Cougar basketball
Wazzu keeps Cougar basketball in one place: 17 stories so far. The section currently leads with “The Pac-12 chaos bowl math for Cougs to sort”, “Lobos run wild as Cougs get smoked 92-64 in Albuquerque exhibition”, and “Cougs turn to Owen Eshelman at QB, Pinnick benched for Oregon State”. The math for the Cougs right now is quantum physics, and not the fun kind. The Lobos ran wild in The Pit on Sunday, and there's no polite way to say it: the Cougs got smoked 92-64. The unofficial read for people who left Pullman and stayed Cougs. The list below is every Cougar basketball story on Wazzu, newest first.
The Pac-12 chaos bowl math for Cougs to sort
The math for the Cougs right now is quantum physics, and not the fun kind. Jon Wilner's latest bowl projections lay it out cold: Washington State needs five wins in five games just to get to six and be bowl-eligible. That's not a stretch run. That's a Hail Mary from your own end zone with no time left. The rest of the Pac-12 legacy schools are sorting through their own chaos. UCLA and Utah are undefeated, Oregon has two losses, and somehow Oregon State is a juggernaut with a path to the College Football Playoff. Five legacy schools are one win away from locking in a bowl. The other seven, including the Cougs, are doing calculus, trigonometry, and long division just to see if they can get to six wins. For Wazzu, the answer is probably no. Wilner suggests the Cougars should turn their attention to 2027, and he's not wrong. They've already flipped play-callers and quarterbacks. There aren't many cords left to pull. You can read more about one of those tough tests ahead in "Boise State's offense is the test WSU's D hasn't passed yet." But here's the thing: even if the bowl math doesn't add up, you still show up on Saturday. You still yell. You still wear the flag. Because being a Coug was never about the math. Go Cougs.
:fill(white)/media.spokesman.com/photos/2026/10/18/62e88afed95be.hires.png)
Lobos run wild as Cougs get smoked 92-64 in Albuquerque exhibition
The Lobos ran wild in The Pit on Sunday, and there's no polite way to say it: the Cougs got smoked 92-64. That's not a scrimmage score. That's a statement. New Mexico's Jake Hall, the Mountain West Freshman of the Year, put up 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and made it look easy. The Lobos started with an 8-2 run, then buried WSU with a 16-0 surge in the first half. By midway through the second, the Cougs were down 42 points. That's not a bad afternoon. That's a fire drill. Uriah Tennette hit a three to open the game, and Ronnie Harrison answered with a layup to make it 3-2. That was the last time it felt close. The Lobos went on a 16-point tear in four minutes, and WSU never recovered. Isaiah Watts? Not in the box score we have here. The bright spots: Nate Houston led the Cougs with 14 points and two assists. Harrison added 12 points, four boards, and four assists. But that's cold comfort when you trail 80-38 at one point. It's an exhibition. That matters. But it's also The Pit, and the Lobos looked like a team that knows who it is. The Cougs looked like a team still figuring that out. If you want a better taste of where this program is headed, check out our piece on Owen Eshelman's first start giving Wazzu its best FBS offense yet. That's the kind of story that reminds you what's possible. This one?
Cougs turn to Owen Eshelman at QB, Pinnick benched for Oregon State
Six games, four touchdowns, one change at quarterback. That's where we're at. Kirby Moore benched Caden Pinnick on Monday and will start redshirt freshman Owen Eshelman against Oregon State. It had to happen. Pinnick threw three touchdowns against five interceptions this season. He fumbled away a turnover against Utah State. The offense ranks 133rd out of 138 FBS teams in scoring. That's not Cougar football. Eshelman is a 6-foot-3 kid from Norman, Oklahoma. He threw for 2,507 yards and 29 touchdowns as a high school senior, plus another 19 on the ground. He's only played two snaps in college, both in garbage time against Duquesne. But Moore says he's prepared like the starter for 10 months. We're about to find out if that translates. The Oregon State defense is no joke. The Beavers boast the best offense in the country, and the Cougs are still searching for their first FBS win. Moore called plays for the first time against Utah State, and it didn't go great. But there's nowhere to go but up. Pinnick couldn't throw past nine yards downfield. He took 11 QB-fault sacks, tied for most in the nation. That's not a thing you can fix midseason. Sometimes you just need a new arm. For more context on what we're walking into, check out our earlier piece: "Oregon State looms as Cougs head south still searching for first win." 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.
