The search for another Pg continues. The cougs have offered Anmed Ali. He is a 5'11 juco.. His stats show 15.9 pts.4.0 rbs and 4.9 assts. He shoots 45.3% 3pt and 82.0 FTP. His only other D 1 offer is Virginia Tech.He has a slew of other small college offers.The list of eligible players is getting smaller
Anmed Ali PG
- Thread starter gazooks2
- Start date
We were looking at Shaq Carter and Eli Abaev from the same JC. Looks like Ali also has an offer from Loyola Chicago. Probably Seltzer recruiting him.
We definitely need someone else that can take the point.
We definitely need someone else that can take the point.
He has/has had 15 other D1 offers including VA Tech and a final 4 team from last year (Loyola Chicago). Just received his release from his LOI to Kent St. I like him as a second ball handler/shooter. Would be an upgrade over Acquaah. Looks to me like a guy who could mix well with the team.
I gotta think we have a good chance at this. Cougs have been pretty quiet regarding the two remaining spots this year. I gotta think the staff feels good about Ali and must think Franks is coming back. Otherwise we could be in for a world of disappointment.
If Acquaah was truly a "mutual decision" they must have had someone interested. You have to assume (or hope) it's Ali. His JC has multiple players that take the point so he should not only compete for the point with Robinson but easily play with him as well.
I don't like that we are essentially starting over at the point but if they were to sign Ali they will have done a good job putting the spot back together with 2 quality players on paper. I still don't know the probability Franks comes back but if he does all the better.
I don't like that we are essentially starting over at the point but if they were to sign Ali they will have done a good job putting the spot back together with 2 quality players on paper. I still don't know the probability Franks comes back but if he does all the better.
The best thing is his shooting ability. He is one of the two high school players to score 103 pts in a single game in 2015
Ali is a Coug. Hard to view this as anything other than a home run. I'm absolutely pumped about this class. Kunc is probably the least exciting recruit and he's a very interesting project with high upside.
Robinson: Floor general who has won at every level he's played.
Ali: Scorer.
Cannon: Athletic freak who should at least be a great defender.
Wade: Monster on the boards.
Elleby: Lockdown defender and promising offense.
Kunc: Intriguing. Future post with decent shot. Kent has developed Hawkinson and Franks. Kunc might be in the same mode.
Watched one of Ali's games yesterday against Snow. I think he scored 8 of the teams first 11 points with 2 deep 3s. He's also able to at the JC level get to the rim and finish despite his size. He has a good feel for the game. With the loss of Flynn, Ali's a home run for us to add to Robinson. All in all a job well done to plug things up. Now we see if Franks returns.
Last edited:
See Kunc as a wing as well. He appears to have nice length, decent athleticism, and skill. A good compliment for what Elleby brings to the table and Cannon down the line. Time will tell.
I know the competion was suspect in the Kunc video but ball handling and long range shooting were totally apparent and not dependant on the competition.
As for the rest of the class, not usually enamored with loading up on JC kids but this group has the feel of being very good.
As for the rest of the class, not usually enamored with loading up on JC kids but this group has the feel of being very good.
I feel that this years team will better than the 2017-2018 version. They will have more athleticism and probably better shooting. If Franks returns they will some experience to add to the mix. I am sure that Flynn does have the consistency needed to score a vast amount of points at any level. So itruly expect better guard play especially on the defensive end of the court
Hard not to see this team better than the previous years group. Assuming Robo is back, of course.
Contributors leaving: Flynn, Bernstein, Acquaah. Of this group we lose the teams ball handling from last year, one shooter, one rebounder/defender, and someone we wanted to get a huge improvement from. But this group averaged almost 7 turnovers a game. Doing a better job of securing the ball will go a long way towards improving the team.
I'm really excited for Robinson because he's going to protect the basketball and get it into the hands of shooters. He would have been a huge improvement over Drick and Acquaah running the point. With him distributing, the offense can really take off. Ali can catch and shoot more, Daniels can play sniper, Skaggs can be instant offense off the bench, RoBo can work inside out, Cooper/Pollard/Wade can get plenty of easy buckets down low because teams will be forced to guard our shooters.
