- David Riley gets a little family trash talk as WSU hoops tips off
Earlier this summer, when David Riley was enjoying a break from the grind of coaching Washington State’s men’s hoops team, he got a ribbing from his brother.
Noah Riley, a quality control coach and analyst for the NFL’s New York Giants, gave him a hard time: Riley teams are so soft.
Back then, Noah was likely referring to the two problems that have plagued Riley’s first two WSU teams: Turnovers and defense. The Cougars finished last season ranked No. 292 in turnover rate and No. 248 in effective field goal percentage defense, painting a picture of an undisciplined, mistake-prone club.
Ahead of Riley’s third season at WSU, which begins with a home matchup against Davidson at 6 p.m. Monday, can the Cougars reverse those trends?
“Well, I think it starts in practice,” said Riley, whose team plays just five home nonconference games this season. “With our teams in the past that have won championships and won a lot of games, there’s been chippy practices, and it’s uncomfortable. And you walk away from practice with just a little bit of uncomfortableness because someone had to lose. I think that’s something that we’ve taken away this year.”
In the first year of the rebuilt Pac-12, WSU will use a retooled roster with 14 newcomers to try and turn around the problems that afflicted the last two Cougar teams. As they head into Monday’s season-opener, they’ll likely start the same group that fueled their team’s second and final exhibition game, a road win over rival Washington last week.
That will likely mean lots of touches for East Texas A&M transfer wing Ronnie Harrison, who tallied a team-best 23 points and 11 rebounds in that game, plus opportunities for Central Missouri transfer guard Lazerek Houston and Oregon transfer guard Jamari Phillips, each of whom scored in double figures. The rest of the Cougs’ starting lineup figures to include UNLV transfer big man Ladji Dembele and Northwestern transfer forward Tyler Kropp, whose size could make a difference for a WSU team that has struggled to rebound the past two seasons.
Against Davidson, which was picked to finish eighth of 14 teams in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll, WSU will likely need some more of that recipe. The Cougars played an ugly game to beat the Huskies – the game featured a combined 87 free throws, and neither team shot better than 40% from the field – but they did make nine 3-pointers. They got five combined from Providence transfer wing Jaylen Harrell and former Eastern Washington wing Casey Jones, who spent the last two years on a church mission.
From a 30,000-foot view, that’s the main contingent that the Cougars will use to replace several key offseason losses, including several to the transfer portal: Ace Glass (Vanderbilt), forward ND Okafor (Mississippi State) and wing Ri Vavers (Memphis), plus guards Jerone Morton (Kentucky) and Tomas Thrastarson (Seattle U), forward Eemeli Yalaho (NC State) and key reserve Parker Gerrits (Wyoming).
This WSU team features only two returners, forward Dominik Robinson and walk-on guard Dio Blakely, which means most of the minutes will belong to transfers. A few other names to watch include TCU transfer RJ Jones and French freshman forward Mohamed Sankhe, the latter of whom totaled 5 points and 3 rebounds in 15 minutes against UW. Wake Forest transfer guard Sebastian Akins also figures to make a splash, but because an injury sidelined him for both exhibition tilts, it’s unclear when he’ll be able to get on the court.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces, and so it’s been a really busy preseason for us trying to get in some concepts,” Riley said. “I think we simplified a few things to make sure that we’re able to play together and play hard, and I think that’s something that just takes time. And I think we’re we’re learning those lessons.”
- David Riley finally lets Cougs hit each other in practice
PULLMAN – When he looks back, David Riley realizes that in his first pair of years as Washington State’s head coach, he hasn’t let his players scrimmage each other in practice as much as he should have.
In those days, he ran his guys through all kinds of drills, all manner of concepts. That approach may have helped in its own right, but as Riley prepares for his third season with the Cougars, he wants to put players in more live situations. He wants to learn what makes each one tick, create more pressure situations.
After all, Riley figures, what happens if the first adversity WSU faces comes in its Nov. 2 season opener against Davidson?
“That’s a problem,” Riley said.
In their first season of the rebuilt Pac-12, the Cougars will try to avoid the ones that plagued them in their previous two years under Riley, whose teams couldn’t avoid turnovers or guard well enough. This year, with 14 newcomers and nine from the transfer portal, WSU has a chance to turn those around in a convincing way.
The Cougars opened the season with two exhibition matchups, a road loss to New Mexico and a road win over rival Washington, the latter of which can provide a window into how this team might operate. The key cogs in this group will involve East Texas A&M transfer wing Ronnie Harrison, whose two-way acumen figures to make him a weapon on both ends of the court, as well as Oregon transfer guard Jamari Phillips and Central Missouri (D-II) transfer guard Lazerek Houston, all of whom scored in double figures in their team’s win over UW.