We Got Picks, You Got Questions, and the Ducks Still Have Problems
The Hotline went 6-5-1 last week and sits at 15-20-1 for the season, which means the picks are for entertainment purposes only. Unless they aren't. This week's slate features two former Pac-12 matchups in the late-afternoon window: Oregon at USC, and Arizona visiting Washington State on the Palouse. That feline affair serves multiple purposes. It gives the Cougars a home game against a power conference opponent their fans know, and it helps Arizona satisfy a Big 12 scheduling requirement. Because the series was agreed to before the Wildcats left the Pac-12, WSU still counts as a Power Four opponent. The line opened at Arizona -10, which initially felt high. But after looking at WSU's offense against Power Four teams like Washington and Kansas State, 17 total points, the spread makes sense. The Hotline picks Arizona. The bigger picture here is unsettling. Outside of UCLA-Cal, a future Arizona State-Stanford series, and the surviving Apple Cup and Civil War, former Pac-12 schools are not scheduling each other. The CFP could fix that by incentivizing quality nonconference games. Or NIL-driven neutral-site double-headers in Las Vegas could emerge. We aren't confident. Check out "Are blowouts getting worse? The Pac-12 mailbag crunches the numbers" for more on the state of the sport. Go Cougs.
The Coug who built the NBA Summer League from scratch
Albert Hall's day at NBA Summer League starts with a 6:30 a.m. wakeup and doesn't end until well past midnight. In between, he's handling medical emergencies, confiscating fake tickets, meeting with an NBA owner who wants court time for his kid, and schmoozing at the Palms without eating dinner. That's just night five. Hall, a Tacoma native and 1991 WSU Murrow grad, built this thing from scratch with Warren LeGarie. Twenty-two years ago, they had six teams, a box of fliers, and inflatable people in the stands to make it look full. Now it's the NBA's "31st franchise," drawing 156,000 fans and setting TV records. Hall's path from Pullman to Vegas is pure Coug. He took a casino job in Lake Tahoe for the skiing, then worked for the Sonics, where George Karl sent him to pick up a guy in a Hawaiian shirt. That guy was LeGarie. They've been partners ever since. Hall still gets back to Pullman for football games and has been helping new hoops coach David Riley connect with the NBA world. He even hosted a group of Coug fans in Vegas this summer, covering tickets and hotels in exchange for NIL support. That's the kind of loyalty you don't forget. If you want more on Riley's roster moves, check our story on Mohamed Sankhe. Go Cougs.
David Riley says next year's roster has more talent walking in than last year's
David Riley isn't sugarcoating last season. 12-20 stinks. He knows it. We know it. But he's got a new roster, and he's not shy about the upgrade. "We have a lot more talent walking in the door than we did last year," Riley said Friday. That's not coachspeak. That's a guy who watched his entire starting five walk out for a combined $10 million in NIL deals elsewhere. Ace Glass to Vanderbilt. ND Okafor to Mississippi State. All of them. Riley's take? He 10x'd their value. Good for them. But now he's got to win with the next wave. And the next wave is eleven newcomers. Nine from the portal, one freshman, one prep alum. Plus two returners. That's almost a full teardown and rebuild in one spring. Riley says the timing helped this time, players bailed early, so the staff had more runway to find replacements. Last year's chaos didn't repeat. The names are interesting. Sebastian Akins from Wake Forest is a physical guard who can score at all three levels. Lazerek Houston is a DII MVP with pro potential. Ladji Dembele brings a 7-2 wingspan from Iowa and UNLV. Riley thinks this group has higher confidence and higher talent than last year's haul. We'll see. But it's worth noting the Cougs also just scheduled Duke in Palm Springs for November. That's a measuring stick. And the Battle of the Palouse is back for two years, which means more games that actually mean something to people who live here.
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.
Ace Glass trades Crimson for Gold as fourth Coug exits Pullman
Ace Glass is gone. The freshman who dropped 40 on Arizona State in Maui, broke WSU's single-season scoring record, and shot 88% from the line is taking his game to Vanderbilt. He announced it Friday. That makes four Cougs out of the ten who hit the portal who have found a new home, and this one stings the most. Glass was the guy last season. 16.4 points per game, All-WCC second team, all-freshman. He scored in double figures in all but five games. He hit a game-winning and-one against LMU at home. He was the reason you kept watching when the season went sideways. Now he's heading to the SEC to play with Tyler Tanner, who just got Vanderbilt back to the Tournament for the first time in nine years. The money part is real. Glass was a four-star who originally signed with Texas A&M. When Buzz Williams left, he reopened things and chose WSU for the family feel. This time, Vanderbilt likely made him an offer the Cougs couldn't match. That's the world now. But the roster isn't empty. The Cougs have added five new guys, including a D-II guard who averaged 20 points as a true freshman. We've got more on that in the piece about the Providence guard who just committed. Go Cougs.
