recruiting

Eshelman walked in asking why, and WSU coaches took notice

The offense is MIA and Pullman is letting the Cougs hear it

The boo birds hit Gesa Field early Saturday night, and honestly? Fair. Three feeble drives to open the game. Three punts. A home crowd that drove hours, some from across the state, some from across the country, sat through it and let the Cougs hear it. That crowd is the hardiest bunch in college football. They don't deserve this. Here's the part that stings: this was supposed to be the payoff. When the Pac-12 collapsed and WSU got shoved into the wilderness, the silver lining was always the rebuild. A conference WSU and Oregon State built together. A level playing field. A chance to be a lead school instead of the smallest fish in the biggest pond. Saturday was the formal kickoff of that rebuilt Pac-12. The Cougars are now 0-1 in a conference they helped create. And they looked ready to settle into a familiar spot in the standings. Fresno State might be decent. They came in 3-1. But I can't sell that. This isn't Pat Hill's Fresno State. This is a team WSU was favored against, and the only offense the Cougars have is a kicker finally finding his range. Meanwhile, Oregon State looks great. Freshman receiver Jessee Legree has nine touchdowns, three times more than every WSU receiver combined. The Beavers are building something in Corvallis. What does Pullman have to offer? Playing time and fans who are almost hoarse from booing. There's no structural excuse for this. WSU made bowl games in both wilderness years.

Cougs add Providence guard Harrell, book nonconference date with High Point

Jaylen Harrell is coming to Pullman, and the Cougs just booked a November trip to High Point. That's two things worth knowing. Harrell is a Providence transfer, a 6-foot-5 guard who only played six games last year before a season-ending injury. Small sample. But before that, he was the top-ranked recruit in Massachusetts, a four-star kid with offers from Alabama, Washington, and a half-dozen other Power 4 schools. He was Gatorade Player of the Year in 2024 and 2025. The talent is real. David Riley is betting on the tape from high school more than the Providence box score, and that feels right. Harrell is the sixth offseason addition, and all of them can score. That's the pattern. Riley is rebuilding the roster from scratch after losing 12 players, including Ace Glass to Vanderbilt and ND Okafor to Ole Miss. Okafor was a starter, an All-WCC honorable mention, and probably the most improved player on last year's team. Losing him hurts. But the new group, including Harrell, Sebastian Akins, RJ Jones, and a bunch of others, tilts toward offense. That's Riley's style. The High Point game is Nov. 7, on the road. That Panthers team just made the NCAA Tournament as a 12-seed and knocked off Wisconsin. Not a gimme. For more on how this roster is coming together, check our story on WSU hoops landing a big body from Northwestern. The Cougs are still building, but the shape is getting clearer. 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.

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.

Another Duck lands in Pullman as Cougs snag Jamari Phillips

Another Duck lands in Pullman. That's three now, if you're counting, and the Cougs just added Oregon transfer guard Jamari Phillips. He's a 6-foot-4, 190-pound guard who saw the floor in 40 games across two seasons with the Ducks. Last year he averaged 2.7 points in 11 minutes a night. His best night? A nine-point showing against UCLA in 31 minutes. Not eye-popping, but the kid was a four-star prospect out of high school. Kansas, Arizona, UCLA, Louisville all wanted him. WSU's former staff offered him too. Now he's a Coug. Phillips is the ninth addition this spring for David Riley's rebuild. The roster is essentially a new team. Eleven players are on board for 2026-27, including the Eastern Washington transfer Casey Jones who just got back from a church mission. That's the kind of detail you only get in Pullman. They needed bodies. Twelve players left, including ten to the portal. Ace Glass is at Vanderbilt. Eemeli Yalaho committed to NC State. ND Okafor to Ole Miss. That's a lot of production walking out the door. But Riley keeps saying the incoming talent is stronger than last year's. We wrote about that in "David Riley says next year's roster has more talent walking in than last year's." Worth a read if you want the full picture on how he's thinking about this. Phillips won't carry the offense by himself. But he's another Power 4 body with upside. And for a program that lost basically everyone, that's a start.

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.