Washington State enters 2026-27 with almost a brand-new roster, and Sebastian Akins looks like the transfer who could matter most.
That’s a pretty striking place for the Cougars to be. Not long ago, they made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in more than a decade, only to watch Kyle Smith leave for Stanford while the Pac-12 breakup left them behind. Last season was a grind from start to finish: a 12-20 record, an 8th-place finish in the WCC, and then a reset as they head back into the newly reconstructed Pac-12.
The bigger story, though, is how little of that old team remains. Washington State watched Ace Glass, ND Okafor, Rihards Vavers, and Eemeli Yalaho all leave through the transfer portal, and each of them landed at more prominent programs. Dio Blakely, who averaged less than a point as a freshman, is basically the lone meaningful returner.
So the Cougars are building from the ground up, and the transfer class is doing the heavy lifting. The guard group brings in RJ Jones from TCU and Jaylen Harrell from Providence, both with power conference experience. In the frontcourt, Fraser Roxburgh arrives after averaging double figures at Manhattan, while Tyler Kropp from Northwestern and Ladji Dembele from UNLV add more size and upside.
But Akins is the name that stands out.
The 6-2 guard from Concord, North Carolina started his college career at Denver, where he gave the Pioneers real scoring punch as a freshman. He averaged 12.7 points per game there, doing most of that work off the bench. At Wake Forest last season, his role shrank, and his numbers followed, dropping to 5.3 points per game with less impressive shooting.
Still, the reason Akins is such a key piece for Washington State is easy to see. He has already shown he can be a dangerous backcourt scorer, and this roster is going to need exactly that kind of presence. With so many new faces, the Cougars need guards who can organize things, create offense, and survive the jump in competition.
That’s where Akins comes in. He’s one of the few players on this roster who has already proven he can be productive, and he’s also shown he can handle his own in a power conference at times. For a team trying to find itself quickly, that matters.
The new Pac-12 should make this a tougher test than his freshman season at Denver, and nobody knows yet how all these pieces will fit together. But Akins looks set for plenty of minutes, and Washington State will need him to rediscover the form that made him such a productive freshman. If the Cougars are going to make noise in this new league, that bounce-back has to come from somewhere.
Maybe it’s Akins. Maybe it’s RJ Jones or Jamari Phillips. Either way, Washington State’s season may end up swinging on which of those guards can take the next step.
In Other News...
Bill Doba Meant More To WSU Than Wins And Former Players Show Why
Bill Dobas death at 85 has brought a wave of reflection from the Washington State community, and the tributes have made clear how much more he meant to the program than the record books ever could show. Former players and colleagues from his 19 years at WSU have been remembering him not just as a coach, but as a mentor and a family man whose influence carried well beyond the football field.
Those memories matter because they capture the side of Doba that Cougar fans knew was there even in the toughest seasons. The respect pouring in from across that extended WSU family speaks to a relationship that lasted long after the final whistle, and it is why his legacy in Pullman feels tied as much to people as to football. [Read more 🡒]
Washington States 2026 Ceiling Suddenly Feels Higher Than Just A Bowl
Washington State is starting to show up in preseason conversations as more than just a team trying to scrape together six wins and get back to a bowl. Across a range of national projections, the Cougars are generally being viewed as a postseason group, with different outlets sending them to different bowls and a few even floating the kind of upside that would have sounded far-fetched not long ago. The larger point is clear: the floor looks higher, and the early buzz around 2026 is already treating the Cougs as a team with a real path to matter.
The schedule will do a lot of the talking once the season arrives. Home dates against Fresno State, Boise State and Oregon State give Washington State chances to stack rsum-building wins, and they also help explain why the season is being framed with a wider range of outcomes than usual. If the Cougars handle those sorts of games, the conversation could shift quickly from bowl eligibility to something far more ambitious. [Read more 🡒]
Washington State Has A Huge Apple Cup Chance Fans Will Feel
The Apple Cup has settled into a strange new rhythm, but it still carries the kind of pull that makes September feel bigger in Pullman and Seattle. Washington State and Washington are meeting for the 118th time, and for the third straight year the rivalry lands early on the calendar because realignment split the schools into different conference worlds, with the Huskies now in the Big Ten and the Cougars still in the Pac-12.
This years matchup also brings a quarterback subplot that adds another layer to the familiar edge. Washington State transfer Caden Pinnick is preparing for his first Apple Cup start, while Washington junior Demond Williams returns after choosing to stay with the Huskies, keeping the spotlight on a game that already means plenty to both fan bases. Even with the backdrop changing around them, the rivalry still has a way of making every September meeting feel like it could tilt the season in an instant. [Read more 🡒]