FS1 Friday night game

Here is a press conference with Coach Ethridge. She talks about many things including who will redshirt and a player that may end up eventually being the best player ever to put on a Cougar uniform. I am excited.

WSU Basketball Coach Kamie Ethridge

WSU men head into season with new coach, players and conference | Preview​

Greg Woods
Nov. 4, 2024 at 6:00 am Updated Nov. 4, 2024 at 6:00 am
By
The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN — It’s a Tuesday afternoon in early October and David Riley is out of breath. Just moments prior, he had just finished a few sprints with his Washington State men’s players, wrapping up a preseason basketball practice by getting in shape alongside them.

“This is the first time for me,” Riley said. “I realized about a week ago that I hadn’t done much exercise since I got the head coaching job. It was an opportunity for me to get a little running in.”

Riley wasn’t missing out on exercise because he was being a couch potato. He was out of shape because he had spent the past six months earning the head coaching job and putting together a roster at WSU, which lost all but two players in the offseason, when former coach Kyle Smith left for Stanford and nearly the entire roster took their talents elsewhere.

read more college basketball season preview 2024-25​

The only holdovers Riley didn’t need to replace are guards Isaiah Watts and Parker Gerrits, the former of whom came on strong toward the end of last season, helping the Cougars reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years, making an appearance in the second round. In late March, they defeated Drake before falling to Iowa State. Two days later, Smith ended his five-year WSU tenure by accepting the same job at Stanford.

By early April, Riley had left the head coaching job at nearby Eastern Washington for the same job at WSU, and he already had a rebuilding job on his hands. When the dust settled, nearly the entire team had left. Guard Myles Rice transferred to Indiana, wing Jaylen Wells was drafted into the NBA, veteran Andrej Jakimovski transferred to Colorado, and centers Oscar Cluff and Rueben Chinyelu transferred to South Dakota State and Florida, respectively — giving Riley some serious work to do.

He reconstructed this Washington State team by bringing along a few of his best EWU players, including wings Cedric Coward and LeJuan Watts, and centers Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup. He maintained a commitment from guard Marcus Wilson and secured a new one from Lapwai, Idaho, guard Kase Wynott. He added Cal transfer ND Okafor and Washington transfer Nate Calmese, then added a few players from overseas: Iceland guard Tomas Thrastarson, Latvian wing Rihard Vavers and Serbian center Dimitrije Vukicevic.

That’s the group that will guide WSU into the first of two seasons as West Coast Conference affiliate members, a temporary solution to the Pac-12’s collapse last summer. In 2026, the Cougs will compete in the rebuilt Pac-12, but until then, they’ll compete against the likes of Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, Santa Clara and the rest of the WCC.

In the teams’ first meeting since 2015, WSU will travel to face Gonzaga on Jan. 11. The Pullman contest is set for Feb. 19.

“I think something that we always look for is motor, No. 1,” Riley said of how he rebuilt the WSU roster. “We need guys that have a chip on their shoulder, they’re gonna play super hard, IQ, skill and character. Those four things are the biggest things. We love athleticism, but I think that’s something that kind of takes a second (place) to those four other characteristics. I think when you look at it from that perspective, all those new guys have that.”

Riley didn’t need to look for any of that in Isaiah Watts, who never much considered jumping ship when his teammates departed, he said. He likes Pullman, likes the small-town feel he doesn’t get in his hometown of Seattle. For Watts, that made it easy to stay, especially as he saw the guys Riley was landing for the new-look Cougs.

For his part, Watts seems to fit well into Riley’s offensive system, which relies heavily on shooting and court sense. He wants to space the floor, wants to get guys playing, not thinking. Almost all his guys at Eastern the past couple of years felt comfortable shooting from distance, and as he implements the same type of system in Pullman, it’s becoming clear how free-flowing WSU’s offense might be.

Riley also likes the additions of his assistant coaches, including former NBA G League head coach George Galanopoulos, whose experience will help the Cougs round out their defense.

Assistants Jerry Brown, Pedro Garcia Rosado and Blake Fernandez followed Riley from EWU to WSU, helping him piece together a coaching staff he hopes will lead the Cougars into a new, bright future.

“It’s been really fun,” Watts said. “A lot of different cultures, a lot of different people from a lot of different places. So it’s awesome to see how they act and versus how we Americans and my Seattleite self acts.”

Cougars at a glance​

Difference maker: Cedric Coward. Perhaps the biggest fish Riley lured from Eastern Washington to WSU, Coward averaged 15 points, six rebounds and two assists last year for the Eagles, using his 6-foot-6 frame to do a bit of everything for EWU. He’s a comfortable shooter from the outside and a bruiser on the inside, and if he can adjust well to the speed and talent of the WCC, the Cougs might be a real contender in their new conference.

Projected starting lineup: G-Nate Calmese, 6-2, Jr, 4.1 ppg; G-Isaiah Watts, 6-3, So, 3.7 ppg; G-Cedric Coward, Sr, 6-6, 15.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg; F-Ethan Price, Sr, 6-10, 12.2 ppg; F-LeJuan Watts, So, 6-6, 9.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg

Projections: WSU lost nearly its entire team over the offseason, including the head coach who took the club to its first NCAA tournament in 16 years. Can new skipper David Riley and his new recruits compete for a top spot in the WCC?

Spokesman-Review prediction: 16-14 overall, 9-9 WCC.

Greg Woods; Washington State beat writer for The Spokesman-Review

Players assault a cyclist

Does UW have a special knack for finding these subhumans? It would seem so.

