WSU men see fifth player enter the transfer portal
WSU men's star wing Cedric Coward, who missed all but six games of the season with an injury, is entering the transfer portal and is looking at the NBA draft.
www.seattletimes.com
Cedric Coward moving on...
- Thread starter M-I-Coug
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He seemed set on going into the draft. Maybe something has changed, but he was on-track from a rehab standpoint.
If he remained in college he will get offered a lot more than we can pay him. He has a "No not contact" tag so that could mean he hasn't shut to door on WSU even though realistically that's where this is going one way or the other.
If he remained in college he will get offered a lot more than we can pay him. He has a "No not contact" tag so that could mean he hasn't shut to door on WSU even though realistically that's where this is going one way or the other.
In my mind, with the 350k we paid him, he either owes us to return if he doesn’t go to the NBA, or he needs to give us 250k back. We busted our NIL budget for a guy who played 5 games and now might leave. Awesome
I agree for the most part. Just whining that we got unlucky that way.
Coward transferred to WSU. I don't think this is so much about character as it is about what college athletics has become. That's just my opinion. I do understand if you feel differently about the whole screw up system.
Former Washington State men’s guard Cedric Coward transferring to Duke | The Seattle Times
Greg WoodsApril 28, 2025 at 5:20 pm
By
The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN — Cedric Coward is taking his talents to a national contender.
After spending one injury-shortened season with the Washington State men, Coward is transferring to Duke, he announced on social media Monday afternoon. He’s also keeping his name in the NBA draft pool to test his market as a pro, he added in his post.
Coward’s finalists reportedly included Alabama, Washington, Florida and Kansas.
Playing just six games because of a season-ending shoulder injury he suffered in a Nov. 22 practice in Pullman, the 6-foot-6 Coward averaged 17.7 points, 7 rebounds and 3.7 assists as a Cougar, scoring in double figures four times, including a 30-point outing. Last spring, he transferred to WSU from Eastern Washington, where he was a unanimous first-team all-conference selection in 2023.
Coward began his career at Division III Willamette, where he averaged 19.4 points and 12 rebounds in 26 games. In the spring of 2022, Coward transferred to EWU, becoming the Eagles’ highest-profile transfer in some time. Last spring, Coward followed coach David Riley from EWU to WSU, one of three former Eagles to do so.
Coward entered the transfer portal on April 9, a move that resonated as something of a surprise around the WSU program, which was expecting him to turn pro. Coward tested the NBA waters last year, after all. He might still do as much, but in joining the Blue Devils’ program, he’s going to a team that made this year’s Final Four under third-year coach Jon Scheyer.
Coward is the fifth former Cougar to find a new home this offseason, joining LeJuan Watts (Texas Tech), Nate Calmese (Wake Forest), Isaiah Watts (Maryland) and freshman guard Marcus Wilson, who announced on Monday he’s transferring to UC Davis. Wilson played only four games last season before going down with his own season-ending shoulder injury.
Coward was not expected to return to WSU, saying so himself in a March 6 interview with The Spokesman-Review. He’s had his sights set on the NBA, where he would likely be a late second-round pick this spring, according to many mock drafts. But it’s also possible that in today’s college basketball ecosystem, he earned a bigger NIL payday at Duke than an NBA contract, where players drafted in last year’s late second round earned about $1-2 million annually.
To help replace the loss of Coward and the other four Cougars who have gone portaling, WSU has landed three reinforcements from the portal: Boise State transfer wing Emmanuel Ugbo, Morehead State guard Jerone Morton and High Point transfer forward Simon Hildebrandt, who announced his decision on Sunday.
WSU has about five open scholarships remaining.
Greg Woods: Washington State beat writer for The Spokesman-Review
Something like the Quinn Ewers in reverse could be going on. Ewers was projected at up to $4M if he transferred to another program. He's projected around the same in the NFL but over 4 years. Coward might be taking a guaranteed pay day even if he is projected around the same for an NBA contract.
More are making that decision assuming a correlation in early entry players.
More are making that decision assuming a correlation in early entry players.