Riley's mystery big man is 6-10 and French, welcome Mohamed Sankhe
David Riley has been hinting at a mystery big man for months. Turns out he's 6-foot-10, French, and his name is Mohamed Sankhe. Welcome to Pullman. Sankhe announced his signing Thursday, and he's the final piece of Riley's 2026-27 roster. Born in Senegal, he most recently played in France's Pro B league, where he put up 5.3 points and 5.5 boards in 18 minutes a game. That 54% shooting from the field? Efficient. This summer at the U20 Euro Championships, he bumped those numbers to 10 points and 6.8 rebounds, shooting 56% and leading France to the semifinals. He dropped a double-double on Croatia: 18 and 11. He went for 11 and nine against Germany. Now, the question. Can he protect the rim? Last season he averaged 0.4 blocks per game. That's guard territory for a guy his size. He did have three games with two blocks, and he was only playing 18 minutes, so maybe there's more there. What he does bring is size the Cougs desperately needed last year. They got bullied by big post players. Sankhe collected four double-digit rebound games last season, including a 13-board night. He's a true post player too, didn't attempt a single three in 41 games. That's a departure from Riley's typical stretch big, but Ladji Dembele can handle that role. Sankhe is the 13th newcomer on this roster. If you want the full nonconference schedule, check out our story on the Cougs and Redhawks at Climate Pledge. Go Cougs.
First 2027 Coug is a Bothell guard who chose Wazzu over the rest
Jaylen McLaughlin dropped 50 in a game this summer, and now he's dropping a commitment on Wazzu. The Bothell guard became the first 2027 Coug on Monday, picking Washington State over Arkansas State, Toledo, Eastern Washington, and Cal State Fullerton. That list might not scream blue blood, but McLaughlin is no afterthought. He's the No. 2 player in Washington in his class per 247 Sports, the No. 39 point guard nationally, and he averaged 29 points a game last season. For a program still rebuilding its prep pipeline, that's a get. McLaughlin is the fourth American high school recruit the Cougs have landed in two years. That number matters. It says the staff is making inroads where it counts, and it says kids from this state are starting to look at Pullman as a real option again. He calls himself a pure scorer, and the tape backs it up. The 50-point summer game. The 35-point AAU outing where he hit 10 threes. The 20-point, seven-assist night against Miami Triple Threat. This is a guard who can fill it up, and he's only a sophomore. If you want to know how fast things change in Cougar hoops, go read about the exhibition-only future of the Apple Cup series. That one stings. But landing a kid like McLaughlin is how you start making the sting matter less. Go Cougs.
Cougs and Redhawks to clash at Climate Pledge in December doubleheader
David Riley is doing something smart: getting the Cougs back in front of the Seattle crowd. On Dec. 19, Wazzu meets Seattle U at Climate Pledge Arena as part of a doubleheader that also features UW and Baylor. That's a good night of hoops in a building that deserves it. This is the third meeting in two seasons between the Cougs and Redhawks. They split last year, Seattle U won 69-55 at home, WSU answered 70-58 in Pullman. Those games had some juice. Riley and Seattle U coach Chris Victor worked together at Eastern Washington, and last season they even ran the same first play. Riley called it funny. He's right. That kind of history makes a mid-December game feel like more than a tune-up. Riley's roster is almost entirely new, 13 newcomers, including transfers from TCU, Wake Forest, UNLV, and Oregon. That's a lot of new faces to gel before conference play. A game like this, in front of Coug fans west of the mountains, is a chance to build something. For more on the schedule and what's ahead, check out our coverage of WSU and Gonzaga closing league play. That one's a Wednesday night showdown worth circling. Go Cougs.
