Washington State Basketball

Macedonian guard Andrej Jakimovski, considered one of the top international prospects who is playing college basketball, announced his intention to play at Washington State. 

"Since I was a kid, my dream was to play basketball in the U.S., the country that has the best basketball players and coaches," Jakimovski told ESPN's Jonathan Givony on Sunday. "I believe that Washington State will help me achieve my childhood dream of becoming a great basketball player. They're offering me the opportunity to build myself as a person, athlete and student."

Jakimovski led the FIBA U18 European Championship B in scoring at 18.4 points per game and made his debut with the Macedonian national team in February. Washington State has focused heavily on international talent in his 2020 recruiting class, with Jakimovski joining Efe Abogidi (Nigeria), Jefferson Koulibaly (Canada) and Carlos Rosario (Dominican Republic).

Jakimovski said he turned down professional offers in Europe because he wanted to experience college basketball in the United States.

"It was a wonderful experience playing for Basket Torino," Jakimovski said. "I had offers from other Italian and European teams, but I truly believe that the best option for me is to join the Cougs. I also had offers from other universities, but I knew from the beginning that WSU was the right choice for me. I am determined to work harder than ever and help my new team reach new heights."

Washington State went 16-16 in Kyle Smith's first season with the program. The Cougars have not reached the NCAA tournament since 2008.

DJ Rodman, the son of Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman, has committed to play basketball for the Washington State Cougars.

"DJ is a shotmaker who has a really good feel for the game," Washington State coach Kyle Smith said in a statement on the team's official website. "He was a very productive player displaying the ability to score and rebound at a high clip in one of the best high school leagues in California, the Trinity League."

Rodman will join the Cougars for the 2019-20 season.

The 6'4", 190-pound small forward is not rated by 247Sports. Following the commitment, Washington State now has the No. 81 recruiting class for 2019, according to 247Sports. The class features a trio of 3-star recruits, two of whom have already signed.

Rodman averaged 24.2 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game at JSerra Catholic (Orange County, California) High School as a senior.

"The thing I loved most was that he was our leading charge taker on top of leading scorer and rebounder," JSerra coach Keith Wilkinson said last month, per Tim Burt of the OC Sports Zone. "The kid is a winner and he exemplified that in the North OC Classic hitting a walk off three-pointer on the baseline out of bounds for the championship. ... He took and made big time shots, but also did all the little things it takes to win."

Per Burt, Rodman was also considering the likes of Hawaii, Northern Arizona and Grand Canyon before committing to Washington State.

"He has family roots in the state of Washington and is thrilled to be a Coug," Smith added in his statement.

The Cougars are coming off an 11-21 season and are in the midst of an 11-year NCAA tournament drought. Smith was hired to replace Ernie Kent as head coach in March.

Washington State junior Robert Franks will forgo his senior season and declare for the 2018 NBA draft, Shams Charania of The Vertical reported Monday.

"After much consideration, I am excited to announce that I am entering the 2018 NBA Draft (without an agent but intentions to sign)," Franks wrote on his Twitter account. "These last 3 years has pushed me to grow as a person and also as a player on the court. I can't thank everyone enough at wazzu who have helped shaped me into the man I am today. With that being said, my dream is to play at the next level...and I am ready to pursue my dreams!!"

Signing with an agent would prevent him from being able to return to school.

The forward averaged 17.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game this season with the Cougars. He also shot 40.5 percent from three-point range.

After averaging only 6.3 points per game during his sophomore season, Franks was named the Pac-12 Most Improved Player as a junior.

Given his 6'7" frame, solid rebounding skills and impressive outside shot, he could potentially fit in as a small forward in the NBA. However, he still needs to gain the attention of scouts.

Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman doesn't have Franks listed among his top 50 prospects of 2018, and he also isn't on the top-100 list from Jonathon Givony of ESPN.com. Considering the NBA draft features only 60 picks, Franks may be at risk of going undrafted.

Regardless, his play this past season gives him a chance to achieve his dreams of playing professionally.

