PAC-12 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season
By Andy Patton
Cougars . 9. team. 522. . .
Washington State finished 11th in the PAC-12 last season, although a sweep against longtime rival Washington helped ensure they wouldn’t finish dead last in the conference – where they have been for most of the last decade.
They’ll have to fight to ensure they don’t end up in the cellar again in 2020-2021 after losing star guard CJ Elleby to the NBA Draft. Elleby was a monster on the Palouse, averaging 18.4 points and 7.8 rebounds as a sophomore last year, leading the team in both categories.
WSU will also miss forward Jeff Pollard and guard Jervae Robinson, but they are returning a quality PAC-12 scorer in Isaac Bonton, and will hope for a leap forward from rising senior Tony Miller, who averaged 7.7 points last year.
The primary reason WSU has moved up a few spots despite the loss of Ellerby is the excellent recruiting class Kyle Smith and his staff managed to pull together.
Led by three top-200 prospects – four-star forwards Andrej Jakimovski and Carlos Rosario, as well as three-star center Dishon Jackson, the Cougars have a young but talented group that could make some noise in the PAC-12, or at the very least enough to ensure they are the top dog in the state of Washington.