Cougs participated in Wednesday's WBK Media Day in San Fran.
Video:
Preview (From Pac-12.com) : Kamie Ethridge was clearly impressed with her first experience as a member of the Pac-12 on Wednesday at the annual Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Media Day Event.
“Coming in new, being around this kind of setup, this kind of media attention, the validity and the value that you put into women’s basketball is something I am certainly thrilled to be a part of,” said Ethridge, the only new head coach in the Pac-12 ranks this season. “This is not what most people who coach women’s basketball get to experience.”
Ethridge comes to Washington State after a successful four-year stint at Northern Colorado, where she led the program to a record number of wins last season and its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament last spring. She is inheriting an experienced, but not terribly deep team that has endured significant injuries over the past two seasons and finished 3-14 in conference play in 2018. She has seven returning players.
Among her returners is Borislava Hristova, the redshirt junior from Bulgaria, who has been among the conference’s most consistent scoring threats. Hristova averaged a team-leading 17.8 points a game last season.
Junior guard Chanelle Molina, the team’s assist leader, also returned, surrounded by plenty of familiar faces, with her two sisters Celena and Cherilyn, playing on the Cougars’ team this season.
“We played together in high school, so it’s kind of a natural feeling to play together in college,” Chanelle said. “We are competitive, so I’ll get on my sisters when I see they are not doing their jobs.”
Hristova said her expectations for this season are very high, even with a coaching change.
“With the new coaching staff we have, it gives us freedom offensively,” Hristova said. “It’s like a free-flowing offense. We’re just able to create for yourself, create for your teammates…it’s just a great opportunity for us, and I think it’s going to help us grow as players and people.”
Ethridge knows the degree of difficulty is high as she begins her career in one of the country’s toughest conferences. And she acknowledged that she doesn’t have “all the pieces she wants for her program yet. But she said she wants to “lay a foundation” this first season.
“I think I’m walking into a pretty special situation,” Ethridge said. “I think the seven that stayed and stuck around for this program and committed to this program and wanted to stay and want it to become success, that’s unique. I think they represent a lot of the things that I want to be about and I think they give us a great foundation. They are committed players…they want to be coached.”
Video:
Preview (From Pac-12.com) : Kamie Ethridge was clearly impressed with her first experience as a member of the Pac-12 on Wednesday at the annual Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Media Day Event.
“Coming in new, being around this kind of setup, this kind of media attention, the validity and the value that you put into women’s basketball is something I am certainly thrilled to be a part of,” said Ethridge, the only new head coach in the Pac-12 ranks this season. “This is not what most people who coach women’s basketball get to experience.”
Ethridge comes to Washington State after a successful four-year stint at Northern Colorado, where she led the program to a record number of wins last season and its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament last spring. She is inheriting an experienced, but not terribly deep team that has endured significant injuries over the past two seasons and finished 3-14 in conference play in 2018. She has seven returning players.
Among her returners is Borislava Hristova, the redshirt junior from Bulgaria, who has been among the conference’s most consistent scoring threats. Hristova averaged a team-leading 17.8 points a game last season.
Junior guard Chanelle Molina, the team’s assist leader, also returned, surrounded by plenty of familiar faces, with her two sisters Celena and Cherilyn, playing on the Cougars’ team this season.
“We played together in high school, so it’s kind of a natural feeling to play together in college,” Chanelle said. “We are competitive, so I’ll get on my sisters when I see they are not doing their jobs.”
Hristova said her expectations for this season are very high, even with a coaching change.
“With the new coaching staff we have, it gives us freedom offensively,” Hristova said. “It’s like a free-flowing offense. We’re just able to create for yourself, create for your teammates…it’s just a great opportunity for us, and I think it’s going to help us grow as players and people.”
Ethridge knows the degree of difficulty is high as she begins her career in one of the country’s toughest conferences. And she acknowledged that she doesn’t have “all the pieces she wants for her program yet. But she said she wants to “lay a foundation” this first season.
“I think I’m walking into a pretty special situation,” Ethridge said. “I think the seven that stayed and stuck around for this program and committed to this program and wanted to stay and want it to become success, that’s unique. I think they represent a lot of the things that I want to be about and I think they give us a great foundation. They are committed players…they want to be coached.”
