RJ Jones arrives at Washington State with a résumé that still feels unfinished, and that’s exactly why the Cougars are betting on him.
The 6-foot-2, 189-pound guard from Denton, Texas is headed to Pullman for his third college stop, and the staff clearly sees a player whose ceiling is still ahead of him. Jones came out of high school as a 4-star recruit and a top-100 prospect in the class of 2023, then spent one season at Kansas State before moving on to TCU.
At Kansas State, Jones appeared in 28 games during the 2023-24 season and averaged 2.4 points per game. There were flashes in that stretch, too: he scored 14 points against South Dakota State and added nine at Kansas.
But after that year, he transferred to TCU, where his role shrank dramatically. He played in just nine games there this past season, and he also did not appear in every game during 2024-25.
Jones attended Wasatch Academy in Utah before college, and the expectation is that he still has two years of eligibility left.
His prep profile was strong. In that 2023 recruiting cycle, he was the No. 1 recruit in Utah, ranked ahead of eventual NBA top-10 draft pick Collin Murray-Boyles.
He carried a 91 grade on 247Sports, checked in at No. 98 nationally, and drew 19 offers out of high school. The list included Texas A&M, Oklahoma, USC, Oklahoma State, Illinois, California, Colorado, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Xavier.
For Washington State, the appeal is obvious: a chance to get value from a Power Four player who hasn’t yet lived up to the billing. That kind of move always carries some risk, but it can also pay off in a big way. The Cougars have already found success with similar bets recently in Nate Calmese, ND Okafor, and Eemeli Yalaho.
Jones barely saw the floor this past season, logging just 57 minutes, though he did score 14 points against Florida A&M in December. His last real run came in 2023-24, and the last time he played more than 20 minutes was November 22, 2023, when Kansas State beat Central Arkansas 100-56. Jones went for eight points and four assists in 21 minutes.
That was a different era in Pullman and beyond. Jaylen Wells had only made one career three as a Coug, Cameron Ward was still the WSU quarterback, and five days later Washington State would beat David Riley and Eastern Washington 82-72 behind 28 points from Myles Rice.
Still, the Cougars are looking past the recent box scores and into the possibility of what Jones could become.
“RJ from TCU is someone that we followed when he was at Wasatch Academy in Utah,” Riley said. “And another guy who is super talented, played some at Kansas State before he was at TCU, can play on and off the ball, can shoot it, and was really most impressed with his IQ when coming and talking basketball with him. It's been really fun.
"And I think he's going to be able to come in and impact a lot of different areas. His ability to think the game and think for others is going to be really fun to watch in our system.”