WSU basketball continues to reshape roster; baseball welcomes in Fresno State

Tyler Kropp is the tallest forward signed from this transfer portal cycle at 6’9”. Kropp played his freshman season at Northwestern last year. He appeared in 31 games, starting 10 of them. He averaged 11.8 minutes, 3.1 points, and 2.1 rebounds per game. Kropp, at the very least, gives WSU some size that they were desperately needing to fill out this roster with. In his first start at Northwestern, he pulled down nine rebounds against the USC Trojans. Impressively as a big, he was money from the free-throw line, sinking 92.3% of his charity stripe shots on 26 attempts.

To close out the transfer portal, WSU added another former four-star high school recruit in Jamari Phillips. Phillips, a 6’4” guard, has spent the last two years in Eugene, Oregon, with the Oregon Ducks. He tallied 14 games in his freshman year—only ever seeing over 10 minutes once—and saw an increase in minutes last season, playing more once the Ducks entered conference play. Phillips never started in the 26 games he played for the Ducks but did record a season-high 31 minutes against UCLA, scoring all nine of his points from three-pointers. In his limited minutes, Phillips lived from beyond the arc. He took just 12 shots from inside the three-point line, compared to 61 from outside. He wasn’t exactly knocking them down, however, making just 29.5% of his threes.

With the transfer portal officially closed, it’s pretty easy to spot the types of players Riley and his staff were aiming for. Guards who can shoot the three-ball, like Lazerek Houston and Phillips, and undersized forwards who can pull down rebounds like Roxburgh and Dembele. They are also clearly taking some chances on former high-profile high school guys to see if they can unlock that potential that their prior school couldn’t with RJ Jones, Harrell and Phillips. While Riley was able to pick up those forwards who can rebound at an impressive rate, WSU will enter the 2026-27 season with just two players taller than 6’8″: Kropp and Dominik Robinson. If WSU is going to be competitive next season, they are going to need big rebounding seasons from their forwards to make up for their lack of true bigs.

Over on the diamond, WSU baseball picked up a series win over the New Mexico Lobos last weekend. The Cougars outscored the Lobos 26-10 over the three games but narrowly lost the Saturday game 4-3. The Lobos started out the weekend by jumping on Friday starter Nick Lewis early. The Lobos ambushed him for three runs in the first, but the Cougars rebounded with a four-run bottom half of the inning thanks to a Ryan Skjonsby three-run homer. The Cougars cruised from there, scoring six more runs for a 10-3 game one victory.

In game two, the Cougars looked to be on their way to clinching a series win after Skjonsby hit another home run to give them a 3-1 lead in the 6th. However, the Lobos answered with two runs in the sixth inning to tie the game up at three. In the top of the 9th, Lenny Ashby pushed across what would be the game-winning run with a single to left field to give the Lobos a 4-3 lead and eventually win.

WSU responded in a big way on Sunday afternoon. Despite never hitting a long ball, the Cougars piled up 13 runs, scoring two in the bottom of the 8th to trigger the mercy rule and secure a series win, 13-3. The Saturday loss for WSU stings even more considering the fact that the first-place Nevada Wolfpack lost to the UNLV Rebels earlier in the day. Had WSU eeked out a win, they would currently be tied for first with the Air Force Falcons at 12-6. However, WSU has a great chance to make up for the one loss as they welcome in the lowly Fresno State Bulldogs for the final three-game series at Bailey-Brayton Field this season. The Bulldogs enter this weekend at 12-29-1 overall and 1-13-1 in conference play. Their lone conference win came one month ago when they defeated the Grand Canyon Antelopes 10-8 on April 2nd. Their one tie was against the Lobos in a crazy 18-18 thriller. Unfortunately, the game could not be completed due to Fresno State’s “travel plans.”

After this Fresno State series, WSU will head north for a non-conference single game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in Spokane, before heading to Colorado for a massive series against Air Force. They’ll conclude the regular season with one more non-conference game at home against the Seattle Redhawks.