Men’s basketball adds two on National Letter of Intent signing day

From staff reports

The Washington State men’s basketball team has yet to play a regular season game this fall, but the Cougars are already preparing for the 2016-17 season.

Milan Acquaah and Jeff Pollard both signed National Letters of Intent Wednesday to play for the Cougars next season.

Acquaah, a 6-foot-2-inch, 195 pound guard from Pasadena, California, will begin his senior season at Cathedral High School this winter. He averaged 19.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.1 assists as a junior, earning Open Division first-team All-CIF honors and Cal-Hi Sports All-State Junior first-team accolades.

“One of the best point guards in my opinion in the west,” Head Coach Ernie Kent said in a press conference. “Very heady, a very strong basketball player.”

Pollard, a 6-foot-8-inch, 235 pound forward from Bountiful, Utah, will enter his first season at Impact Academy in Las Vegas this season after graduating from Bountiful High School earlier this year. Pollard has a track record of winning, leading Bountiful High School to two consecutive state titles his junior and senior years. He averaged 16 points and nine rebounds per game as a senior, and put up 9.5 points and 7.6 rebounds as a junior.

Pollard was named to the 4A State All-Tournament team as a senior as well as the Coaches’ 4A All-State first team.

“Jeff Pollard is a very, very smart young man on the floor,” Kent said. “He plays a physical brand of basketball, he can really score on the low block, and has a perimeter game to go along with it.”

Kent acknowledged the fact that both players committed early in their high school careers and have stuck with their commitments, a sign of loyalty to Cougar basketball.

“The fact that they stood with their commitments, even though that they both had excellent years last year and continued to get recruited, number one it says a lot about Washington State and our basketball program, but more importantly, it says a lot about the character of these two young men,” Kent said.

Reporting by Chase Urquhart