WSU star guard Ace Glass to enter the transfer portal
PULLMAN – Washington State’s best player will be wearing another jersey next season.
Star freshman guard Ace Glass is expected to enter the transfer portal, a source confirmed to The Spokesman-Review on Friday, dealing a costly blow to coach David Riley’s program.
The team’s leading scorer with 16.4 points per game, Glass quickly became the Cougars’ top player in his first season of college basketball, which makes his departure a big loss for the team. An All-West Coast Conference second team and all-freshman team selection, Glass scored in double figures in all but five games.
Draft Express was the first to report the news.
A 6-foot-3 native of the Los Angeles area, Glass rewrote the WSU freshman history books in all kinds of ways. He broke the program’s single-game scoring record with a 40-point outburst against Arizona State in November’s Maui Invitational. He also set the single-season scoring record (525 points), 3-point record (71) and free throw percentage record (88%).
Glass was originally a four-star prospect in the class of 2025, and he signed with Texas A&M. But last spring, when coach Buzz Williams left for the job at Maryland, Glass re-opened his recruitment, prompting Riley and coaches to jump in. He took his talents to WSU, he said, in large part because the opportunities the program figured to provide him.
“Just the family aspect,” Glass said last April. “It felt like they really knew me, and it felt like they knew my game. Just felt like they could develop me and put me in the right position in the program to thrive. It’s a great conference still, so playing against the best of the best, so it’s just a great place.”
Glass’ time is now over at WSU, which went 12-20 this last season. With his proven shot-creation and athleticism, he figures to fetch a big payday from a Power 4 school, many of which will likely be vying for his services – if they aren’t already. It’s possible he started to earn that kind of attention way back in November, when he torched ASU for 40 points, which meant WSU would have to find big money to retain him.
As the rest of the season unfolded, Glass continued to turn in sublime scoring outings. He put up 24 points on the road against Saint Mary’s, 29 on the road against San Diego, 20 against LMU, also on the road. In the home meeting between the Cougars and Lions, Glass got to the basket for the game-winning and-one in the final seconds.
Glass becomes the eighth Cougar to hit the portal this offseason, joining forwards ND Okafor, Eemeli Yalaho and Emmanuel Ugbo and guards Tomas Thrastarson, Ri Vavers, Kase Wynott and Parker Gerrits. Glass, Okafor, Thrastarson and Yalaho were all regular starters, meaning Riley and coaches will have to replace nearly their entire starting lineup for a second straight offseason.
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 10 departures for the Cougars, who are also awaiting a decision from guard Jerone Morton, a starter in 29 of 32 games.
Morton – who also figures to be a candidate to earn big money in the portal if he so chooses – is now the only remaining member of WSU’s team who played more than five minutes per game last season. If he exits, 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).
It’s not the first time a star WSU freshman has elected to hit the portal after breaking out with the Cougars. After the 2023-24 season, when former coach Kyle Smith led the program to its first NCAA Tournament since 2008, guard Myles Rice entered the transfer portal and landed at Indiana. He spent last season at Maryland.
Much of that team split up because of Smith’s departure to Stanford, but the same fate met last year’s team, which lost two starters (Nate Calmese and LeJuan Watts) to the portal, one to the NBA (Cedric Coward, No. 11 overall pick) and two to graduation (Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup).