According to multiple reports, Gonzaga forward Lucas Meikle will not return for his sophomore season. The 6-foot-8, 200-pounder played in 15 games for the Bulldogs as a freshman and averaged 0.9 points and 0.7 rebounds per game.

Meikle is is originally out of Tacoma (Wash.) Bellarmine Prep. It will be interesting to see if Ernie Kent and staff take a sniff at the in-state product or if he decides to drop down and play immediately.


This post was edited on 5/27 4:31 PM by Britton Ransford

Former Washington State center James Hunter, who was released from his scholarship by Ernie Kent, will transfer to the University of South Dakota, the school announced on Tuesday.

Hunter, a product of Sydney, Australia, will be eligible to play immediately with one year of eligibility after graduating from Washington State this month. The 6-foot-10, 265-pound big man appeared in 18 games for the Cougars during the last two seasons, totaling 17 points and seven rebounds in 46 minutes of game action.

Hunter signed with Washington State out of Gillette College (Wyo.) following the 2011-12 season where he averaged 13 points and 6.8 rebounds.

Any word on the "Big" addition that was rumored about a week ago
when "the Direction" was changed.

Looks like PF and 2 Guards now?

Sure would be nice if another inside player is added.

PULLMAN, Wash. | Washington State University men's basketball rising-senior, DaVonte Lacy, was chosen as one of 13 Pac-12 men's basketball student-athletes to participate in a four-game all-star tour of China this summer as part of the league's Globalization Initiative, the conference announced Friday.

The aim of the initiative is to help support Pac-12 member universities' international outreach efforts, build their brands in an important market, and provide quality educational and cultural exchange experiences for student-athletes.

The team will be coached by Utah head coach, Larry Krystkowiak and features student-athletes from 10 of the conference's 12 schools. The Pac-12 intended on having all 12 member universities represented on the team. However, the academic schedules of student-athletes from Oregon and UCLA conflicted with the tour dates.

Last year Lacy (Tacoma, Wash.) led WSU with 19.4 points per game and was one game away from being eligible for Pac-12 individual rankings, which would have put him second in the league in points per game. His 3.3 3-pointers made per game would have led the conference and his .390 (76-195) would have put him at 12th in the league rankings. He was named All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention and became the 34th Cougar to reach the 1,000 career point plateau.

The 10-day tour will commence Aug. 10 and will be the first men's basketball all-star tour for the Pac-12 since the conference sent both a men's and women's all-star team to Japan in 1996. The team will start with pre-tour practice at San Francisco, Aug. 7-9, and play games Aug. 13, 14, 16 and 18, before returning to the United States around Aug. 19.

Joining Lacy on the team are guards Andrew Andrews (Washington), Bo Barnes (Arizona State), Malcom Duvivier (Oregon State), Jacob Hazzard (Arizona) and Brandon Taylor (Utah); forwards Xavier Johnson (Colorado), Nikola Jovanovic (USC), Jordan Loveridge (Utah) and Roger Moute a Bidias (California); and centers Cheikh N'diaye (Oregon State), Jeremy Olsen (Utah) and Schuyler Rimmer (Stanford).

The Pac-12 All-Star team will face a Chinese university all-star team and play three games against teams from the Chinese Basketball Association, including the Shanghai Sharks. Eight-time NBA All-Star Yao Ming owns the Sharks. Max Zhang, a former CALIFORNIA student-athlete has been the center for the Sharks since his return to China in 2010. It will also play the Guangdong Southern Tigers, the 2013-14 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) regular season champion. The Tigers' leading Chinese scorer is Yi Jianlian, who played for the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks under Krystkowiak during the 2007-08 season before returning to the CBA in 2012.

In addition to the competition in China, the team will participate in various youth clinics, as well as take in the culture and history of China with visits to various landmarks and historical sites in the cities of Shanghai, Nantong and Shenzhen.

The Pac-12 is working with HUPU Sports Media Co.[/I] in arranging and promoting the tour, competitions and cultural activities. The Pac-12 is also continuing its partnership with Federation of University of Sports (FUSC), China's equivalent of NCAA in organizing the 3rd China-U.S. University Sports Week, an annual collaborative event between the Pac-12 and the FUSC that will feature a friendly game between the Pac-12 All-star Team and a Chinese University All-star Team and coaching clinics. In addition, the United States Consulate in Shanghai has agreed to support the tour and will have senior members of the Consulate participate a welcome reception for the Pac-12 delegation, a tour press conference and various activities of the tour in Shanghai and Nantong.

To support the Pac-12 Conference's on-going effort to build awareness of its' member universities and the Conference in China, the Pac-12 is working with its Chinese partners to organize an academic symposium in conjunction with the Pac-12 men's basketball all-star tour in August. The symposium will include a high-profile U.S.-China university leaders' forum and business meetings between the Pac-12 university delegates and senior dignitaries from the Chinese government and universities. Six of the Conference's member institutions will send a senior member to join this symposium.

Over the past two summers as part of the Conference's Globalization Initiative, the league has sent an all-star women's volleyball team, men's basketball teams from Arizona State and UCLA and women's basketball team from California to China.


(Via WSU Athletics Communications)


This post was edited on 5/23 11:17 AM by Britton Ransford

I don't understand the lack of ANY interest on this site/board for Cougar Aron Baynes. Is anyone else even watching the Western Conference finals?

Last night in the 35-point pummeling of OKC, Baynes played the entire 4th quarter. While it was reserves vs reserves thanks to the then-30 point lead, Baynes had a couple of nice jump-hook baskets, couple of rebounds, and generally had his way with OKC rookie center (and reputed cheap shot artist) Steven Adams. Adams was 4-4 in the game until facing Big Daddy, and was 0-1 from that point on.

