WSU hoops notebook: Cougars get commitment from Providence transfer, schedule game against High Point

Apr. 18—PULLMAN — Another reinforcement is headed to Washington State.

The Cougars have secured a commitment from Providence transfer guard Jaylen Harrell, a source confirmed to The Spokesman-Review on Saturday, good for the program's sixth addition of the offseason. Harrell played one season with the Friars before entering the transfer portal this spring.

Listed at 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Harrell played in the first six games of the season before going down with a season-ending injury, finishing with an average of 3.7 points in 9.7 minutes per game. In that span, he converted 8 of 16 field goals, including 3 of 11 from beyond the arc.

League Ready was the first to report the news.

A native of the Boston area, Harrell was 247 Sports' top-ranked Massachusetts recruit in the class of 2025, becoming a consensus four-star prospect. He earned offers from Alabama, Washington, Rutgers, Wake Forest, Xavier, Georgetown, Virginia Tech and UMass before taking his talents to Providence.

In high school, Harrell attended St. Sebastian's from 2021-23 before transferring to Cambridge Arts, Technology and Science Academy (CATS) for his junior and senior seasons. As a senior, Harrell averaged 22.1 points, 8.5 rebounds and 7.2 assists, recording six double-doubles and eclipsing the 30-point mark three times. He was also named the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year in both 2024 and 2025.

Harrell's addition fits in nicely with the Cougars' other four, which include Wake Forest guard Sebastian Akins, TCU guard RJ Jones, East Texas A&M forward Ronnie Harrison, Manhattan forward Fraser Roxburgh and Central Missouri (DII) guard Lazerek Houston, the latter of whom averaged more than 20 points per game as a true freshman last season. All six seem to orient their games around scoring, perhaps indicating that WSU coach David Riley is ready to get back to the offensive-centric approach he used at Eastern Washington and his first WSU season in 2024.

With Harrell joining the Cougars, their 2026-27 team now includes nine players: Harrell, Harrison, Akins, Houston, Roxburgh, Jones, Eastern Washington transfer Casey Jones (who spent the last two years on a church mission), incoming freshman Brayden Kyman and returners Dominik Robinson and walk-on guard Dio Blakely.

That will help WSU offset the departures of 12 players, including 10 to the transfer portal: key players Ace Glass (signed with Vanderbilt), Tomas Thrastarson, Eemeli Yalaho, ND Okafor (signed with Ole Miss), Jerone Morton and Ri Vavers (signed with Memphis); reserve guards Parker Gerrits (signed with Wyoming), Brunel Madzou and Kase Wynott (signed with Idaho); and forward Emmanuel Ugbo, who was suspended for the final nine games of the season because of a protection order against him.

The Cougars are also losing point guard Adria Rodriguez, who is headed back to his home country of Spain on a professional contract, as well as Simon Hildebrandt, who exhausted his college eligibility. In all, that's 12 departures for the Cougars, who are set to return only two players from last season's team: Robinson, who redshirted his true freshman season, and Blakely.