If this team improves on the defensive end, I can see them surprising a lot of people with a postseason tournament of some kind. I also think we are primed to win a game in Vegas for the first time in forever.
Contributors leaving: Flynn, Bernstein, Acquaah. Of this group we lose the teams ball handling from last year, one shooter, one rebounder/defender, and someone we wanted to get a huge improvement from. But this group averaged almost 7 turnovers a game. Doing a better job of securing the ball will go a long way towards improving the team.
I'm really excited for Robinson because he's going to protect the basketball and get it into the hands of shooters. He would have been a huge improvement over Drick and Acquaah running the point. With him distributing, the offense can really take off. Ali can catch and shoot more, Daniels can play sniper, Skaggs can be instant offense off the bench, RoBo can work inside out, Cooper/Pollard/Wade can get plenty of easy buckets down low because teams will be forced to guard our shooters.
If this team improves on the defensive end, I can see them surprising a lot of people with a postseason tournament of some kind. I also think we are primed to win a game in Vegas for the first time in forever.
Bold talk but certainly a possibility. If the players perform ,their athleticism will excite a few fans.It would be nice to see more fans backing the team in Pullman.
Considering the circumstances, I think loading up on JC players is the way to go. Unfortunately, WSU cannot go out and recruit 4-5 star recruits just because.
We shall see how good these JC player are, but it reminds me some of how Kelvin Sampson jumpstarted the program with Terrence Lewis, Neil Derrick, Tyrone Maxey, Ken Critton and Tommie Oatis.
These players are two years more physically mature than 18-19 year old freshman. If they are good and this team is competent, this could lead to better recruiting in the future.
I agree in this case
I thought of that Sampson class too. No Terrance Lewis caliber player, but there could be a Maxey, Critton, Derrick group in there. Plus this team has better returning players than Sampson did also, the quakity freshmen are nice
I thought of that Sampson class too. No Terrance Lewis caliber player, but there could be a Maxey, Critton, Derrick group in there. Plus this team has better returning players than Sampson did also, the quakity freshmen are nice
I love the optimism and I like this years recruits individually but as a whole there not impressive to me. It seems like we went out and got a bunch of players who can contribute but we didn’t sign anybody who imo is a impact player. Don’t know about Robo’s future but without him this could easily rank as the worst roster I’ve seen in the PAC in a long time. Second to worst team in league, lost only two consistent scoring threats, lost number one recruit from class 2 years ago after only one year playing, lost only solid rebounder. Replaced all that with what I’m sure will be the lowest ranked recruiting class in the PAC 12. Again I love the optimism but over hyped slightly recruited players might be the best we could get but I have doubts that they are going to turn things around.
Won't totally disagree but at least these JUCO's are a lot more impressive than the first 4 years of JUCO's. A few of these appear to be players. Part of what we tend to forget is that as the academic qualifications got improved over the last few years -- qualifiying out of HS is more difficult for many players so the JUCO route seems to be a fairly good path.
It is nice to see optimism on this board. Perhaps Flynn did a favor by jump starting the recruiting?. There will be some fans who will say that Kent got the recruiting crumbs left over, but i think that this is a solid class with potential. As always there are different opinions and we will just have to see. If one likes the players individually then why not as a group? One thing about juco players is that they are not ranked. Thus it stands to reason that the cougs will be lower ranked. I saw Elleby play against Garfield s higher ranked players and he was the best player on the court that day.There are over ranked players dotting the roster of many college teams.I like the roster more than last s years. If robo returns then he will add good stats and experience.There is a chance for a turn around with these players.That is the thing about sports, there are and will always be different opinions and they are just that.
