WSU men’s basketball dealt another big blow as Mouhamed Gueye enters transfer portal

Washington State’s men’s basketball roster has been battered in excess of the past month by the NCAA’s transfer portal, which just delivered an additional major blow.

Mouhamed Gueye hopped into the NCAA’s version of a cost-free-company current market, Verbal Commits described Monday.

Gueye is the sixth Cougars player to enter the transfer portal because the period ended in late March, adhering to put up Efe Abogidi, and guards Tyrell Roberts, Noah Williams, Ryan Rapp and Jefferson Koulibaly.

Sunday marked the deadline for school gamers to enter the portal and preserve their eligibility for the 2022-23 period. So the Cougars possibly will not be getting rid of anyone else.

Gueye declared for the NBA draft last 7 days. Quite a few presumed he was only searching for comments from pro staff and would occur again for a second season at WSU. But now that he’s in the portal, the odds of a return to Pullman are unfavorable.

The 6-foot-11 indigenous of Senegal, a four-star recruit (247Sports activities.com), signed with WSU past calendar year in excess of provides from Kansas and UCLA — among others — and swiftly became a critical piece in a Cougar staff that went on to document its best period in a decade, amassing 22 wins and advancing to the semifinal round of the NIT.

Just one of the prime-rated recruits in WSU historical past, Gueye begun 33 of 35 video games performed, averaging 7.4 details and 5.2 rebounds for each contest and rising as a professional prospect and an “elite defender” close to the rim, 3rd-yr mentor Kyle Smith explained. Gueye’s athleticism and quickly-improving leap shot amazed onlookers, and he landed on the Pac-12’s all-freshman group.

Instead than creating upon momentum produced final season, Smith and his team will shell out this offseason rebuilding a lineup that’ll probable reduce its 5 common starters in Gueye, Abogidi, Roberts, Williams and graduated stage guard Michael Flowers.

Abogidi declared for the draft April 12, then place his identify in the portal three times later on.

Roberts entered the transfer portal last 7 days, and Williams fully commited to rival Washington last month.

As of now, WSU’s roster consists of 4 gamers with activity experience — guard TJ Bamba, heart Dishon Jackson and forwards Andrej Jakimovski and DJ Rodman — all of whom have built commences for the Cougars.