WSU forward ND Okafor, wing Ri Vavers to enter the transfer portal
PULLMAN — Washington State will have to replace two more key players from the last couple seasons.
Forward ND Okafor and wing Ri Vavers are planning to enter the transfer portal, sources confirmed to The Spokesman Review on Tuesday, becoming the sixth and seventh Cougars to make that decision this offseason.
In his second and final season at WSU, the 6-foot-10 Okafor averaged 11 points and 5.7 rebounds to pair with 1.4 blocks, which ranked second in the West Coast Conference. That helped him earn an all-WCC honorable mention honor after the season.
All told, Okafor played in 64 total games at WSU, including starting all 32 in the Cougars’ 12-20 campaign last season.
In his second season on the Palouse, Vavers started 16 of 29 games, averaging 11.5 points on 42% shooting from 3-point range. Far and away the team’s best shooter, Vavers also shot a remarkable 46% from distance in WCC play, which ranked fifth in the conference. His catch-and-shoot acumen opened up much of the Cougars’ offense.
As the season unfolded, Vavers began to expand his game, putting the ball on the floor more often and creating for others. It was clear that the more he played, the more comfortable he got, on both sides of the ball. He battled injuries for much of his first season at Washington State, so when he was healthy last season, he played the best basketball of his career.
Field of 68 and On3 Sports were the first to report the news of these departures.
Okafor and Vavers join forwards Eemeli Yalaho and Emmanuel Ugbo and guards Tomas Thrastarson, Parker Gerrits and Kase Wynott as WSU players choosing to enter the transfer portal. That’s seven players the Cougars are expected to lose to the portal ahead of its opening on April 7.
A former transfer from Cal, where he spent the first two years of his career, Okafor was a valuable part of the Cougars’ defense each of the past two years. He flourished as a reliable shot-blocker and defensive rebounder, doing his part to shore up two areas in which his team struggled.
On top of that, Okafor might have been WSU’s most improved player this past season. He showed some real touch around the basket, a key reason he scored in double figures in 21 games, including a career-high 27 points against Southern Utah and a 21-point outing against San Diego. He looked far more comfortable around the basket this season than in his debut season with the Cougs, using better footwork and softer touch to generate easy looks on offense.
WSU is also losing point guard Adria Rodriguez, who is headed back to his home country of Spain on a professional contract, and forward Simon Hildebrandt has exhausted his eligibility, a source confirmed to The Spokesman-Review. In total, that’s nine departures for the Cougars, who are also awaiting decisions from guards Ace Glass and Jerone Morton.
Morton and Glass — both of whom figure to be candidates to fetch big paydays via the portal if they so choose — are now the only remaining members of WSU’s team who played more than five minutes per game last season. If they exit, the Cougars will be down to guard Brunel Madzou (did not play last season), walk-on guard Dio Blakely (seven total minutes) and forward Dominik Robinson (redshirted).
In that situation, the Cougars would be looking at yet another offseason of complete roster reconstruction. After the 2024 season, they lost their entire starting lineup as former coach Kyle Smith departed for the job at Stanford. And last spring, the same fate met WSU, which lost two starters to the portal, two to graduation and one to the NBA.
What do the Cougs’ losses mean for the program? The most impactful losses belong to Okafor, Vavers and Thrastarson, who were regular starters and meaningful contributors. Gerrits is a reserve guard, Wynott missed nearly the whole season with an injury and after playing a key role in 22 games in 2024-25, and Ugbo was suspended for the final nine games of the season because of a protection order against him.