It is s good question. If I like the individual players why not the group? My only answer is that all of the players taken individually could either fill a role on the team or be projects worthy of the risk. But the role they are imo suited for at least next year is below the the level or role they are going to be asked to perform somebody will need to step up big time to replace what we lost and even more if we are to improve
This brings up a question in my mind concerning Flynn. First, I have described him as a gamer, and a very good player. I wont back away from that, and both of the new pgs will have to show me they are as talented as Flynn. Having said that, we were 4-14 in conference last year. Looks like there is more upside than downside when you are 11th place
Not much to really disagree with. When Franks and Flynn left next season looked like a train wreck for the obvious reasons. I would like to think Robinson and Ali can provide enough in the backcourt to stabilize things although I expect a bit of a rocky start. Most likely the same deal with Elleby. Upfront is still a concern as well even if Franks returns.
The answer ,of course,is "that the whole is greater than the sum of it s parts". Last year when the cougs worked together,they were an efficient unit. Then the teamwork would break down as different players would try to lead while others would try the same at different times. There was not a natural real leader in the group. The synergy of this team should be better and we will not have "point forwards" and point guards. Whomever will be the "stars' will happen as the season progresses. The athleticism of the team is impressive and players will emerge. if Franks returns he will be one of them,at least in scoring and rebounding. The fact that there are several good shooters will make it hard to concentrate on one individual. The fact that the Pgs are not shoot first type of players will also help the synergy of this team.
Hopefully the "sum of the parts" things takes place because at times last year we really seemed to need Flynn, Franks, or even Skaggs to carry the offensive load. Flynn specifically stepped up at the end of games with big shots.
Flynn also had terrible shooting games where he launched quite a few three s and did not connect. When he was on the team looked good. when he was off,the team looked bad. His defense as well as Skaggs's ranged from bad to terrible. There was a good reason that WSU was the least fouled team in the PAC last year. They did not have players who attacked the basket. They were content to shoot three pointers most of the time. I believe that the current cougs will drive the basket more often. Also If Franks comes back then you have proven production on the offensive end.
Last edited:
Skaggs is slow footed and always covered a shooter like himself but he actually played better defense than most. Rewatch some of the games he used footwork and IQ to at least be effective. We always talk about how athletic we are going to be but go back and rewatch the clips from Ergas and some others and it’s easy to see where the hype comes from but hype doesn’t always translate on to the court
Flynn started going to the hoop pretty regularly over the ladt 8 games. Considering his lack of explosiveness he did pretty wel. Still, it seems like we under achieved when you look at Franks and Flynn.
The trend in the college game is to live snd die by the 3. I think we are positioning ourselves decently for where the game is going. Also not a bad trend for schools like us
The trend in the college game is to live snd die by the 3. I think we are positioning ourselves decently for where the game is going. Also not a bad trend for schools like us
Skaggs worked hard but just doesn't have the lateral quickness to guard players but the effort and IQ was there. On a good defensive team we could hide him better but we weren't good defensively. Looking forward to the added length and athleticism for sure though.
I thought Flynn's offensive game expanded as well somewhat similar to Low as a comparison point. I definitely think we will miss Flynn but replacing Flynn and Acquaah with Robinson and Ali is a much better outcome than I expected during the spring window.
At this point the chances of finding a forward that can average 17 points and 6.5 rebounds isn't exactly likely on or off the roster. I'm hopeful Chidom can chip away at that down the line. Getting Franks back would definitely help out.
I thought Flynn's offensive game expanded as well somewhat similar to Low as a comparison point. I definitely think we will miss Flynn but replacing Flynn and Acquaah with Robinson and Ali is a much better outcome than I expected during the spring window.
At this point the chances of finding a forward that can average 17 points and 6.5 rebounds isn't exactly likely on or off the roster. I'm hopeful Chidom can chip away at that down the line. Getting Franks back would definitely help out.
Optimism is great and I applaud everyone who has it regarding WSU basketball. Forgive some of us who....while not being pessimistic....are at least skeptical until we see the results. There was much the same optimism going into last year even though we lost Hawkinson, Ike, Clifford, etc... Now we are losing Flynn & perhaps Franks. Avabob has a good point though, we finished in 11th place with only 4 conference victories last year (2 vs a horrible Cal team). So perhaps optimism of an improved team is warranted.
Glad Cougar
Glad Cougar
Similar threads
