2019–20 Washington State Cougars men's basketball team

2019–20 Pac-12 Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 13 Oregon	13	–	5	.722	24	–	7	.774
UCLA	12	–	6	.667	19	–	12	.613
USC	11	–	7	.611	22	–	9	.710
Arizona State	11	–	7	.611	20	–	11	.645
Arizona	10	–	8	.556	21	–	11	.656
Colorado	10	–	8	.556	21	–	11	.656
Stanford	9	–	9	.500	20	–	12	.625
Oregon State	7	–	11	.389	18	–	13	.581
Utah	7	–	11	.389	16	–	15	.516
California	7	–	11	.389	14	–	18	.438
Washington State	6	–	12	.333	16	–	16	.500
Washington	5	–	13	.278	15	–	17	.469
Note: The 2020 Pac-12 Tournament was canceled prior to the quarterfinals due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rankings from AP poll

The 2019–20 Washington State Cougars men's basketball team will represent Washington State University during the 2019–20 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team will be led by first-year head coach Kyle Smith. Smith has been known for his active embrace of data and analytics in coaching^[1] and he has labeled this new approach as the "Data Raid".^[2] The Cougars will play their home games at the Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Washington as members in the Pac-12 Conference.

Previous season

The Cougars finished the 2018–19 season 11–21, 4–14 in Pac-12 play to finish in 11th place. They lost in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament to the eventual tournament champion Oregon.

At the conclusion of the season, head coach Ernie Kent was fired.^[3] and former San Francisco Don's head coach Kyle Smith was hired as the new head of the program.^[4]

Offseason

Departures

Name	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Reason for Departure
Davante Cooper	C	6'11"	235	Senior	Atlanta, GA	Graduation
Viont'e Daniels	G	6'2"	175	Senior	Federal Way, WA	Graduation
Robert Franks	F	6'9"	225	Senior	Vancouver, WA	Graduation & 2019 NBA Draft
Carter Skaggs	G	6'5"	215	Junior	Logansport, IN	Transferred
James Streeter	C	6'10"	255	Junior	Coon Rapids, MN	Transferred
Isaiah Wade	F	6'8"	210	Junior	Minneapolis, MN	Transferred

Incoming Transfers

Name	Pos.	Height	Weight	Year	Hometown	Previous school
Isaac Bonton	G	6'2"	175	Junior	Portland, OR	Casper College
Daron Hansen	F	6'8"	190	Junior	Mission Hills, CA	Salt Lake Community College
Deion James	F	6'6"	220	Senior	Tucson, AC	Colorado State University

2019 recruiting class

College recruiting information
Name	Hometown	High school / college	Height	Weight	Commit date
Volodymyr Markovetskyy C	Truskavets, Ukraine	BC Žalgiris-2	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)	230 lb (100 kg)	May 15, 2019
Volodymyr Markovetskyy C	Star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN: N/A
Ryan Rapp G	Melbourne, Victoria, Australia	Mazenod College	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	May 3, 2019
Ryan Rapp G	Star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN: N/A
D.J. Rodman F	San Juan Capistrano, CA	JSerra Catholic High School	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	May 18, 2019
D.J. Rodman F	Star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: N/A 247Sports: N/A ESPN: N/A
Noah Williams G	Seattle, WA	O'Dea High School	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	174 lb (79 kg)	May 9, 2019
Noah Williams G	Star ratings: Scout: N/A Rivals: N/A 247Sports: ESPN:
Overall recruiting rankings:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2019 Washington State Commits". Rivals.com. "Men's Basketball Recruiting". Scout.com. "ESPN- Washington State Cougars Men's Basketball Recruiting". ESPN.com. "Scout.com Team Recruiting Rankings". Scout.com. "2019 Team Ranking". Rivals.com.

Roster

2018–19 Washington State Cougars men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	1	Jervae Robinson	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	Sr	Otero JC	Aurora, CO
F	2	C. J. Elleby	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	200 lb (91 kg)	So	Cleveland HS	Seattle, WA
F	4	Aljaz Kunc	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	198 lb (90 kg)	So	Impact Academy-FLA	Ljubljana, Slovenia
F	5	Marvin Cannon	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	Jr	Barton CC	Richmond, VA
F	13	Jeff Pollard	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	240 lb (109 kg)	Sr	Impact Academy	Bountiful, UT
G	23	Ahmed Ali	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	Sr	Eastern Florida State College	Toronto, ON

Head coach

Kyle Smith (Hamilton)

Assistant coach(es)

Derrick Phelps (North Carolina)
Jim Shaw (Western Oregon)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster
Last update: 07/02/2019

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Exhibition
*
Non-conference regular season

Pac-12 regular season

Pac-12 Tournament

*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Pacific Time.

References

^ Lawson, Theo (April 2, 2019). "Nineteen takeaways from the introduction of Washington State's 19th basketball coach". The Spokesman-Review.
^ "Kyle Smith: Data Raid, not Nerdball, is name for Cougar hoops". Cougfan.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
^ Lawson, Theo (March 14, 2019). "After five years of futility, Washington State parting ways with men's basketball coach Ernie Kent". The Spokesman-Review.
^ Lawson, Theo (March 27, 2019). "Washington State tabs Kyle Smith to restore long-dormant basketball program". The Spokesman-Review.

[data-1] Lawson, Theo (April 2, 2019). "Nineteen takeaways from the introduction of Washington State's 19th basketball coach". The Spokesman-Review.

[2] "Kyle Smith: Data Raid, not Nerdball, is name for Cougar hoops". Cougfan.com. Retrieved 26 June 2019.

[lawson-3] Lawson, Theo (March 14, 2019). "After five years of futility, Washington State parting ways with men's basketball coach Ernie Kent". The Spokesman-Review.

[lawson2-4] Lawson, Theo (March 27, 2019). "Washington State tabs Kyle Smith to restore long-dormant basketball program". The Spokesman-Review.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e Washington State Cougars men's basketball
Venues	Bohler Gymnasium (1928–1973) Beasley Coliseum (1973–present)
Rivalries	Gonzaga Idaho Washington
Culture & lore	Butch T. Cougar
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Helms and Premo-Porretta national championship in bold; NCAA Final Four appearance in italics