David Riley kept teasing a mystery big man. Turns out he was 6-10 and French. Welcome to Pullman, Mohamed Sankhe.
This is a good get for a roster that needed a true post presence, plain and simple. Last season's Cougs got bullied inside too often. You don't need the tape, you lived it. Sankhe isn't a stretch-five who wants to float out to the arc. He didn't attempt a single three in 41 games for Jean D'Arc Vichy Clermont Metropole. He rebounds, he finishes at 54%, and he just put up 18-and-11 against Croatia at the U20 Euros. That's a game you can text a buddy about. The question mark is his rim protection. 0.4 blocks per game is guard territory, not center territory. Riley will have to scheme around that, or Sankhe will have to prove the counting stats undersell his positioning. Either way, size is size, and the Cougs needed it.
This team is going to look nothing like last year's. Sankhe is the 13th newcomer. Riley essentially rebuilt the thing from scratch, pulling in guys from East Texas A&M, Wake Forest, TCU, Manhattan, Eastern Washington, and the French second division. That's a lot of names to learn. The schedule is also taking shape, Cougs and Redhawks to clash at Climate Pledge in December doubleheader gives us a Seattle road game that feels like a sneaky test, and on the women's side, WSU and Gonzaga close league play with a Wednesday night showdown in the new Pac-12. The men's nonconference slate is filling out, and Sankhe will have to be ready fast.
The take to text: Riley found his mystery big, he's French, he boards, and he doesn't shoot threes. If he can defend the rim even a little, this roster might actually have a backbone. If not, the same interior problems that hurt last season will follow the Cougs to their new league.