Coward withdraws & Wells stays in NBA Draft
- Thread starter SaveFerris
- Start date
Wells to stay in NBA Draft. No surprise from what Wells had indicated. Recruiting seemed like a good indicator as well.
This is huge. The guy can play. He can score at all three levels. I really am going to enjoy watching the offense next season. I think it will be the most fun to watch offense to watch in years. Now, if Riley and staff can close one of the bigs they are recruiting like Sammie Yeaney. He is a power forward who had signed with ASU but was let out of his scholarship. He would be an incoming freshman.
Long rumored but for sure HUGE get. Coward's a very efficient player. Last year eFG% 64%, 3FG% 38%, FT% 89.5%.
Would have loved to pair Coward and Wells, but we definitely needed to get 1. Coward was probably the 1 we realistically had a shot to get to Pullman.
That would have been fun to pair them together. Jaki was a good player, but he is not near the shooter/scorer that Coward is. Besides, Coward can make a layup.
I think Riley and his staff have done an amazing job putting together a team that will have one returning player that had minutes last season.
WSU is a triple A minor league farm team, where current, future success, will be dependent on if whoever the coach is can not only replace the whole team, after everybody leaves, after a good year, but then immediately coach the replacements to instant success(bowl game, CFP, CBI, NIT, NCAA, etc, each and every season.)
Those coaches who can do that, will, can be successful at WSU, and then command a premium, those that can't, will only go about 3-9 in football, and 3 to to 6 to 9 wins per season in basketball, and get fired, at even WSU.
The sooner, if ever WSU realizes it is a Tripple A minor league farm team, and embraces, owns that, and goes mercenary, and only goes after players that are 3.5 star under radar players, transfers, etc, that can, will produce, succeed, win NOW this season, as opposed to developing, losing this season, to try to win future seasons, which will never happen, because teams will take from you, so that players don't develop before leaving, etc, as players won't stay long enough to develop, win, etc.
Riley is doing a amazing job so far.
Now hopefully he can coach all this amazing talent to something special, like Smith did.
If he does, he Riley leaves, and hopefully the next coach is like Smith, Riley.
The trick is to keep on hiring more Smith's, easier said then done, but it is possible doable.
Agree. Outstanding job. Going from a team of 3 that included a sophomore that averaged around 10 minutes, a redshirt freshman and a true freshman, to having 8 players with Div 1 experience with skill and potential at every position.
Really like our front court but would like to see our last recruit be a younger 4-5. If Calmese can become at least a below average defender, that back court could be pretty special. Like the depth and the class breakdown is about as good as it can be.
Another "big" seems like the way to go for the final spot. I like the 3 we have, but feels a bit thin especially with Okafor coming off an injury. They seem very active contacting players.
Calmese is such a big key. He can definitely score, but hoping for "a below average defender" speaks volumes. Maybe having multiple EWU players on the roster might help that along especially a player like Cedric Coward.
If Calmese was already a below average defender, he would have had many more options. His position and his offense made it a risk we were willing to take. He looks to have the physical ability to be a decent defender so it must be a mentality thing. Hopefully his uw experience was a wake-up call and Riley and team can get him to work on that part of his game.
Yeah, I think another young big is the way to go. They have one spot left, Mahoney's scholarship since he is gone. Both Price and Erikstrup are seniors and are gone after this season. I do find it interesting regarding roster construction that Okafor and the bigs that the Cougs have offered are all athletic big men, which is different than what Riley has in Price and Erikstrup. So, we should not necessarily believe that Riley will play exactly like he did at EWU.
I am also going to wait to see how much of a liability that Calmese is on defense. It may be true, or it may be greatly exaggerated. I have watched a lot of his highlights, but they have all been on offense. I will say it now, I think he is more athletic and explosive than Rice and likely a better offensive player than him. However, I think Rice was a better fit for Smith's offense. We will have to wait to see if Calmese is a good fit for Riley's offense. I have more to say about this, but I will do it in another post.
