Oregon State basketball reportedly loses veteran forward ahead of 2022-23 season
According to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, Oregon State forward Warith Alatishe plans to pursue a professional basketball career and is not expected to return to the Beaver program for the 2022-23 season.
Alatishe spent two seasons at Nicholls State before joining the Beavers ahead of the 2020-21 season. In the two years since, he has started 53 games with appearances in 61. He had a fifth year of eligibility due to the NCAA’s COVID waiver, but has apparently decided against using it.
Oregon State's Warith Alatishe plans to pursue a professional basketball career and will not return to college to use his additional year of eligibility, source told @Stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) September 9, 2022
The 6-foot-8 forward averaged nine points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.8 blocks last season across his 28 appearances (20 starts). He played just under 25 minutes a night for coach Wayne Tinkle.
As a junior, Alatishe averaged 9.5 points, 8.6 rebounds (finishing second in the Pac-12), 1.8 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks in 27.5 minutes a game. He was selected as the Pac-12 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after the Beavers raced to a surprise tournament crown, named an honorable mention selection on the All-Defensive team for the Pac-12, and then selected as a preseason all-conference First Team player heading into his senior season.
But Oregon State fell apart during the 2021-22 season, winning just three games in 31 tries and dropping 18 straight to close out the year. After a 1-for-6 performance against Oregon on Jan. 29, Alatishe was dropped from the starting lineup for the first time as a member of the program. He played a combined 11 minutes the next two games as Tinkle experimented with his rotations.
On Feb. 12, after three games coming off the bench, Alatishe returned to the starting lineup against Stanford and put up 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting. He started the next game against Colorado, but then returned to the bench for the final five games of the season, seeing his minutes drop to just seven in the season finale.
Oregon State will look entirely different on the court next season. Glenn Taylor Jr. (22.3 minutes) and Dexter Akanno (19.5) are the only players returning from last year’s team who saw at least 15 minutes a night.