The Wright State Raiders men’s basketball team have released their roster for the upcoming 2025-26 season and have hit the ground running with summer practices for the last seven weeks. Although the program saw a lot of guys leave, second-year head coach Clint Sargent is excited about the guys who have come in. Here is a taste of what Sargent will try to cook up in what he hopes not to be a sophomore slump as the man in charge.
1. Speak of the Devils
November 14 was part of National Signing Week, and Sargent kicked it off with a bang by signing four freshmen — three from Indiana — to play for him next season. Two of those three guys that got signed were high school teammates 6-3 Michael Cooper and 6-4 PJ Douglas, who led the Red Devils of Jeffersonville High School to not just an Indiana Class 4A State Championship this past March, but also a number two ranking in the Hoosier State and a national rank of 27th in the entire country. The year before that, Cooper and Douglas led Jeffersonville to a 20-8 record and a finish in the Indiana 4A Semi-State Championships.
Cooper averaged 18.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2.2 steals per game as a senior while also shooting 41 percent from behind the arc (50-of-121).
Douglas averaged 12.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 0.6 steals per game as a senior while making 47 percent of his three-balls (39-of-83).
Cooper will wear #55 for WSU, while Douglas will wear #12 just like he did at Jeffersonville.
2. Land of the Free, Home of the Braves
The other Indiana kid comes from Fort Wayne, and his name is Kellen Pickett. A power forward who stands 6-9, Pickett averaged 19.3 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 3.4 blocks an outing in his senior year this past season for the Blackhawk Christian Braves. His squad posted an impressive 24-4 record and went on a 13-game winning streak at one point near the end of the campaign.
As a junior, Pickett averaged 20.5 points, 11.9 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 54 percent from the field. He led Blackhawk Christian to a 22-7 record in 2023-24 that same campaign and was also named to the 2024 Indiana Underclass Supreme 15, which is the state’s top honor awarded by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA).
As a sophomore, he helped the Braves win the 2023 Indiana 2A state championship. Pickett wore the #4 jersey at Blackhawk Christian and will rock that same number for the green and gold.
Important note: The fourth freshman originally signed by Sargent on November was 6-6 guard Brady Conner, a local product from Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio. But on March 27, Conner went to Instagram by announcing his decommitment from Wright State and signing with Northeast Conference school Mercyhurst exactly four days later.
3. Don’t Mess with Texas — Part I
On April 22, Sargent’s first transfer was announced as Bryan Etumnu, a 6-7 power forward from Sugar Land, Texas. He joined Raider Nation after spending his first three seasons up in North Andover, Massachusetts at Merrimack University, where he was named the 2024-25 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Defensive Player of the Year.
Starting all 33 games for the Warriors in 2024-25, Etumnu ranked 16th in the NCAA with 73 total blocks and 14th in the nation at 2.28 rejections per game. Etumnu’s career-high in denials was six, which he did three times last season. Ironically, all three of those occasions came on the road in games at Canisius on December 6, at Quinnipiac on January 16, and at Iona on February 23. He also averaged 8.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while also shooting 71.9 percent from the foul line (46-of-69), all of which are career-highs in addition to his rejections.
Etumnu was named the Northeast Conference’s Most Improved Player as a sophomore in 2023-24 after averaging 7.3 points and 3.9 rebounds per game with 64 total blocks, and was second in the conference with a 1.9 blocks per game average while starting all 32 games. As a freshman the year before, he only played in five contests.
Etumnu will be a grad student and wear lucky #1 for WSU in 2025-26 after wearing #11 for Merrimack.
4. Raiders Go Canadian, Eh? — Part I
On April 25, it was announced that WSU signed their second transfer named Dominic Pangonis, a 6-7 guard from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He played his freshman season at Southland Conference school Stephen F. Austin, which is down in Nacogdoches, TX.
Playing all 31 games (one start) last year for the Lumberjacks, Pangonis averaged 6.2 points and 21.3 minutes per contest while shooting just 45 percent from the field (68-of-151), 27 percent from three-point territory (17-of-63), and 62.9 percent on free throws (39-of-62). He reached double-figure scoring six times, with his best outing coming against Houston Christian on January 6 in which he scored a season-high 17 points off the bench.
