Cougars Lose Freshman Basketball Guard Griffin

Freshman guard Chris Griffin has quit the Washington State basketball team and plans to transfer at the end of the school year, Cougars coach Kevin Eastman said Monday.

Eastman said Griffin will not decide where to transfer until after next week’s final exams.

“He just feels he needs to look in another direction,” Eastman said of Griffin, 18, who was the Northern California Player of the Year as a senior at Jesuit High School in Carmichael in 1994. “Chances are, he’ll end up somewhere in southern California, but that’s not a lock.”

Griffin could not be reached for comment, but is reportedly interested in Long Beach State.

As a freshman on last year’s 18-12 WSU team that lost to Canisius in the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament, Griffin averaged 5.0 points, 1.5 assists and 19 minutes in 28 games. He started three times - twice at the point - and scored a career-high 14 points in a mid-season road loss to eventual NCAA champion UCLA.

“He gave us some quality minutes and that’s why we needed to go with an experienced player to replace him,” said Eastman, who announced the late signings of junior college guards Kareem Jackson and Chris Scott last weekend. “It’s not a situation where he’s irreplaceable at all, but it’s still disappointing because you always want to keep personnel flowing steadily through your program.”

When Griffin signed with WSU, Kelvin Sampson was the Cougars’ coach and there was speculation Griffin might try to get out of his letter of intent when Sampson decided to leave for Oklahoma.

But he decided to honor his commitment.