By james art 
The 2024 college basketball season begins on Monday, November 4, and the Washington State Cougars have a home game to kick things off. The Cougars host Portland State at Beasley Coliseum, a game that will begin at 11:00 PM ET/8:00 PM PT and will be televised on ESPN+. Fans will get their first look at new head coach David Riley’s team as they play PSU from the Big Sky Conference.
Last season, the Vikings finished with a 17-15 record, including 8-10 in conference play. Their head coach Jase Coburn is in his fourth season with a 28-36 career record at the school. The Cougars are 10-0 all-time against Portland State, including 8-0 when they play back-to-back in Pullman.
The Vikings lose three of their top four scorers from last year, including KJ Allen (from Last Chance U: Basketball glory; 13.5 points, 7.4 rebounds), Bobby Harvey (9.1 points) and Joel Satterfield (8.0 points, 3.7 rebounds) and will be led this year by Isaiah Johnson (9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds) and Ismail Habib (9.0 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists).
Last season, these two teams played each other until a 71-61 win at Washington State, led by an Indiana transfer Miles Rice. This year, the Cougars have a whole new cast of players, including several transfers from Eastern Washington, a player brought in when former Eagles head coach David Riley took the job at Washington State.
Led offensively by transfer wing and NBA hopeful Cedric CowardWashington State will have real firepower on the offensive end when combined with players like the Cal transfer ND OkaforWashington transfer Nate Calmese, and other eastern transfers LeJuan Watts and Ethan Price. They were projected to finish fifth in the West Coast Conference coaches poll and are looking to exceed expectations, playing a completely different set of teams since the disbanding of the old Pac-12 conference.
The Cougars are favored by 14.5 points according to DraftKings Sportsbook and are -1,100 favorites to win the game against Portland State.