the tinks legacy

[citygriz]

eight years at montana. three trips to the ncaa tournament. one season of going through the entire conference schedule undefeated. a near upset of new mexico at the big dance, and head coach for one one of the most memorable games in griz history, the anthony johnson big sky championship win at weber in 2010 against damien lilliard. mix in tinks's personal charisma as such an outstanding representative of the university of montana, and you have quite a legacy.

but let's break it down.

for four of the tinks years at montana--his first three and his last--his overall record was 65-56--hardly the stuff of legend. his reputation will rest on a four year run from 2009-2010 through 2012-2013. during this four year span, his record was 93-33, which included all three of his ncaa appearances. why that brilliance when his other four years were so average?

i'm saying, recruiting. in a conference where great recruting can give you such a great edge, tinks recruited five of the best players ever at montana. the one constant those four years? will cherry, our lone player in the nba. the rest: anthony johson, a senior in 2010, when he willed the team to tinks's first ncaa appearance. brian qvale was a junior on that team, cherry a freshman. the fourth great recruit, derek selvig, was a redshirt sophomore.

the next year, johnson was gone, but the fifth fabulous montana recruit, kareem jamar, joined the team as a true freshman. we now had a full house--qvale, selvig, cherry and jamar.

2011-1012, qvale was gone, but we still had three aces--selvig, cherry, jamar.

2012-2013, the last year of the great four year run, we had cherry and jamar.

last year, only jamar was left, of the great recruits tinks brought in. and the record showed it 17-13.

mind you, there were other very good players during this period. i personally am a huge fan of jordan gregory. but the five i mentioned earlier are the ones that could have played on just about any team in the country, and contributed.

now that he's at oregon state, tinks starts off a bit like the chicago cubs--a legacy of losing, but with great talent in the pipeline. tinks's recruiting class for 2015 is rated in the top 25 nationally. at the same time, there are three pac-12 teams rated ahead of his class--arizona, ucla and washington, and two rated just behind, usc and stanford. once tinks assembles all this talent, we'll see if he can prove his mettle as a coach, where recruiting won't give him the edge it did at montana.

 

[Agent G]

I think you're pretty accurate with your analysis. As we all know, for a variety of reasons, especially related to inside players, 2013-14 could have also been a much better year had we not lost some good players due to grades, etc. Those factors can affect all teams but it just so happened that it turned into UM's Achilles heal last year. It was actually pretty amazing that team was 17-13 while being the worst rebounding team in the county!!

 

[Kabooom]

.......Tinks fortunes turned the corner when he landed former Southern Utah coach Bill Evans after Bill fell from Grace there in the Holy Canyonlands..... and was then picked up by the Griz. Evans brought the Griz-waining-D outta the dumpster to a legit D-1level.

FACT

 

[MissoulaMarinerFan]

Interesting to see that playing down to the competition early in the year, and horrible early free-throw shooting has followed him to Oregon State. Wonder why that happens so often with his teams. Later in the year everything usually ends up okay, but the terrible early season free-throw shooting of his teams has always baffled me.

 

[Proud Griz Man]

but let's break it down.

for four of the tinks years at montana--his first three and his last--his overall record was 65-56--hardly the stuff of legend. his reputation will rest on a four year run from 2009-2010 through 2012-2013. during this four year span, his record was 93-33, which included all three of his ncaa appearances. why that brilliance when his other four years were so average?

i'm saying, recruiting. in a conference where great recruting can give you such a great edge, tinks recruited five of the best players ever at montana. the one constant those four years? will cherry, our lone player in the nba. the rest: anthony johson, a senior in 2010, when he willed the team to tinks's first ncaa appearance. brian qvale was a junior on that team, cherry a freshman. the fourth great recruit, derek selvig, was a redshirt sophomore.
.

Good analysis. I think the same thing could be applied to Heathcote when he got Michael Ray Richardson to come to UM, and same thing applied to Montgomery when Krystko stayed in Missoula. The mid-majors that have advanced to the sweet 16 or elite 8 have had a great seasoned core of juniors and seniors with great talent. At UM we did not have a convergence of Krystko plus MRR plus Will Cherry.

 

[citygriz]

since we'll all continue to think of tinks as family, here's a heart-warming story for ya that comes up about halfway through. interesting tape, anyway.

http://www.osubeavers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=750195&SPID=127160&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=30800&ATCLID=209763142" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[IdaGriz01]

More about Tinks at OSU: http://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/index.ssf/2014/12/seven_games_into_wayne_tinkles.html

... Little more than halfway through the Beavers' nonconference slate, Tinkle believes they're "ahead of the curve a little bit." Players are picking up his motion offense faster than expected. Zone principles, often a tricky subject for new coaching regimes to teach, are the foundation of a stingy OSU defense. The Beavers rank first in the Pac-12 — and 11th nationally — with a field goal percentage defense of 34.7.

Perhaps just as importantly, though, an unheralded bunch has embraced the team concept. The locker room is free of corrosive egos, players say. No one seems concerned about stuffing stat sheets.

 

[GrizLA]

I thought Tinkle's brand of ball was boring to watch and I thought he over coached more often than not. I like the new style we have developing but there is no consistency. But, it is fun to watch.

 

[Buttegrizzle]

I thought Tinkle's brand of ball was boring to watch and I thought he over coached more often than not. I like the new style we have developing but there is no consistency. But, it is fun to watch.

I too thought Griz offense regressed esp after the last championship year. It seemed like it was all about isolating Jamar to drive one-on-one and there was not a lot of good passing. It was very dull, like clock management football. I think the world of Tinks and hope he shines in the PAC, but this new TD brand is funner to watch.

 

[citygriz]

i have my own saying: trips begin before they begin, and end before they end. which is to say, before tinks became head coach, he was being groomed for the job. he had the playing legacy working for him and he worked closely with kysko. more especially, he got his degree. he was the chosen one, even before he got the job. it was just a matter of time.

at the back end, it was over for him before it was over. he arguably had proved himself as one of the most successful coaches in montana history. but in what is a typical problem for the state of montana, both daughters had fled for opportunities out of state, and it was becoming increasingly clear that both he and tres would wind up at a bigger school. any hopes we montana fans had that tinks would forego the allure of riches and fame at a bigger school for the love of montana, were pretty well dashed. it seemed the last year we were just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

the othe deflating part of the tinks legacy for me was our performance at the last two ncaa tournaments. we drew two major powerhouses in wisconsin and syracuse, and got embarrassed by both. the syracuse game was espeically deflating, because there were actually those basketball experts that predicted us to win, incredible as that seems now. but not only did we get blasted, we made no adjustments, in-game or at halftime. we put up NO fight. another coach might have tried to push the ball down court before syracuse could set up that stifiling zone, but no, just cherry walking the ball up the court, walking the ball up the court, right into a straight-out butt-kicking. to me, that was sort of the end of the tinks era.

interesting to me too, that in the modern montana basketball era (which dates to jud heathcote), we have produced two notable legacy families in montana basketball--the selvigs and the tinkles. the selvigs, of course, pretty much stayed at home, even when robin could have gone elsewere as one of the top women's coaches, and nephew derek and niece carly, while not having the opportunities of the tinkle kids, still could have gone to major d-1 programs. of course, you can even make the case that the selvigs helped the tinkles tremendously on two counts, because anthony johnson would not have come to montana had selvig not taken his wife, and brian qvale probably would never had come to montana had it not been for his friendship with derek selvig. ah, but what came around never went around. the tinkles, like me, hit the road to find their fame and fortune, and you can't blame them for that. they're a talented family, and they deserve to play in a bigger forum. sorta sad, though, for all of us griz fans who hoped for more.

but i am pumped by the decuire staff, and what they are bringing to montana basketball. it's evident to me this guy can coach, and that as soon as he gets his players, we're going to be right back where we were at the height of the tinks era.

 

[grizzlyjournal]

Excellent post, citay!

i am pumped by the decuire staff, and what they are bringing to montana basketball. it's evident to me this guy can coach, and that as soon as he gets his players, we're going to be right back where we were at the height of the tinks era.

If I disagree in any way, it's that I believe Wayne Tinkle devoted himself to the highest levels of commitment to Montana and, despite the frustrations at the NCAA tourneys, his Griz accomplished more (en toto) than any other single-coach program.

Perhaps we can hope (at leastr I'm hoping so with Travis DeCuire) to get a coach to meld the influence of the Selvigs & the Tinkles.... and build a mid-major program of impact long term!