Brett Hollins chases redemption with an unlikely return to Southern Oregon

It’s the last Sunday of October. The first game of the season is over and Brett Hollins steps out from the tunnel at Gill Coliseum for one more look at the old arena at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The pep band is gone. His Southern Oregon teammates are already on the bus.

A few people linger in the far corner of the gym. A man sweeps the floor.

Orange and black pennants on one end of the building show Oregon State basketball legends Gary Payton and A.C. Green. Banners hanging over center court honor a pair of Final Four appearances and eight national quarterfinals.

“This,” Hollins says, “was just a special game.”

Hollins’ stepfather, Elishama Wheeler, flew in from San Antonio, Texas, to attend.

For several years, Hollins’ only basketball arena was a concrete box. A prison cafeteria with a cement floor that was roughly the length of half a standard court. After pleading guilty in 2017 to stabbing two men at a college party in Ashland, he was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison before receiving a conditional commutation in March 2021 from then-Gov. Kate Brown.

Now 29, Hollins is likely the oldest college basketball player in the country.

And in this moment, Gill Coliseum is a cathedral.

“These are the colors I saw every morning when I woke up,” Hollins says as he looks up at the banners.

In his final two years at the Snake River Correctional Institution near Ontario, Hollins wrote letters to college basketball coaches, telling his story and hoping to build relationships for after his release. The response he cherished most was on OSU letterhead, written by Beavers coach Wayne Tinkle. Hollins made it the centerpiece of the collage he taped to the bottom of the bunk above him.

The Beavers scheduled an exhibition game for this night against NAIA Southern Oregon after Raiders coach Matt Zosel told Tinkle that Hollins was playing at SOU. They met briefly before tipoff when Tinkle spotted Hollins on Southern Oregon’s bench and wrapped the 6-foot-4 player in a hug. He told Hollins he was proud of him and to have fun in the game.

Brett Hollins is introduced before the Raiders’ exhibition game against Oregon State. Ali Gradischer for The Oregonian/OregonLive

Hollins was introduced as a starting guard, but shot poorly in 19 minutes and scored just five points. Late in the game, however, he disrupted the dribble of Oregon State guard Christian Wright, bodying up to him and forcing a shot clock violation, causing the SOU coaches to leap off the bench in celebration.

It is only after the Beavers’ 84-61 victory that Hollins and Tinkle have their first opportunity to really talk.

Tinkle, 58, appears from another corner of the gym. He is out of breath when he reaches Hollins. He is 6-foot-10, a former center at the University of Montana with a glacier-white crew cut.

“I’m sorry,” he says, “they told me the bus was already gone.”

The two quickly pick up the conversation that began in the mail more than three…