The best part was that the announcers talked about Baynes a bit, prominently mentioning WSU along the way. As I have opined before, Spurs fans have taken a real liking to Aron, with a comment today that he could likely start on some teams in the league with a little more develpment. Not sure if that is true, but it looks like he will stick in the League. When is the last time WSU had two NBA players at the same time? Collins and Ehlo?

... committed to Oregon. That's what I was hearing for about a week now, but he made it official at Lincoln this morning. Now the full-court press shifts to Brandon Chauca, who WazzuWatch.com spoke with earlier this morning. We've posted an update in the War Room.

There is a lot of speculation about Rorie on this board. Has there been any news on Brandon Chauca? There is a good chance that the cougs go 0-2 on these two. I am hoping that one of them commits to the cougs.Kent is recruiting against some good schools for these two. It is not like we are competing against San Diego University for their commits.

10 AM at Lincoln High School. I guess we will see then.

His decision on Wednesday according to LC Recruiting

Well it looks like option B is on the table. This guy is a 6'3 165 pd shooting guard. His videos indicate shooting ability but he would not be of immediate help in my opinion. He averaged 22 pts a game against suspect talent He is not a Rorie ,that s for sure. One would guess that Rorie is long gone and Kent is trying to find another shooting guard. Sanders is not a PG candidate .

According to John Canzano of The Oregonian, Montana's Wayne Tinkle will be announced as the Oregon State men's basketball coach on Monday.

Tinkle, from Spokane, Wash., was one of the names thrown around the rumor pile for the Washington State vacancy. What else makes this an interesting hire for the Beavers? Tinkle has a son, Tres, who is a highly regarded prospect in the 2015 class at small forward. The also had to pay a huge ($4 million) buy-out for him, so there's that.

Tres Tinkle Profile: https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Tres-Tinkle-155329


This post was edited on 5/18 6:32 PM by Britton Ransford

Greenville (S.C.) 22 Feet Academy PG Brandon Chauca arrived to Pullman on his official visit today. According to a tweet from Chauca, the visit is going well, but he's still a little confused about the difference between Washington and Washington State, or rather the respective schools' alumni, apparently.

Chauca is hoping to meet his favorite NBA player and current Sacramento King, Isaiah Thomas, while on his visit. As you probably know, Thomas played his college hoops at Washington, and therefore is probably not in Pullman on a Sunday night. Chauca will surely figure this out by the end of his official visit, I would hope. Or Kent could just run with it...

Anyways, I had a good chuckle.

LINK: https://twitter.com/splashteamm/status/468254850741198848



This post was edited on 5/18 10:48 PM by Britton Ransford

Brandon's new mixtape. Is of course visiting this weekend. Just picked up a Cal Offer this afternoon.

New MixTape

just saw this and thought I'd bring it here for opinions.

so says CBS

Granted his release from WSU. Long thought that this was going to happen. Now the full court press on Rorie and another PG from 22 Foot Academy who is visiting this weekend. Rorie also decides this weekend.

Based on headlines by Britton R . I like this guys game and he will provide depth at the guard position. Now they need another big man. Kent is doing great for being late into the recruiting process. He understands the game being a coaches son.

This post was edited on 5/12 7:04 PM by ElComanche

The 6-4 SG Jackie Davis has signed his LOI with his parents at the end of his visit to Pullman with his parents. BTW he looks to be at least this height and has evdently grown just a little shorter than Ernie in the picture.

Washington State will have another official visitor on campus this weekend, a source tells WazzuWatch.com.

($$) Link: https://washingtonstate.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1417&tid=200843161&mid=200843161&sid=1089&style=2

Not a premium subscriber? I'm offering 30-days for FREE by using promo code WAZZU30 on the front page banner.

Let me be the first to say that I wasn't jumping for joy with the hire. My son is a Freshman who lives on campus. He is stating that the student body is "pumped" for Ernie Kent. We must get the students excited, for that alone, this was the right hire. It sounds like Ernie is surrounding himself with the right team..... I can't wait to see what these guys can do 'next' year!!! Go Cougs!!!

He spent the night in Spokane and is headed to Pullman this morning.

I am not sure why this has not been posted of the freeloaders board. I really like this guy and he is capable of playing both guard positions. Rorie and Nye will both visit this weekend. Rorie canceled a visit to Oregon ,probably because of the turmoil there. He visited udub and it may come down to these two schools.He is a smart basketball player with a sweet outside shot . It may be time for Ernie to ask one or two of the remaining Bone recruits to seek playing time elsewhere.I would like Kent to sign both these guys and pick up a PF to round out the class. Go get em Ernie
This post was edited on 5/6 4:20 AM by ElComanche

This post was edited on 5/6 4:54 AM by ElComanche

This post was edited on 5/6 4:57 AM by ElComanche

Had a great game vs. Portland in Game One....played perhaps a season high 15 minutes.....10 points, 7 rebounds. Was a major factor in the first half. Good for him....even though I'm a Blazer fan.

Glad Cougar

The 7th and final piece will sign. A 6-5 Post player from Romania. I believe that makes the Cougar Women at full strength for the first time in a long time.

Bianca Blanaru from Romania is the 7th signee. That is 4 women from off-shore and 3 from the U.S. Contains 2 post players Bianaca and Nike.

Great class which should be well into the top 20 Nationally by June.

According to multiple reports circulating and Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, in particular, Oregon sophomore guard Dominic Artis intends to transfer, incoming junior college transfer Brandon Austin is no longer with the program and Damyean Dotson is also no longer with the program.

When it rains, it pours, but former California commit Ahmaad Rorie, who is visiting Washington today, will visit Oregon on Wednesday.

... will work out for the Sacramento Kings today, according to Curtis Allen.