Washington State is on the brink of CBI glory, but have to take the tournament on Wednesday night. Otherwise the momentum completely shifts to a dangerous Pittsburgh team that is as resilient as any in the nation. 

College basketball tournaments are marked by a one and done format that infuses a great deal if uncertainty into championships. 

Simply, you never can tell what will happen in any given game. The CBI offers a glimpse into college basketball under a best of three series, and it's the main reason that Washington State has to win Game 2 tonight at Petersen Events Center. 

The Cougars took Game 1, which saw Pittsburgh chip away and nearly steal one in Washington. These Panthers are not about to roll over and die, and proved they have the tenacity to put in a scare on the biggest stage in this tournament. 

Consider that Washington State is tasked with two away games to close out the tourney with a title, and are coming away from a game in which they nearly squandered a late 12-point lead, and you see how crucial this game truly is. 

Washington State relies heavily on their perimeter game that can get red hot in an instant, but can also go through periods of frigid, cold stagnation. 

We saw this stagnation in the opening chapter of the championship series, as Washington State let the Panthers get off to a quick lead then close out the half with a 38-35 lead. 

That is when the Panthers started to cool and Washington State welcomed back a consistent offensive attack. 

They would go on to shoot 51.2% from the field and will again rely heavily on hot shooting to get them to the promised land.

In an away game, and with a huge deficit, Pittsburgh still managed to chip away late and were just a Tray Woodall layup away from taking Game 1. 

This will again be a closely fought game, and one that Washington State must win. The Cougars do not want to leave this to a one-and-done game three, not against a tenacious Pittsburgh team. 

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Washington State managed to beat Pittsburgh, 67-66, in Game 2 of the CBI championship without the team's best player, Brock Motum.

That doesn't bode well for Pittsburgh, even if the team does have the next two games at home in the best-of-three championship round.

Motum remains questionable for Wednesday evening's game, though his return should make the Cougars prohibitive favorites to win at least one of two games in Pittsburgh. The junior forward averages 18.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, leading the Cougars in both marks.

Pitt is certainly better at home, posting a 15-8 mark there this season (5-9 on the road). And the Cougars were lights-out in Game 1, shooting 51.2 percent from the field including 9-of-15 shooting from three.

So yes, Pitt has a chance.

But Washington State is hot, having torn through the first three games of this tournament (the closest win prior to Pitt was by 14 over San Francisco) before squeaking past Pitt without Motum.

If Motum doesn't go on Wednesday, you have to give the edge to Pitt again—they almost beat the Cougars on their home court, and a team with its back against the wall at home is a scary proposition.

But I don't see this Pitt team winning two in a row over the Cougars, namely if Motum returns. CBI glory shall belong to the Cougars this year.

And next year, perhaps Pitt can return to the NCAA tournament, where they belong.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets have won a lot since 2009.

If you put the Cougar basketball team through one of those TSA scanners, you might be able to see amid all of their flaws that they have made some progress this season.

The Cougars might be 6-9 in the Pac-12, but they have played .500 ball since the last time they played Washington. Had they not pulled their usual act and blown home games against UCLA and Arizona, they could be sitting at 8-7 in conference, a couple of spots up in the standings.

As it is, they have played pretty well in five of their last six games, the late losses to the Bruins and Wildcats notwithstanding.

They have won only three of them, including a dominant 72-50 win over a lackluster ASU team Saturday, but they have been in every game. They led UCLA at halftime, as they so often do at home, yet lost for the 19th straight time to the Bruins in Pullman.

After finishing off a sweep of Oregon State with a mildly surprising win in Corvallis, the Cougars succumbed to yet another hot-shooting Oregon club in a well-played game in Eugene.

Despite losing Klay Thompson to the NBA and Faisal Aden to injury, the Cougars are still No. 2 in the league in shooting percentage. Thank Brock Motum, the league's surprise No. 2 scorer at 17.8 ppg. Of course, Motum cost the Cougs a chance to beat Arizona when he missed four out of five foul shots at the end of what turned out to be a four-point loss.