This WSU team features only two returners, forward Dominik Robinson and walk-on guard Dio Blakely, which means most of the minutes will belong to transfers. Coaches had to hit the transfer portal to replace key players from last year’s team, including guard Ace Glass (Vanderbilt), forward ND Okafor (Mississippi State) and wing Ri Vavers (Memphis), plus guards Jerone Morton (Kentucky) and Tomas Thrastarson (Seattle U), forward Eemeli Yalaho (NC State) and key reserve Parker Gerrits (Wyoming).
So how will the Cougars’ new group mesh? That much will depend on Harrison, Phillips and Houston, as well as Providence transfer wing Jaylen Harrell, Northwestern transfer big man Tyler Kropp, Wake Forest transfer guard Sebastian Akins and UNLV transfer forward Ladji Dembele. Former Eastern Washington wing Casey Jones, who spent the last two years on a church mission, is also back playing for Riley.
“There definitely is some differences when you have guys that have played in your system before and you know what’s returning, how to build around that,” Riley said. “For us, I think that’s the beauty of how we play. We’re pretty versatile. We’ve had teams that have been really good with guards, with bigs, with wings. I think being multidimensional is really important for us, and getting that physicality was something that we really wanted to embrace. I think we did that. Now it’s time to figure out how it all gels.”
The Cougars won’t get much of an easy on-ramp into the season. Including its season opener, a Nov. 2 home matchup with Davidson, WSU plays only four Division-I nonconference home games, the program’s fewest since the 1973-74 seasons. It highlights the way coaches like Riley have to keep the team budget in mind when building schedules, trying to generate revenue via buy games that can be used in a multitude of ways.
Here’s a sample of WSU’s nonconference schedule: at High Point on Nov. 7, at Duquesne on Nov. 10, against Duke in California on Nov. 21, at Murray State on Nov. 30, at Weber State on Dec. 9 and at LSU on Dec. 28. The Cougs will be away from Pullman more than this program ever has been since the ’70s. Couple that with the team’s new-look roster and you understand the challenges facing the Cougars.
And that’s to make no mention of the reimagined Pac-12, whose best sport might be men’s hoops. The Cougs will host No. 15 Gonzaga in early January, during their university’s winter break, and a February road stretch against Gonzaga and San Diego State will prove tough. WSU also has a road date with Utah State set up for late January. If it’s not a gauntlet, it’s something close.
It’s not easy for any team, let alone one like WSU, which has turned over its entire starting five each of the last two seasons.
“I’d say that was probably the biggest thing for us in the off-season – we had so many new guys,” Kropp said. “We just saw what a team like New Mexico with so many returners, how valuable it is and how valuable that chemistry is. That was just a big focus for us in the off-season. As soon as we got on campus, we made sure, as often as we could, whenever we had an off-day, we were together.”
To turn things around from last season, when the Cougars went 12-20 overall and 7-11 in their second and final season as West Coast Conference affiliate members, they will have to shore up two things most of all: Defense and turnovers. A year ago, WSU turned it over on about 18% of its possessions, which ranked No. 292 nationally. That group also allowed opponents to register an effective field goal percentage of 53%, which was No. 248 in the country.
So what’s the key to reversing those fortunes? Riley likes to say it involves identifying selfless players.
“I think that starts in the recruiting process, is getting guys who want to play this kind of basketball, who want to play a team style offensively and defensively, want to be physical and disruptive, and I think we did a good job of that,” Riley said. “We’re getting guys that understand the importance of that, and like I said earlier, I think once you really understand how we play, it’s impossible to do it alone.”
- David Riley's roster vanished again. He rebuilt anyway. That's Pullman
PULLMAN – After David Riley wrapped up his second season at the helm of Washington State’s men’s basketball program in April, he may have felt like he was having deja vu.
For the second straight year, his entire starting five had departed. For the second straight year, he would have to rebuild an entire roster from scratch. He’d have to do it all via the transfer portal, which had claimed each of the top scorers from his first two WSU teams.
So headed into his third season, the Cougars’ basketball roster looks almost entirely brand new, as it has each of the two years that preceded it. Gone are Ace Glass and ND Okafor, two staples of last year’s WSU team, as are all but two players from that team.
Riley spent much of the spring and summer constructing the roster for this 2026-27 team, which kicks off its season Monday at home against Davidson, one of the rare nonconference games at Beasley Coliseum to open the season.
