Our Guy Jerone Morton is Leaving WSU, and This Move Hits Different for Northwest Hoops
Yo, hold up, Emerald City! Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the college hoops scene, BOOM! The transfer portal strikes again, and this time, it’s hitting close to home. Jerone Morton, our guy from Washington State, is officially on the move, and get this: he’s scheduled to visit Kentucky this Friday. Jacob Polacheck of KSR+ just confirmed it. Yeah, you read that right. A Cougar heading to the heart of SEC country for his final college season. What's this mean for our local talent pool?
From Sweet 16 Champ to Cougar Star
Morton’s journey has been wild. He’s a central Kentucky native, actually. He kicked off his college career at Morehead State for two seasons before heading out west to play for the Cougars in the West Coast Conference during the 2025-26 season. Before all that, the dude was a star at George Rogers Clark High in Winchester, Kentucky. As a senior, he led GRC to a Sweet 16 championship in 2022, even snagging tournament MVP honors, and then a runner-up finish in 2023 under coach Josh Cook. That senior year, he was putting up legit numbers, averaging 19.8 points and 6.6 rebounds on 52.4 percent shooting!
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He was lightly recruited out of high school, landing at Morehead State. His true freshman year in 2023-24, he popped into 34 games, starting two, averaging 2.2 points and 1.3 boards in 12.9 minutes. Shot 31.1 percent overall. He even dropped a season-high 10 points in just his second college game and got some run in Morehead State’s NCAA Tournament loss to Illinois. But here’s where it gets good: his role EXPLODED as a sophomore in 2024-25. He started 20 of his 26 games, bumping his per-game stats to 10.4 points, 3.4 assists, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.3 steals in 29.5 minutes! His shooting splits were fire too: 45.0/37.7/72.0. He battled some early season stuff, came off the bench, but quickly locked down a starting spot. He racked up 14 double-digit scoring games, including two 20-point outbursts! Remember that 70-69 overtime win against UT Martin? He went for 18 points on 7-11 shooting, seven assists, and four boards in 30 minutes.
All that production made him look for a bigger stage, and new Washington State head coach David Riley made him the first portal addition last offseason. Morton picked the Cougars over Marshall, Western Kentucky, Indiana State, and more. With WSU in 2025-26, he started 29 of 32 games, averaging 7.8 points, 2.6 assists, and 1.9 rebounds in 24.9 minutes, with splits of 43.8/38.8/82.0. He even dropped 16 and 15 points in two matchups against Gonzaga, plus a sick nine-point, nine-assist game against St. Mary’s. Now, schools like DePaul, George Mason, and Texas A&M are also hitting him up in the portal. On3 ranks him No. 508 overall and the 138th-best shooting guard in this year’s portal. He's got one year of eligibility left, folks.
The Numbers Don't Lie: What Morton Brings
When you look at the advanced stats, two things really jump off the page from his Washington State run: his three-point shooting and that high assist-to-turnover ratio. CBB Analytics says he graded out in the 85th percentile among all guards for his three-point shooting and in the 88th percentile with a 2.22 assist-to-turnover ratio. He’s a low usage guy, only 16.6 percent, but he clearly knows how to generate points when the ball is in his hands.
His shot chart is pretty telling too. He ranked well above average on his mid-range jumpers and above-the-break threes. He was straight up torching it from the right side of the floor on threes, hitting over 50 percent! Out of his 61 NBA-range triples, he drained them at a 37 percent clip. The dude is a proven deep shooting threat, no doubt about it. Plus, only 45.2 percent of his threes last season came off an assist from a teammate. That tells you he can create his own shot!
Defensively, he's average in terms of havoc. He’s a solid steals-and-blocks guy for a guard, but the overall defensive metrics weren’t super stoked on his impact on that end last season. His DRAPM, at -3.4, was in the 2nd percentile, and his Defensive Win Shares, at 0.03, ranked in the 20th percentile. He actually made a bigger impact on the offensive glass than he did defensively. Interesting, right?
So, what’s next for Jerone Morton? He's got one year left, and he's looking for that perfect spot. It just shows how wild the transfer portal is, right? You get a local guy making big plays for a Washington team, and next thing you know, he's off to potentially a blue blood program. We’ll be watching to see where he lands and how he finishes his college career. Go Cougs, go Morton!
This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.