As many Cougs enter the portal, the biggest news might just be no news. Specifically, no news on star forward Jaylen Wells, who has not entered the portal yet. He is the biggest name remaining, and a livestream with freshman sharpshooter Isaiah Watts and redshirt sharpshooter Parker Gerrits seems to have clarified the situation Tuesday night.
Gerris and Watts stated their desire to stay with the team last week but it was radio silence from Wells. That changed Tuesday night when Watts went live on Instagram from a dorm room. He confirmed to fans that he and Wells intend to stay.
“Jaylen Wells is coming back brother!” Watts said, imitating popular streamer ‘thesketchreal’.
The camera flipped, showing Gerrits sitting in a chair doing his iteration of the same impression.
“Jaylen Wells is coming back brother!” Gerrits echoed.
Watts took a moment to be more serious, setting the camera down.
“Hey, yo, I’m not leaving y’all, man,” he said, bending down to read the comments of overjoyed fans. “I love it here, I love it here. I’m so happy to be a Coug.”
Portal resident Andrej Jakimovski was seen commenting on the livestream. His post declaring his intent to transfer included a line about how it did not mean there was no chance of him withdrawing – now that seems more likely than ever.
Wells and Rice later joined the livestream, the former donning a Cougar basketball shirt and showing off his copy of Wazzuopoly. While he did not say anything with the level of certainty that Watts did, this does seem like a confirmation of a return.
Also seemingly confirmed to return are redshirts Spencer Mahoney and AJ LaBeau. LaBeau entered the portal last week, but the big man out of Idaho will most likely now withdraw his name from transfer consideration.
The livestream came just hours after the hiring of David Riley as the new head coach, a move that several players expressed support for on social media. It seems the now-former Eastern Washington coach is an inspired hire, as the Cougars have already retained several vital players.
If this keeps up, there could be several more Cougs to withdraw from the portal. Riley has experience rebuilding teams, but retaining some of the roster that made the NCAA tournament is a great start.
