rebounding
3 stories filed under rebounding on Wazzu. The newest of them: “David Riley gets a little family trash talk as WSU hoops tips off”, “Mouhamed Gueye traded buckets for defense, and it's working”, and “Cut mid-flight, Isaac Jones lands on his feet in Detroit”. David Riley's brother Noah, a coach for the New York Giants, spent the summer telling him his Cougs are soft. Mouhamed Gueye walked into the NBA as a scorer. The unofficial read for people who left Pullman and stayed Cougs. The list below is every rebounding story on Wazzu, newest first.
David Riley gets a little family trash talk as WSU hoops tips off
David Riley's brother Noah, a coach for the New York Giants, spent the summer telling him his Cougs are soft. That's the kind of trash talk that sticks, especially when the numbers back it up. WSU finished last season ranked No. 292 in turnover rate and No. 248 in effective field goal percentage defense. That's not a blip. That's a pattern. Riley's response? Make practice chippy. Uncomfortable. Make somebody lose. It's a simple philosophy for a team that badly needs an edge. Monday night against Davidson, we'll see if it took. The roster is almost entirely new, 14 newcomers, only two returners. That means a lot of transfers learning on the fly. Ronnie Harrison looked the part in the exhibition win over UW, dropping 23 points and 11 boards. But that game was ugly: 87 combined free throws, neither team shooting 40%. The Cougs won, but it wasn't pretty. This is a rebuild in a rebuilt Pac-12, and Riley is trying to teach concepts to a group that barely knows each other. The losses from the portal stung, Ace Glass, ND Okafor, Ri Vavers, and others all left. The guys who replaced them have to prove they can hold the ball and guard someone. For more on how this season fits a bigger pattern, check out our story on the Cougs' one-win start to the fall. The themes are similar: talent isn't the issue, but decisions are. Go Cougs.
Mouhamed Gueye traded buckets for defense, and it's working
Mouhamed Gueye walked into the NBA as a scorer. He's making his money as a stopper. That's the kind of pivot that keeps a second-round pick in the league, and after watching him play 77 games this season for Atlanta, it's working. Gueye averaged 14.3 and 8.4 at WSU. He was the guy. Then he got to the Hawks and realized everybody in the building can put the ball in the basket. So he figured out the other end. At 6-11 with a 7-3 wingspan, he can guard one through five. That's not a throwaway line. That's how you go from six games as a rookie to a rotation guy on a playoff team. The numbers won't jump off your phone screen, 4.4 points, 3.6 boards, but the Hawks don't need him to score. They need him to make life miserable for whoever he's guarding. He did that all season, and now Atlanta is the fifth seed in the East, headed to New York to open the playoffs Saturday. Gueye also keeps an eye on the Coug pipeline. Klay Thompson is still the standard, and Gueye says every time they see each other it's "Go Cougs." Jaylen Wells and Cedric Coward are in Memphis. Isaac Jones is in Detroit. The fraternity is small, but it's growing. If you're tracking how WSU hoops is rebuilding, our story on the Cougs adding a big body from Northwestern is worth a read.
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.