college basketball
7 stories filed under college basketball on Wazzu. The newest of them: “WSU hoops heads to Everett for a November neutral-court game”, “Cougs get their tip times for Pac-12 women's hoops slate”, and “Palouse Hoops Is Back: Cougs, Vandals Set Two-Year Series”. Everett is getting a real November treat. Tip times are out. The unofficial read for people who left Pullman and stayed Cougs. The list below is every college basketball story on Wazzu, newest first.
WSU hoops heads to Everett for a November neutral-court game
Everett is getting a real November treat. WSU hoops is bringing a neutral-court game to the city, and it's exactly the kind of matchup that makes you want to clear a Tuesday night. No home-court advantage, no familiar rafters, just basketball, plain and simple. Cougs in the stands will have to bring their own noise. This is a smart move. Pullman is home, but the program has alumni scattered everywhere. Everett is a good halfway point, a place where the Palouse feels close enough and the city feels far enough. Neutral-court games have a different energy. It's not hostile, but it's not cozy either. You have to earn every call. If you've been following the team through the early season, you already know the kind of intensity that's showing up. The roster is taking shape, and if you want to see how that work translates away from Beasley, this is the game to watch. For more on how the Cougs are building that identity, check out our coverage of fall ball and the early roster talk in "Riley and the roster speak, fall ball is next." It's good context for what you'll see in Everett. Mark the calendar. Bring a friend who forgot what Pullman feels like. And remember, when the ball goes up, it's just you, the Coug next to you, and the game. Go Cougs.
Cougs get their tip times for Pac-12 women's hoops slate
Tip times are out. That means we can finally start planning our February weekends around the Beasley Coliseum instead of pretending we'll get anything done on a Saturday afternoon. The Pac-12 women's hoops slate is here, and the Cougs have actual times to circle. No more guessing. No more refreshing the conference site like it's a job. We know when to show up. The schedule itself is what it is. Conference play is always a grind, and the Pac-12 is not going to hand anyone an easy path. But there's something about having the tip times locked in that makes it real. You can look at a Tuesday night in January and know exactly where you'll be. That's the stuff. That's the rhythm of a season. And sure, we've been through a lot lately. The Beavers and Cougs made their rivalry official, which still feels like the right kind of weird. There's also been plenty of talk about the new Pac-12 and who's rising while others slide. That's all fair. But for now, this is about the women's team and the road ahead. They've got a slate. We've got a calendar. The rest will sort itself out on the court. So mark the dates. Set the reminders. Grab the crew. Cougar basketball is coming back, and we know exactly when to be there. Go Cougs.
Palouse Hoops Is Back: Cougs, Vandals Set Two-Year Series
The Battle of the Palouse is back on the hardwood, and this time it's got a two-year guarantee. Washington State and Idaho have agreed to a home-and-home series, with the Cougs hosting at Beasley on Nov. 27 and the Vandals returning the favor early in the 2027-28 season in Moscow. That last part matters. The game hasn't been played in Moscow since 2021, when WSU won by a series-record 109-61. Idaho fans probably remember that one. They also remember last year, when the Vandals walked into Pullman and won 83-81. This rivalry is the oldest continuous college basketball rivalry in the country, running every year from 1906 to 2021. Then a Pac-12 rule killed the streak. The league wouldn't let its teams play opponents ranked too low in the NET over a five-year period. Idaho wasn't ranked high enough. So the series sat for a year. It came back in 2023, and now it's locked in for two more. WSU leads the all-time series 168-115. The Cougs are coming off a 12-20 season in their first year of the new Pac-12, with an overhauled roster. Idaho just won the Big Sky Tournament and made its first NCAA Tournament in 36 years, then lost most of its roster too. Both teams are rebuilding. That makes this year's game harder to call, which is exactly why you want to be there. If you're already thinking about hoops, check out the news that the Cougs get Duke in Palm Springs this November.
