‘My heart was set on WSU.’ EWU transfer Cedric Coward never had any doubts joining David Riley, Cougars

LAS VEGAS – Cedric Coward entered the transfer portal, took the phone calls, listened to the recruiting pitches.

Coward did his due diligence, but the standout Eastern Washington guard kept returning to the same conclusion.

“Me being recruited in the transfer portal and stuff, it was cool and stuff, but I had my heart set on WSU and wherever David (Riley) and the coaching staff was going from the very beginning,” Coward said Thursday during West Coast Conference Media Day.

With a number of options at his disposal, Coward recommitted to Riley, the coach who recruited him three years ago out of Division III Willamette (Oregon) University, giving WSU’s new-look roster an instant jolt from an accomplished perimeter scorer coming off all-conference, first-team honors in the Big Sky Conference.

Coward’s final destination was never much of a question – not for the 6-foot-6 senior guard, at least – once Riley left EWU to accept the same position at WSU.

“We’ve got some unfinished business,” Coward said. “In the past two years, these guys have helped me grow my game to levels that I wanted to get to, and I know I’ve still got more to go and they’re going to help me do that as well, as an individual. And like I said, we’ve got unfinished business as a team.

“The past two years, we’ve had success (in the) regular season … but once we got to that playoff crunch time, we couldn’t pull through. So now, it’s time to have that same regular-season success and then translate that into a playoff success.”

During Coward’s two seasons at EWU, the Eagles went a combined 31-5 in the Big Sky Conference and won consecutive regular-season conference championships. EWU came up short both years in the Big Sky Tournament, failing to qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

The Cougars are coming off a trip to the NCAA Tournament, earning an at-large bid under former coach Kyle Smith, and feel they can achieve a similar outcome with a roster that resembles the one Riley had last season in Cheney.

Coward was one of four players from EWU’s rotation to join Riley in Pullman, along with guard LeJuan Watts and forwards Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup.

“I think all the guys that have come in with us, we kept it very real,” Riley said. “Listen, I’m not going to recruit you in a normal way. You know who I am, you know what I’m about. We’re just going to talk about our vision together. For me, it was a really rewarding feeling to see these guys that wanted to come join me at Washington State, meant a lot.”

Coward, one of 11 players to earn preseason All-WCC honors on Thursday and the only WSU player to earn a nod, said Riley kept his recruiting pitch simple.

“It’s crazy, because when I was getting recruited the first time, they kept it real,” Coward said. “It wasn’t a sales pitch. I think the first Zoom call I had, we were going through offensive plays and stuff like that. I was trying to wrap my mind around everything. Pretty much went through that, brought me on a visit and they showed their vision for me and what’s happening.

“Now at Wazzu I know him, he knows me. I know the coaching staff. Now it’s just, what do we want to get out of it for you as an individual? What’s the vision for you and the future, and what’s the vision for us as a team and how do you fit into that? It wasn’t really any change, it was just keeping it real the whole time and that’s what I appreciated. It was super genuine.”

Coward characterized WSU’s 2024-25 team as the closest he’s seen, despite the Cougars having to blend Riley’s former players at EWU with a variety of Division I transfers from other schools, international prospects and high school recruits.

“That’s coach Riley’s first rule with the team, is being the most cohesive,” Coward said. “It doesn’t matter if we’ve got guys from the East Coast, West Coast, international, us being cohesive as a unit is the main thing. The guys at Eastern, we’ve always been close. We’re going on three years, thick and thin, won a lot of games, lost some games. … We try to share that with the rest of the team, too. I think this is the closest team I’ve been on, if not the closest team I’ve been on this early.”