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If you’ve been following the college basketball transfer portal season, you know Washington State has been chasing Eastern Washington transfer Tanner Groves. The Cougs made the cut for the final four teams, but Groves is headed to Norman, Oklahoma instead of Pullman.
Eastern Washington transfer Tanner Groves has committed to Oklahoma, sources told ESPN.
— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) April 18, 2021
Huge pickup for Porter Moser.
Big Sky Player of the Year. Scored 35 points against Kansas in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Averaged 17.2 points and 8.0 rebounds this season.
Groves’ brother, Jacob, who was also a WSU transfer target, will join his older brother in Oklahoma.
Jacob, Tanner’s brother is also committing to Oklahoma.
— jake lieberman (@jakelieberman2) April 19, 2021
Averaged 9.3 PPG this season. https://t.co/pMVu4rUkrQ
WSU was joined by Portland and Texas in Tanner Groves’ reported final four. It would have been a nice recruiting battle for Kyle Smith and Co. to win. While the Cougs still have Efe Abogidi and Dishon Jackson down low, Groves would have brought depth and a skillset the Cougars are currently lacking from their bigs.
To help visualize what the addition would have meant for WSU, this is what one projection model thought about the Cougs next season after the addition of Michael Flowers.
Adding Flowers has bumped WSU up from the low 80s to No. 50 in @totally_t_bomb’s current projection. https://t.co/zctnPrwwP2 pic.twitter.com/s9iC6KIqk4
— Craig ⭐️⭐️ (@TheCraigPowers) April 11, 2021
And this is what it would have thought if the Cougs also added Groves.
@tannergroves come join the party https://t.co/2gvNyADVVI pic.twitter.com/g99ocFbMY9
— Jeff, probably (@PodvsEveryone) April 11, 2021
Being No. 50 in the country heading into the season (without factoring in Tyrell Roberts) is nice. Being No. 36 would have been really nice.
Now, that doesn’t mean the Cougs are done. They could be, but considering how they pursued Groves, it wouldn’t be a massive surprise to see them bring in someone else before the season begins. The coaching staff has done a terrific job of adding guard depth this recruiting cycle, and likely replacing Issac Bonton, but there is still room for improvement on the depth down low, should the right player be available.
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