Harris, Early and Thames...

[britton ransford]

Virginia guard Joe Harris, hailing from the greatest small town in the world, Chelan, Wash., was picked with the No. 33 pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2014 NBA Draft this evening. One pick later, the New York Knicks selected Wichita State forward Cleanthony Early. With the 59th pick, the Toronto Raptors drafted former Washington State and San Diego State guard Xavier Thames, who ended up getting acquired by the Brooklyn Nets.

So what does this all mean? Well, absolutely nothing at all. However, it's hard not to look at what this Washington State hoops program could have looked like over the last few years had a few dominos fell the right way.

Harris, who followed Bennett to Virginia when he left Pullman, still gave some consideration to Ken Bone and staff, though as a family friend of the Harris', I can tell you the interest level was minimum, at best. Anyways, Early actually took an official visit to Washington State and was thought by many to be a lock to land in Pullman before eventually committing to Wichita State and enjoying quite the run with the Shockers. You also all know how the Thames situation went down -- left due to Reggie Moore's edge on the depth chart, among additional rumors, and, well, that turned out not so good.

This post was edited on 6/26 9:41 PM by Britton Ransford

 

[FedWayCoug]

Thanks for that trip down memory lane. Gonna go drink some bleach now. Ugh.

The real question is how sky blue is reggie right now?

 

[SideWaysDown]

Best response EVER.

 

[ElComanche]

It caps off a great season for Thames. He was the MVP of the MWC this season and led the Aztecs in their highly successful run in the Big Dance. I believe that he was also the defensive player of the year.He did well by transferring and finding a good program.

 

[YakiCoug]

Britton Ransford: "So what does this all mean? Well, absolutely nothing at all. However, it's hard not to look at what this Washington State hoops program could have looked like over the last few years had a few dominos fell the right way."

Well, this is exactly what it means, that Tony Bennett had, in fact, been bringing in enough talent to continue winning at WSU, enough so to avoid the program's collapse we saw under Bone.

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

Originally posted by YakiCoug:
Britton Ransford: "So what does this all mean? Well, absolutely nothing at all. However, it's hard not to look at what this Washington State hoops program could have looked like over the last few years had a few dominos fell the right way."

Well, this is exactly what it means, that Tony Bennett had, in fact, been bringing in enough talent to continue winning at WSU, enough so to avoid the program's collapse we saw under Bone.

Yep. Unfortunately, there was no way TB was going to stay at WSU. He was too young, with too much "runway" ahead of him to chase higher aspirations. I don't think there was any way to keep him.

Despite avabob's contentions, TB could really recruit. When was the last time WSU had two players in the NBA? Add Harris and Thames to the mix too (had WSU been miraculously been able to keep TB)....and that is four guys in the NBA (assuming they make it). Pretty amazing.

Of course, we've covered this ground before.

And even if Bone had those Bennett guys in his lineup, he would not have been able to succeed at WSU because he can't coach!

This post was edited on 6/27 8:43 PM by How_did_this_happen?

 

[ElComanche]

Agreed