Before that happens, though, let’s revisit how Riley’s third WSU team came together, the players, the fits and how it all rounded into shape for the Cougars. The good news for Riley: In late March and early April, before the transfer portal officially opened, many of the WSU players who planned on leaving announced their plans to do so. The Cougars knew the players they would have to replace and had more time to scour the portal for new fill-ins.
That stands in stark contrast to last spring, when the players leaving WSU didn’t make that decision until after the portal opened, leaving coaches with less time to find their replacements.
WSU’s team includes 14 newcomers, including nine from the transfer portal: Texas A&M transfer wing Ronnie Harrison, Northwestern transfer forward Tyler Kropp, Providence transfer wing Jaylen Harrell, Central Missouri (D-II) transfer guard Lazerek Houston, TCU transfer guard RJ Jones, Wake Forest transfer guard Sebastian Akins, Manhattan transfer forward Fraser Roxburgh, UNLV transfer forward Ladji Dembele and Oregon transfer guard Jamari Phillips.
Riley’s third roster also includes wing Casey Jones, who last played for Riley at Eastern Washington before taking the next two years off for a church mission, as well as Spanish guard Pedro Sancho Moraga, French forward Mohamed Sankhe Golden State Prep product Roman Stathis, freshman Brayden Kyman and returners Dominik Robinson and Dio Blakely.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces, and so it’s been a really busy preseason for us, trying to get in some concepts,” Riley said in late October. “I think we simplified a few things to make sure that we’re able to play together and play hard, and I think that’s something that just takes time. And I think we’re learning those lessons. I think we have more aggression, a little more confidence than last year.”
The Cougars’ first commitment of the offseason came courtesy of Roxburgh, who came over from Manhattan College in New York City, where he started in 31 of 32 games, averaging 11 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Roxburgh also shot 44% from the field, including 32% from beyond the arc on four attempts per game.
He figures to play a stretch four role, not unlike that of former forward Simon Hildebrandt, who played for last year’s WSU team. In Roxburgh’s commitment, it became clear that Riley and coaches value some versatility at their small forward or power forward spots.
“I think when I was still at Eastern, we were looking at him more as a three-four,” Riley said in the spring. “He’s another guy who just brings a ton of versatility to the game. Can pass, can think the game.”
WSU coaches’ second addition of the offseason came from Houston, who lit up the Division II ranks last season, averaging 20.8 points, four rebounds and five assists on 46.2% shooting, including 37% from 3-point territory. A quick ball-handler and crafty finisher, Houston’s finalists included one of WSU’s future Pac-12 opponents, Boise State.
“On my visit, it kinda felt like a family,” Houston said. “Just talking to the coaches, it wasn’t awkward. I didn’t feel like I gotta portray myself as somebody else. I felt like I could be myself, talk to them, and I just felt like it was like a good community. And I wanted to be a part of that.”
Around the same time, Riley picked up commitments from two other players who figure to play cornerstone roles on this team, Akins and Harrison. Akins started his career at Denver before playing last season at Wake Forest, where he averaged 5.3 points in 15.2 minutes per game, starting in eight games.
Harrison started his career at Tarleton State before spending last season at East Texas A&M, where he averaged 14.7 points and 6.1 rebounds in 30 minutes per game, starting 28 of 30 games. He also shot an efficient 53% inside the arc.
“Ronnie is a guy that’s super talented,” Riley said. “Bigger than he looks on film. He came up on his visit, and just a big body, strong, really just a confident player that can do a little bit of everything.”
That’s also around the same time when Riley secured a commitment from Kropp, a transfer from Northwestern, where fans seemed disappointed to lose him. Starting 10 games that season, he averaged 3.1 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.
Other staples on this WSU team figure to include Phillips and Dembele, who joined Kropp, Houston and Harrison in the Cougars’ starting lineup for their exhibition opener, a 92-64 loss to New Mexico in October. Phillips profiles as a scoring guard, while Dembele provides some physicality underneath and some upside around the arc, where he can shoot it from 3.
Can that group help Riley put a forgettable season in the rearview mirror? It might help that over the offseason, his brother, Noah, gave David a hard time. “Riley teams are soft,” he would tell him.
Whether or not that’s true, what can David do to turn around that perception this season?
“I think it starts in practice,” Riley said. “With our teams in the past that have won championships and won a lot of games, there’s been chippy practices, and it’s uncomfortable. And you walk away from practice with just a little bit of uncomfortableness because someone had to lose. I think that’s something that we’ve taken away this year.”
