Eastern Washington guard Andrew Cook enters transfer portal after NCAA denies medical appeal

Andrew Cook’s name appeared in the transfer portal on Wednesday, but the Eastern Washington men’s basketball player is doing so without any remaining eligibility.

Given that, it’s an unusual step. But it was the one EWU coaches advised Cook to take after his medical appeal for an eligibility waiver was denied by the NCAA at the end of March.

“We all agreed that it would be best if I explored all my options and saw what was out there for me,” Cook said Thursday on campus at Eastern Washington University. “Right now it’s just a hard situation.”

When Cook injured his ankle before the 2025-26 season – and did so severely enough that he wouldn’t even be able to practice until about six months later – Eastern’s coaches, and Cook himself, were optimistic that the NCAA would approve a waiver to give Cook the chance to play during the 2026-27 season.

But Cook’s situation is novel.

“I don’t think that there is any precedent yet, because this is the first year this has ever happened,” Cook said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people, and they say your case seems really good, but it’s hard to really judge it because it’s never happened until now.”

Starting in the fall of 2021, Cook played three consecutive seasons at Carroll College, an NAIA school in Helena, Montana. During the 2023-24 season at Carroll, Cook averaged 20.8 points and 5.8 rebounds under head coach Ryan Lundgren, who joined the EWU coaching staff the following season when Dan Monson was hired.

Cook followed his former head coach to Cheney and became a first-team All-Big Sky Conference selection, when he led the Eagles in scoring (15.8 points per game) and field goal shooting (54.4%).

Midway through that 2024-25 season – Cook’s fourth playing college basketball – the NCAA granted a waiver that extended one year of eligibility to athletes who previously competed at “a non-NCAA school” for at least one year and would have otherwise exhausted their eligibility at the end of that season. Since NAIA is not affiliated with the NCAA, Cook took the NCAA up on that offer.

But his injury prevented him from using that extra year of eligibility in 2025-26, sending him into unprecedented legal waters for the NCAA.

Part of the rationale for Cook to enter the transfer portal was that it’s possible another school may sign him and be willing to pay what could be considerable legal fees to fight the NCAA in court. Cook said he anticipates this could be a long process.

But Cook also said he’s hoping it doesn’t become a long legal battle.

“I am hoping the NCAA comes to their senses and they see that all I am asking for is what I was already promised,” Cook said. “I’m not fighting for another year that I was never actually given. I was actually allowed to have an extra year, and unfortunately I didn’t get to use it.”

As of now, the NCAA is treating the Pavia case – so named because it was Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia who filed the lawsuit – not as precedent but as a one-time affordance to players in Pavia’s situation.

Usually EWU head coach Dan Monson’s policy is that once a player is in the transfer portal, he cannot come back to Eastern. But Cook said Monson was willing to make an exception should things work out for Cook.

Notably, the only Big Sky men’s basketball program that hasn’t had a player with remaining eligibility enter the portal this year is Eastern.

“Eastern has been really good about this whole thing,” Cook said. “Everybody understands it’s not a good situation. They are just trying to help me as much as they can.”