Cougs get Duke in Palm Springs for a November showdown
Washington State basketball is going to get a crack at Duke in Palm Springs this November, and that is not a sentence Coug fans get to read every year. In fact, it's the first time the program has ever scheduled the Blue Devils. David Riley's squad will tip off against Jon Scheyer's loaded roster on Nov. 21 at Acrisure Arena, and the Cougars will be the clear underdog. That's fine. That's when this program has always been most dangerous. Riley is basically building a new team again, 12 newcomers on the roster, and Duke is Duke. They lost Cameron Boozer to the NBA draft, but they return Cayden Boozer and Cameron Foster and added John Blackwell from Wisconsin and Drew Scharnowski from Belmont. They're a national title favorite. The Cougars are still figuring out who they are. This is the kind of game that gets your attention in November. Win or lose, it's a measuring stick. And if you want to remember what it felt like when the Cougs finally broke through after decades of waiting, go read our piece on Jim Walden, who died at 88. He brought the program to its first bowl in 50 years. That same stubborn, underdog pride is what Riley is banking on in Palm Springs. Go Cougs.
Cut mid-flight, Isaac Jones lands on his feet in Detroit
Isaac Jones got cut mid-flight. Not a metaphor. The Kings tapped him on the shoulder at 30,000 feet and told him he was waived. That is brutal. Jones sat in that seat for the rest of the flight, texted his wife, and didn't sleep. Two days of waiting on the phone. Detroit called. The fit makes too much sense. Jones is a Spanaway kid who worked at a pipe supply store, grinded through Wenatchee Valley, Idaho, and then WSU, where he helped drag the Cougs to their first NCAA tournament in 16 years. He plays with grit. The Motor City is the right place for that engine. He's 26 now, the oldest guy on Detroit's Summer League roster, and he's still out there averaging 17 and eight. He's working on his three-point shot, taking four in a game. The Pistons want him to shoot. That's the next step. Jones still follows both of his former schools on the Palouse. He's planning to hit Pullman in August for an alumni tournament. He was happy to see Idaho make the tournament too. That's a guy who doesn't forget where he came from. If you want to read about another unusual path from the region, check out the story on Noah Riley's route from Whitworth to the NFL. Different sport, same kind of persistence. Go Cougs.
After 108 years, Cougs-Huskies hoops goes exhibition only
For the first time since 1917, the Cougs and Huskies won't play a regular-season basketball game. That streak, 301 games, is on pause. Instead, they'll meet for an exhibition in Seattle this October. It feels wrong to type that. Both coaches agreed to a two-year extension after the Pac-12 fell apart, but talks for this season fell through. David Riley wanted to keep it going. Danny Sprinkle said it wasn't that important to him, then later said he'd keep it if it benefitted UW. He's 2-0 in the rivalry, so maybe that colors his view. It colors mine too. This one stings because the game would have been fascinating. The Huskies poached two of Riley's former guys, LeJuan Watts and Steele Venters, out of the portal. Watts played for Riley at WSU last year before bouncing to Texas Tech and then to UW. Venters followed Riley from Eastern Washington to Gonzaga and now to Seattle. That's a lot of subplots for an exhibition. The nonconference slate still has some juice, Duke in Palm Springs, LSU on the road, and Eastern Washington in Spokane. And the athletic department made a smart hire in Tyler Mariucci from Fresno State, a guy who knows how to raise money in a new conference. That matters more than ever. For more on how Cougs are making moves in basketball, check out our piece on Riley's mystery big man, Mohamed Sankhe. Big French kid, 6-10, and the last piece of the roster. 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.
Riley's Third Year Brings 11 Road Games and a Jan. 3 Tip in Fresno
David Riley's third season is here, and the schedule is a doozy. Eleven nonconference games away from Pullman. That's the most since 1973-74, and it tells you exactly what athletic directors and coaches are dealing with in this new Pac-12. Money matters. You don't stack that many road games unless you have to. The conference slate starts Jan. 3 in Fresno. That feels weird, but it's real. And for the first time since 1917, there is no regular-season game against Washington. None. They'll play an exhibition in Seattle on Oct. 25, which is better than nothing, but it's not the same. There are bright spots. Gonzaga comes to Beasley on Jan. 6, a Wednesday during winter break. That's a weird time for a game, but it's still Gonzaga in Pullman. And the Cougs host Kirkland on Nov. 14, their first non-D-I opponent at home since 2015. That's a rarity worth noting. The middle of the schedule is a grind. Three of four on the road, including trips to Boise State, Colorado State, and Utah State. Then a brutal February stretch with Gonzaga and San Diego State on the road in the same week. That's a gut check. If you want a different kind of Cougar story, check out "For the Leaupepetele brothers, Sunday dinner looks a lot different now." It's a good reminder that the people around this program are as interesting as the scores. Go Cougs.