forward
3 stories filed under forward on Wazzu. The newest of them: “David Riley says next year's roster has more talent walking in than last year's”, “Cut mid-flight, Isaac Jones lands on his feet in Detroit”, and “WSU hoops lands a big body from Northwestern, its seventh portal pickup”. David Riley isn't sugarcoating last season. Isaac Jones got cut mid-flight. The unofficial read for people who left Pullman and stayed Cougs. The list below is every forward story on Wazzu, newest first.
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.
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.
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.