The 2020–21 Oregon State Beavers men's basketball team represented Oregon State University in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Beavers were led by seventh-year head coach Wayne Tinkle, and played their home games at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis, Oregon as members of the Pac-12 Conference.

Despite being picked to finish last in the Pac-12 standings in preseason media polls, the Beavers finished tied for sixth in conference play and received a 5-seed in the 2021 Pac-12 tournament due to Arizona's self-imposed ban. Despite the Beavers' outperforming of low expectations, the consensus among analysts entering the Pac-12 tournament was that OSU would not receive an at-large bid to the upcoming NCAA tournament, and thus needed to win the conference tournament to make the field as an automatic qualifier. The Beavers proceeded to defeat 4-seed UCLA in overtime, top-seed and rival Oregon, and 3-seed Colorado in succession to win their first Pac-12 tournament title in school history and guarantee just their second NCAA tournament berth since 1990.

Seeded 12th in the Midwest region in the 2021 NCAA tournament, the Beavers would trail for less than five combined minutes in upset wins over 5th-seeded Tennessee and 4th-seeded Oklahoma State to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. The wins were Oregon State's first in the NCAA tournament since advancing to the Elite Eight in 1982. The Beavers next overcame a slow start to defeat 8-seed Loyola-Chicago and advance to the Elite Eight, matching their 1982 run. Over their six-game postseason winning streak dating back to the Pac-12 tournament, the Beavers were not favored in a single game. They became just the second ever 12-seed to advance to the Elite Eight since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Facing the 2-seed Houston Cougars in the Midwest regional final, the Beavers rallied from a 17-point second half deficit to tie the game with under four minutes remaining. Houston would prevail, 67–61, to end Oregon State's Cinderella run.

Previous season The 2019–20 Beavers finished the 2019–20 season 18–13, 7–11 in Pac-12 play to finish in a three-way tie for eighth place. They defeated Utah in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament and were set to take on rival Oregon in the quarterfinals, before the remainder of the Pac-12 Tournament was cancelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Off-season

Departures Name Num Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Reason for departure Sean Miller-Moore 1 G 6'5" 200 Junior Toronto, ON Graduate transferred to Grand Canyon Tres Tinkle 3 F 6'7" 225 RS senior Missoula, MT Graduated Antoine Vernon 13 G 6'0" 175 Sophomore Hamilton, ON Transferred to St. Francis Xavier Payton Dastrup 15 C 6'10" 240 RS junior Mesa, AZ Transferred to Benedictine at Mesa Kylor Kelley 24 F 7'0" 215 RS senior Gervais, OR Graduated

Incoming transfers Name Num Pos. Height Weight Year Hometown Previous school Maurice Calloo 1 F 6'10" Junior Windsor, ON Junior college transferred from Indian Hills CC Warith Alatishe 10 F 6'7" 200 Junior Houston, TX Transferred from Nicholls Rodrigue Andela 35 F 6'8" 230 RS junior Cameroon Junior college transferred from Kilgore College Tariq Silver 55 G 6'5" 200 RS junior Clarksville, TN Junior college transferred from Tallahassee CC

2020 recruiting class

2021 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results Source:

!colspan=12 style=| Regular season

!colspan=12 style=| Pac-12 tournament

!colspan=12 style=| NCAA tournament

Notes

References