Just raised $35M in NIL money in 24 hours, in pursuit of an offer to join the Pac. This on the heels of their major stadium announcement. What's WSU's big NIL fundraiser? $500K?

Ok Teresa. Get off of your ass before Gloria swoops in and grabs them. You all saw that Texas State has been offered by the MW and is expected to say yes.



On another incompetent woman note - hey Anne how's that 2025 schedule looking this week?

Where’s Kamala?

It’s almost noon. Must have been a helluva bender last night.

Best thing is to get her eating/ drinking and 🤮 till she can go a half hour or so without 🤮 and slip in a little 5 min blurb, edit it and get it out there.

There are plenty, including our own, but I will be keeping track of a couple in particular:

mutts at Penn State - no explanation or who to root for needed

Colorado at Texas Tech - same as above, but go Red Raiders

Apparently some fine, upstanding citizens in PA didn't get the the memo from WAPO/NYTimes/DNC that there is no such thing as voter fraud. I wonder if voter fraud doesn't exist why the District Attorney is saying they found 60% of a batch of registrations (~2500) were fraudulent?

https://townhall.com/videos/2024/10...n-underway-in-lancaster-pennsylvania-n2646781

Meanwhile, the Biden/Garland DOJ is suing the state of Virginia for trying to remove people from the voter rolls that have ADMITTED that they are aliens. Now why in the world would they do that? What possible rational explanation is there for suing a state to force them to reinstate people that are not eligible to vote onto the voter rolls? It wouldn't be to allow and encourage people to illegally vote, would it?

So first off, for those of you that are vets (pow-pow, not woof-woof) and you don't know about this, there is a website called VetTix that offers vets all sorts of free tickets to events, sporting and otherwise. I found out about them last year and have seen all sorts of shows for free (professional wrestling, monster truck, Kraken, Judas Priest, Bush/Jerry Cantrell/Candlebox, etc.). There is generally a small ticketing fee, but I've never paid more than $5/ticket and generally I get four tickets for me and my family/friends (so $20 max OOP). They do offer Seahawks (and Kraken) via lotteries, often with blocks of ~500 tickets available; obviously it's competitive, but as I mentioned earlier, I did win two Kraken tickets previously and they were great seats.

That said, it's really ACTIVATED MY CRIMSON ALMONDS that UDump always has a huge block of free tickets to Mutt events, including football games at that toilet on Lake Washington. Cougs events? Never.

Well, that seems to be changing. For the first time this season, I received an email about tickets being available for the Utah State game. Hopefully this is a forward trend, especially as we all know that B-ball attendance is always a sparse situation. So for those of you that are vets and want to save a few bucks (that you can spend on beer instead), make sure you sign up for VetTix and keep an eye on the upcoming events. Also, you Cougs in Seattle (why?) will have access to shit tons of free events...much moreso than I do living in the superior city of Spokane.

Vettix.org

Because the retarded normalization of dude's with Adam's Apples and 5 o'clock shaddows whearing jog bras is over.

Of course, I'm sure Pimples is still going to put on his Handmaid's moo moo and throw a Reddit-worthy tantrum about it...

Anyone intersted?

Another night game @ 6:30pm on FS1. Will be fun to tailgate, but looks like we'll have to bundle up at night.

That said, Petros Papadakis is always good to the COUGS!

I will see it when I believe it, but it's being speculated the Pac-12 will look to regain autonomous status. It might be a marketing ploy, but the idea of gaining "power 5 status" - maybe in name only - certainly does elevate the league in perception.

The NCAA Board apparently votes to make this happen. Given the Pac-12 was autonomous, and has the infrastructure and rules in place, I see this as a likely scenario personally.

More on this from 10 years ago....

What a shit show the Raiders are. I get that Minshew seems to have it together and is set for life, but man it must suck to have that much leadership instability around you. Starting games knowing they're itching to pull you at the half is ridiculous. I'm kind of hoping they fire everybody at the end of the season and he gets to move on to another team...just for his own sanity.

Whoever the F they are. Link below cuts off to the paywall but you can read a bit of it. So hapless Teresa, with her vast experience, has to pay someone else to think for her. Great. And what about member #8? Gonna continue to sit on our ass until our only option is Texas State? I keep harping - bring in Sac St. and their #20 market NOW, so they can move ahead with their new stadium and start recruiting to an FBS level with their big pot of NIL money. The portal is now open BTW.

Not difficult to want the fuskies to get the piss beat out of them.

Looking at our standings on https://wccsports.com/....

Women's soccer is the bottom half of the WCC, volleyball is in the upper half. Curious when and if Jim Sterk 2.0 will start pinching pennies and move staff out strictly budget move related.

Both polls...# 20

JMU on the road added

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Free advice for anyone in the WSU AD. Toss on the 4k feed during the Saturday Night ESPN game to understand how to keep fans in seats. South Carolina is putting on a clinic right now. Previous weeks with Texas (which I've also seen in person) is another great example. In short, it's an entertaining show from pre-game to finish.

The 4k feed currently runs a live stadium feed during commercials. So you get to enjoy some stadium experience + save yourself from 3.5+ hours of advertising.

Interesting article from NY Post about what Musk can possibly accomplish if Trump were to name him as the Efficiency Czar or whatever it is called. I think everyone here would root for him to be successful, as only 23% of Americans now trust their government.

Illinois, Pitt, Kansas state, and Navy all lost, and Texas tech knocked off Iowa state. That should move us up a couple places, and makes the Texas tech win look better.

We have now reached the all time levels of stupidity in America.

How can you lose a job because you know a chick wasn't born with a penis?