Fun facts about Pangonis: In addition to English, he also speaks Lithuanian and would love to own a business after his basketball days are done.
Pangonis will head into his sophomore season wearing #3 for the Raiders after donning #10 for Stephen F. Austin last year.
5. Raiders Go Canadian, Eh? — Part II
On April 28, WSU’s third transfer was introduced as a 6-5 guard from Ajax, Ontario, Canada by the name of Sam Alamutu. Originially born in Lagos, Nigeria, Alamutu was the second Canadian to transfer to Wright State after spending his first four years at America East powerhouse school Vermont — where he was a part of three straight NCAA Tournament teams from 2022 through 2024.
Alamutu played in all 33 games (19 starts) as a redshirt junior for the Catamounts last season and had the best campaign of his entire career, averaging 5.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 0.7 blocks, 0.4 steals, and 24.3 minutes per contest while also recording four double-doubles. His career high in rebounds was 21, which came on March 11, 2025 when Vermont lost to Maine in the semifinals of the America East Tournament.
His career-high in points is 23, which he pulled off as a sophomore in just his second-career start on March 5, 2024 at New Hampshire.
Alamutu will be a redshirt senior and wear the #2 jersey for WSU just like he did at Vermont.
6. Don’t Mess with Texas — Part II
May 13 marked the signing announcement of another Texas kid in 6-1 guard TJ Burch. Hailing from Dallas, Burch became the fourth Raider transfer to sign with the program after spending his freshman season at Mid-American Conference school Ball State, where he played in 21 of the Cardinals’ 31 games, averaging 4.8 points and 9.6 minutes per contest while making 50 percent of his field goals (37-of-74) and 56.3 percent of his threes (9-of-16).
Burch recorded a trio of double-digit scoring games off the bench: 13 points in his NCAA debut against Division III opponent Franklin College on November 8, a career-high of 14 points against Indiana State on November 16, and 12 points in the Cardinals’ last game of the season at Miami University on March 7.
Burch, as he did with Ball State as a freshman, will wear #22 for Wright State as a sophomore.
7. Congratulations, You Got Yourself a Promotion!
On May 20, the announcement was made of Isaiah Bales becoming the team’s new video coordinator. He spent the 2022-23 season as a student manager and the last two seasons (2023-25) as a student assistant.
Being no stranger to the local area, Bales played for the Wildcats of Franklin High School under his dad, Brian — who is the current head coach for the Springboro Panthers. While at Franklin, the Bales crew led the squad to three Southwestern Buckeye League championships. Isaiah was also named a two-time All-SWBL honoree and also finished with the sixth-best in three-point percentage in the Buckeye State at 48.4 percent in 2022.
In addition to his Wright State duties, Bales also helps train current NBA free agent and fellow Franklin alum Luke Kennard in the offseasons.
Here are the rest of the players and coaches returning from last year’s team:
#) Name | Ht. | Pos. | Year | Hometown | High School | Previous College (if necessary)
5) Alex Bruskotter | G | 6-8/205 | R-Fr | Shelby, OH | Shelby
13) Solomon Callaghan | G | 6-2/195 | R-So |Wadsworth, OH | Wadsworth
20) Andrea Holden | W | 6-6/215 | So | Hamilton, OH | Hamilton
21) Logan Woods | G | 6-5/180 | R-Jr | Fairfield, OH | Fairfield
33) Michael Imariagbe | F | 6-7/220 | Gr | Houston, TX | Alief Elsik | McMurry College / Coastal Bend College / Houston Christian
51) Ayden Davis | F/C | 6-10/250 | R-Fr | Omsted, MI | Omsted
Associate Head Coaches: Dan Beré and Travis Trice
Assistant Coach: Jaaron Simmons
Director of Operations: Nick Goff
Student Assistants: Matthew Gadson and Myles Witt
Director of Sports Performance: Cole Pittsford
Athletic Trainer: LaShaunta’ Jones