Cougs just landed TCU guard RJ Jones. Welcome back to the Big 12
RJ Jones is a Coug. The TCU guard committed to Washington State after an official visit last weekend, giving David Riley another piece for a roster that needed about a dozen of them. Jones is a 6-foot-2 guard who started at Kansas State, spent two seasons at TCU, and has a four-star pedigree. He also has a 14-point night against Florida A&M on his résumé, which is more than most of us have. The highlight of his TCU career came last November. That matters because last season, he barely played, nine games total, averaging 2.6 points. He redshirted this past year. So Riley is betting on the talent that once drew offers from USC, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Notre Dame. That is a bet worth making when you have lost 12 players, including 10 to the portal and your best freshman to the SEC. Jones joins Central Missouri transfer Lazerek Houston and Manhattan transfer Fraser Roxburgh as Riley's third addition. The Cougars are essentially building a new team from scratch. Only two players return from last season: Dominik Robinson, who redshirted, and walk-on Dio Blakely. Jones is a scorer who needs a stage. Pullman is a good place to find one. Welcome back to the Big 12, kid. For more on how Riley is stacking the roster, check out our story on the 6-8 forward who likes to score. Go Cougs.
Pac-12 lays out 2026-27 women's hoops schedule for our Cougs
The Pac-12 finally dropped the full 2026-27 women's hoops schedule for our Cougs, and it's worth a look before you start planning your watch parties. Conference play kicks off in December, with the regular season wrapping up in early March before the tournament heads to Las Vegas. That's right, Vegas in March, same as the men, and it's about time the women get that treatment too. The schedule mixes in the usual home-and-home grind against familiar rivals like Oregon State and Washington, but the real test comes from the newer blood in the league. You'll want to circle the home opener at Beasley. That place gets loud for good reason, and these Cougs are hungry to prove last season wasn't a fluke. If you missed the volleyball slate dropping earlier this week, go back and read "Bohler's Back in Business" for a sense of how the whole athletic department is building momentum. Pullman is buzzing, and not just because the wheat is turning. This team has the pieces to make some noise. Charisma Osborne's leadership alone is worth the price of admission, but the young guards are going to surprise some folks. Get your calendar out. Mark the dates that matter. Go Cougs.
Naomi White's Week Was a Problem for Pac-12 Offenses, and the Conference Noticed
Naomi White spent a week making Pac-12 pitchers look like they were throwing beach balls in a windstorm, and the rest of the conference had to notice. When a hitter gets that locked in, it stops being about one game or one series. It becomes a message, and the message was loud and clear: figure this out or go home. White's production wasn't just a stat line; it was a statement, and it's the kind of week that turns a good season into a special one. You don't pitch around a player like that without paying for it, and you don't pitch to her without watching the ball leave the yard. Either way, the Cougs were the ones smiling. What makes this run even better is that it didn't happen in a vacuum. The team is clicking, and you can feel the momentum building across the athletic department. If you want to see that same energy carry over to the course, check out our piece on Cougar Women's Golf packing the clubs and heading to Wisconsin. It's a different kind of competition, but the focus and grit are the same. For White, the pressure is on now. Pac-12 pitchers are going to adjust, and they're going to come at her with their best stuff. But that's the fun part. She just proved she can handle it, and honestly, we're here for the encore. Go Cougs.
WSU hoops lands a big body from Northwestern, its seventh portal pickup
Tyler Kropp started 10 games for Northwestern as a true freshman, scored 11 points and grabbed nine boards in a win at USC, and now he's a Coug. That's the kind of frontcourt depth WSU needed, and it's the seventh portal pickup for David Riley's overhauled roster. Kropp is listed at 6-9, 230 pounds, and played mostly center for the Wildcats. That didn't give him tons of scoring chances, but he showed what he could do in high school: Ohio's No. 2 player, 1,095 career points, and the school rebounding record. He also played for Argentina's U19 team in the FIBA World Cup last summer and put up 21.7 points and 9.7 boards a game. That's real production. The Cougars have now added ten players for next season, which is good because 12 guys left. Ten of them hit the portal. One went pro in Spain. Another ran out of eligibility. That's a lot of turnover, but Riley is stacking bodies with purpose. Kropp is a big body who already proved he can hang in a Power 4 league. He'll get more chances to show what he can do on offense here. If you want the full picture of how this roster is coming together, our story on Ladji Dembele signing on gives you another look at the frontcourt plan. Go Cougs.