Cougar men’s hoops adds another key piece

Washington State’s men’s basketball team added another valuable, veteran piece in former Eastern Washington forward Kim Aiken Jr., who confirmed Wednesday to The Spokesman-Review that he would be transferring to the Pullman school.

As a junior last season, the 6-foot-7, 215-pound Aiken earned the Big Sky’s defensive player of the year award. He led the conference in rebounding at 8.4 per game and added 11.4 points per outing, helping the Eagles to the conference championship and a commendable showing in a loss to Kansas at the NCAA tournament.

Aiken previously had been committed to Arizona and coach Sean Miller, who recently was let go from the program, and was replaced by Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd.

So the Redlands, Calif., product shifted his sights to WSU, where third-year coach Kyle Smith has turned the tides favorably.

Aiken told The Spokesman-Review his goal is to win the Pac-12’s top honor for a defender. He said Smith’s defense-first approach was appealing.

“He’s a big analytics guy and he’s talking about being in the top percentile on the defensive end,” Aiken told The Spokesman-Review.

“That’s something I really thrive on doing, whether I’m shooting the ball or just out there defending, defense is always going to be there.”

Aiken scored 13.3 points and pulled down 9.7 rebounds per game in 2019-20, when he was an All-Big Sky pick.

He tacked on 2.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game last season, and shot 43.8 percent from the floor.

Former EWU coach Shantay Legans accepted a job at Portland not long after the Eagles’ tourney loss. Seven Eastern players then transferred out.

This coming year, as a junior for the second time — because of the NCAA’s COVID-19 rules — Aiken should immediately compete for minutes in WSU’s frontcourt, which features budding stars in sophomores Efe Abogidi, Dishon Jackson and Andrej Jakimovski.

Aiken logged 14 points and eight rebounds, shooting 5-for-10, in EWU’s 71-68 loss Nov. 28 to Wazzu.