The Cougars head into Saturday's Apple Basket II with some confidence after having beaten ASU so soundly and having played well at home for most of the season.

The Huskies are red-hot, having won eight of the last nine, and the Cougars are unlikely to knock them off, even at home. The Huskies won by 10 the first time, and they are playing much better now.

But if the Cougs can somehow hold home court and knock off UW, it would give them some great momentum heading into a two-week stint in Los Angeles.

The Cougars are 1-6 in conference road games, but they can probably steal at least one against USC and UCLA. That actually will be a nice setup trip for the Pac-12 tournament the next week. If the Cougs can play well at USC and UCLA, they will have some confidence heading into a probable first-round matchup against Oregon State on March 7.

A win would put the Cougs up against Cal or Washington in the second round, and if they could somehow pull off that upset, they would have an even-money chance the rest of the way.

Of course, it's nearly impossible to win four games in four days—unless you’re a talented, streaking team like UConn, which did it last year during its NCAA title run. The Cougars just don't have the horses to win four straight (one stat site puts WSU's chance of doing that at 1.5 percent).

But if they finish as well as they have played for most of this month, they will at least give it a good shot.

Can freshman DaVonte Lacy help lead the way to a strong finish?

Having lost Klay Thompson to the NBA, the WSU Cougars entered this season with one proven scorer: Faisal Aden. Then they found another one as Brock Motum turned into one of the Pac-12's most improved players.

After a rough start that included some poor shooting games and some injuries, Aden had just started to play well, with great efficiency, when he suffered a torn ACL against Arizona two weeks ago.

Now the Cougars are down to Motum, who ranks second in Pac-12 scoring at 17.2 PPG. He scored 26 in a 60-53 win over USC a week ago and added 25 in a 63-60 loss to UCLA.

He's half the Cougar offense, and when he gets shut down—as he did by UCLA's zone in the second half, scoring just six points—the Cougars get turned off (they failed to score for nine minutes in the second half vs. UCLA).

The Cougars find themselves in a very familiar position, and you have to wonder if Ken Bone can recruit well enough to put them back where they were four years ago: in the NCAA Tournament. The soonest it probably could happen is 2014, but 2015 seems more likely.

Circumstances always seem to conspire against WSU having more than two good players at once. They typically have two guys who carry the team, with a couple of young guys who aren’t there yet. Best case, that gets them into the NIT. And that's not good enough. Ever.

That's how it was in 2008-09, when Thompson and DeAngelo Casto were freshmen and seniors Taylor Rochestie and Aron Baynes carried the team to the NIT. It was especially unfortunate that Baynes and Casto played just one year together—they could have been quite a pair if they had gotten even one more year together.

It has been a rare case when the Cougars have had three or four good, experienced players at one time, but when they have, they have been a strong NCAA Tournament squad.

The last time that happened was in 2006-08, when Baynes and Rochestie were part of a team that was led by Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver. When Low and Weaver were juniors and Baynes and Rochestie were sophomores in 2006-07, the Cougars advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament (they lost in double-overtime to Vanderbilt).

The next year, those four led them to the Sweet 16 (where they were blown out by North Carolina). As good as those teams were, they were still a scorer short.

They got that scorer in 2008-09, when Thompson arrived. But Low and Weaver were gone, and Thompson was too young to help the Cougs get to the tournament; they had to settle for the NIT in Tony Bennett's last year.

The Cougars had the talent to be an NCAA Tournament team last year, when Thompson, Casto and Aden were juniors and Motum and Reggie Moore were sophomores. (We're not including senior Marcus Capers in this discussion because he is a one-dimensional—i.e., defensive—role player who doesn't offer much.)

But that group underachieved greatly. If Thompson and Casto had returned for their senior seasons, the Cougars probably would be at or near the top of the Pac-12 this year.

But, they left and Aden got hurt, and now it's just Motum and the annoyingly inconsistent Moore, and you can see where the Cougars are—not even close to good enough.

Next year, Motum and Moore will be seniors, DaVonte Lacy and Kansas transfer Royce Woolridge (currently redshirting) will be sophomores and the Cougars will have flash scorer DeMarquise Johnson and big man Richard Peters in as freshmen.

