top five in scoring. Tinkle may pass Gary Payton to become OSU’s all-time scoring leader and move up to second in rebounds behind Mel Counts.

OSU junior Ethan Thompson also declared for the draft before returning to school. The 6-foot-5 Thompson will likely be the primary ball hander once again for the Beavers after averaging 13.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game last year.

“I found out some positive things,” Thompson said of the NBA workouts. “One of the things they told me that I need to work on was coming off screens and slowing myself down, changing pace and stuff like that. Another thing was to keep getting quicker. I’m pretty big for my position so being able to guard smaller, quick guards at the next level is important.”