{"id":135749,"date":"2025-04-22T12:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T16:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135749"},"modified":"2025-04-22T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T16:18:08","slug":"cedric-cowards-final-2-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/22\/cedric-cowards-final-2-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Cedric Coward is Deciding Between 2 Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite several players <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/13\/texas-tech-adds-lejuan-watts-in-portal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">committing to other schools<\/a> from Washington State, their best players remain uncommitted. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/cedric-coward-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cedric Coward<\/a> is a dynamic forward who did it all last season for the Cougars, albeit in only six games. He averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, only a slight increase in production from his last full season. While he may declare for the draft, it is more and more likely that Cedric Coward will remain in college, with Jeff Goodman reporting that the transfer decision is down to two schools: Duke and Alabama. So, let&#8217;s break down how he fits with each program and who he is likely to choose.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Goodman on Cedric Coward earlier today. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XoxMUFzM6l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/XoxMUFzM6l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Alabama Roundball (@BamaRoundball) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BamaRoundball\/status\/1914494935853883631?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Cedric Coward is Deciding Between 2 Schools<\/h2>\n<h3>Alabama<\/h3>\n<p>Alabama is the perfect school to show off scoring prestige. The Crimson Tide consistently ranks in the top 10 in <a href=\"https:\/\/kenpom.com\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">offensive efficiency<\/a> under Nate Oats. They <a href=\"https:\/\/bracketologists.com\/team\/alabama-crimson-tide\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">led the country in scoring<\/a> this past season and ranked in the top 10 in three-point attempts. Everything is about easy buckets and threes for Alabama. Coward fits perfectly within that system. He has shot 38.8% from three and 72% from two in his career. While the damage he can supply from three will be a huge addition to the Crimson Tide, his ability to finish at the rim will elevate this offense.<\/p>\n<p>Coward&#8217;s transfer decision may come down to everything that Alabama&#8217;s offense can supply. He will show off his shooting, a necessary attribute for the next level. Coward will be able to run down the floor and show off his athleticism. His finishing at the rim will be tested in the elite SEC. Moving to Alabama would give him every opportunity to prove his NBA talent.<\/p>\n<h3>Duke<\/h3>\n<p>Duke has a similarly powerful offense. They ranked first in offensive efficiency and <a  href=\"https:\/\/bracketologists.com\/team\/duke-blue-devils\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">finished 22nd in threes per game<\/a>. Despite contrasting styles, Duke has the same philosophy as Alabama in terms of the type of shots they take. The main difference is Duke&#8217;s defensive intensity. If Coward, who averages about one steal and block per game, wants to show off his defensive acumen, then Duke is the obvious choice. Duke&#8217;s elite defensive pressure made opponents like Alabama feel helpless on the offensive end.<\/p>\n<p>Duke also has an incredible track record of NBA draft picks. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/cooper-flagg-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cooper Flagg<\/a> will likely <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/10\/duke-mock-draft\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">go number one overal<\/a>l after <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/21\/cooper-flagg-nba-draft-whats-next\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">declaring for the NBA draft<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/kon-knueppel-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kon Knueppel<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/khaman-maluach-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khaman Maluach<\/a> will likely go in the lottery as well. Add that to being a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/18\/duke-2025-national-championship\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">legitimate threat to win a national championship<\/a>, Duke has it all. If Cedric Coward favors team prestige in his transfer decision, Duke easily wins the battle. They won&#8217;t be hurting for money either.<\/p>\n<h3>Predicting Cedric Coward&#8217;s Transfer Decision<\/h3>\n<p>At the end of the day, Duke has everything that a player might want. Alabama can run down the floor and create flashy numbers on offense. However, Duke has elite coaching on both sides of the court, an incredible supporting cast, immense NIL support, and a history of developing talent for the NBA. While the ACC is down,<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/22\/is-there-any-hope-after-the-accs-24-25-season-failures\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> they should take a step forward<\/a> next season. Duke showed they could compete with the best conferences regardless of how poorly the ACC played, so even that argument isn&#8217;t a strong one.<\/p>\n<p>Cedric Coward&#8217;s transfer decision will come down to many factors, some of which haven&#8217;t even been mentioned here. However, logically, Duke fits what Coward appears to be seeking. They have the tools to send him to the NBA and potentially win a national championship. For that reason, I predict that Coward will choose Duke in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">Photo credit: \u00a9\u00a0James Snook-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite several players committing to other schools from Washington State, their best players remain uncommitted. Cedric Coward is a dynamic forward who did it all last season for the Cougars, albeit in only six games. He averaged 17.7 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game, only a slight increase in production from his last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5370,"featured_media":135778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2],"tags":[1504,50017,861],"class_list":["post-135749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-cedric-coward","tag-duke-blue-devils"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135749"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135779,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135749\/revisions\/135779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}