That will put them in the same spot they were in during the 2008-09 season, when they were light on experience and ended up as an NIT team. That seems to be the best they can do in 2013—and that's if Lacy, Johnson, Woolridge and Peters can help Motum score.

Assuming Johnson is the same kind of scoring machine Thompson was and Peters can fairly replicate Casto's play inside, the Cougars figure to be a borderline NIT team next year and again in 2014, when Woolridge and Lacy will be juniors and Johnson and Peters will be sophomores.

By 2014, Bone will be in his fifth season, and he will need to be showing that he is putting together a viable program. His 2013-14 recruiting class will be key to that. He has a nice class coming in next year: Johnson, Peters and a pair of 6'7" guys with unknown potential in Brett Boese and Richard Longrus.

But the key to long-term success will be his 2013-14 freshmen. If he can find a good big man and a point guard for that class, Bone could be on to something. Of course, it probably won't come to fruition until 2014-15.

In 2014-15, those unknown recruits would be sophomores, Johnson and Peters would be juniors and Woolridge and Lacy would be seniors, and the Cougars ideally would be in the NCAA Tournament again.

If they aren't, it means Bone will have failed to establish his program. And they will have to start all over.

Is DaVonte Lacy ready to finish his freshman season strong?

DaVonte Lacy's performance in WSU's 72-50 blowout of Arizona State last Saturday was his best game since the opening weekend of Pac-12 play, and it seemed to answer questions about whether he had "hit the freshman wall."

Lacy's 17 points were his most since scoring 18 against Oregon State on Dec. 31. He hit 6-of-11 shots, including 4-of-9 from three-point range, and also had four assists, three rebounds and a steal.

After the game Saturday, coach Ken Bone told reporters, "There's been talk about, 'Has he hit the freshman wall?' Well, there was no wall up there today."

It has been less a wall than a typically up-and-down freshman season, with the requisite learning curve.

A great three-game stretch at the end of December seemed to augur good things for Lacy. He scored 15 against Pepperdine and opened Pac-12 play with 19 against Oregon and 18 against Oregon State. He hit 17-of-30 shots (56.7 percent) in those three games, including 11-of-16 three-pointers.

But he mostly disappeared from the offense over the next 12 games, when he averaged just 7.2 points. He shot 32 percent (25-of-78) over that stretch, and his shot attempts per game varied from as few as two to as many as 10.

Like the rest of the team, he has played better at home. On the road, he has been pretty ineffective, hitting just 29.2 percent (14-of-48) of his shots.

At 6'3", 202 lbs., Lacy is a stout guard who seems capable of becoming a good inside-out player. But as a freshman, he has lingered on the perimeter. His 132 three-point attempts are almost double the next player on the team (Reggie Moore has 70) and are among the top seven in the conference.

Although he's shooting only 37 percent from distance, Lacy can definitely hit the shot, as he showed in late December and again against ASU. But he is going to have to broaden his game heading into next season.  

As for this season, the numbers say he needs to be involved in the offense. In conference play, the Cougars are 3-1 when he has at least 10 shot attempts, and they're 6-3 when he scores at least eight points.

Granted, Brock Motum and Faisal Aden have been the leading scorers on this team, but it's not like the Cougs couldn't use another consistent scorer, especially with Aden out for the season.

Since scoring 14 with five rebounds in WSU's upset of Cal eight games ago, Lacy simply hadn't done much until Saturday.

That had led plenty of folks to wonder whether he had hit the point of diminishing returns as a frosh.

"The wall for me is more mental than physical," he told reporters Saturday. "I played in a lot of games in high school because … we played in the postseason a lot. So I think it's more mental, being locked in, coming to every practice ready to work and get better and have fun in the games and keep my energy level up. ... I think I went through a little bit, but I'm ready now."

If he is, maybe the Cougars have a shot at beating Washington on Saturday and finishing the season strong over the next two weeks.

Can WSU become a consistent NCAA Tournament contender by 2015?