Gonzaga WCC opponent preview: Washington State embraces underdog mentality

Change is at hand in Pullman, Washington.

Last season, the Washington State men’s basketball program had its best season in 15 years, as the Cougars won 25 games and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008. Myles Rice looked like a future star in the making after taking home Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors, while head coach Kyle Smith was named the league’s coach of the year as well.

Then just like that, it all disappeared.

Stanford snatched Smith to be its next head coach two days after WSU’s loss in the second round to Iowa State. About 24 hours after the coach’s departure, the school’s athletic director left to take on the same position at the University of Washington, which was Big Ten bound. The Huskies were one of the 10 members that left the Pac-12 behind for TV money and opportunities for exposure in other power conferences, leaving WSU and Oregon State to fend for themselves in a wild and ever-changing landscape that’s as equally unforgiving.

No conference, no roster and no leadership. That doesn’t sound like an ideal spot to be in for a school like WSU, though as American physician Allan Hamilton once said, death is not an end — it is a new beginning.

“The Coug alumni base and just the fan base in general in the Northwest is unbelievable,” said WSU men’s basketball coach David Riley to Gonzaga On SI, back in October. “They're really excited to build off the momentum that Kyle [Smith] had going here, and I think they're passionate and ready to go on a run. There's a lot of excitement that we're revamping the Pac-12, and some of these teams are going to be in it; it’s going to be exciting.”

At 35 years old, Riley is one of the youngest head coaches at the Division-I level, though his age doesn’t account for his knowledge of the landscape. He was born in Seattle but found his love for basketball in Palo Alto, California, where his father, Edward Riley, was a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Led by hall-of-fame head coach Mike Montgomery, the Stanford men’s basketball program was just reaching its peak in the mid-90s, and Riley had a front-row seat for it.

“My dad would get the season tickets for every game,” Riley said. “Except for it was a hell of a deal: You could watch every game except for the UCLA and Cal game. So we would go to all the games. They got really, really good for about seven, eight years in a row, and they were fun to watch.”

The latter half of Riley’s life has been spent in various parts around the neck of the woods where he currently resides. After playing four years of college ball at Whitworth University, a Division-III school located about six miles north of Gonzaga’s campus in Spokane, Riley served as an assistant on the coaching staff for six years under head coach Jim Hayford. When Hayford left for the coaching job at Eastern Washington, Riley followed.

Riley spent the next decade in Cheney, Washington, where he went from a young grad assistant under Hayford to an up-and-coming head coach at the helm of one of the most efficient offenses in the country. Riley moved over from the assistant coach’s seat after Shantay Legans left for Portland following the Eagles’ NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021. Under Riley’s leadership, EWU won the Big Sky regular season crown in back-to-back seasons and finished top 10 in the country in effective field goal percentage in each of those campaigns.

So why the move to WSU? And why now of all times choose to make a big transition?

“The level at which Washington State operates and the resources we've got here is making an opportunity to grow into a national program that competes nationally,” Riley said. “And I think that's kind of the vision that both the administration and myself have, and so that's kind of what's behind the move and I’m excited about the challenge.”

Riley understands it takes a village to build a Division-I program up to the level at which he had EWU running these past few seasons, so he brought most of his former Eagles assistants — along with some of his players — with him to Pullman to help establish the culture in year one.

Here’s an in-depth look at WSU’s 2024-25 roster.

GUARDS:

Riley’s concept-based offense routinely ranked near the top of the country in efficiency during his time at EWU doesn’t require a traditional floor general to set the table. Rather, he likes guards who can play both on and off the ball to provide an added sense of versatility in the backcourt.

Enter 6-foot-2 junior Nate Calmese, a transfer from Washington who satisfies a number of roles in WSU’s new-look offense. Calmese struggled to see the floor in his lone season with the Huskies, though he put up nearly 18 points per game and was named the Southland Rookie of the Year in 2022-23 with Lamar.

Now with the Cougars, Calmese is back to putting up big numbers. Through 16 games, he's leading WSU at 16.4 points and 4.3 assists per game, all while remaining active on the defensive end of the floor. Calmese ranks top five in the WCC with 1.8 steals per game.

“He's exactly what we're looking for,” Riley said of Calmese. “You look at what he's able to do, his ability to score inside, come off handoffs, play off to catch and shoot as well as come off ball screens … he's getting to understand the system and becoming more of a complete player.”

Calmese has shared the backcourt with 6-foot-3 sophomore Isaiah Watts, who was one of two returners from last season’s roster along with 6-foot-1 redshirt freshman Parker Gerrits, Watts, the grandson of former Seattle Supersonics player Slick Watts, who can score in bunches when given the opportunity. He scored 20 points in just 28 minutes against Portland State in the season opener and 22 points in 30 minutes against his old school, Eastern Washington, back on Nov. 21. Watts missed WSU's final nonconference game and the team's first three WCC games due to a wrist injury.

Gerrits, also known as Mr. Wazzu by his coach, comes from a long line of former Cougars. Like Calmese, the Olympia native checks off a lot of boxes in terms of how he can score and contribute on the offensive end of the floor.

“He's been incredible, as far as competing every day, picking up the system,” Riley said of Gerrits. “And he's a versatile guard. He can score, he can shoot, he can make plays for others; it’s been great.”

Marcus Willson, a 3-star recruit from New Mexico, is one of four freshmen on Riley’s first roster at WSU. The 6-foot-3 guard appeared in his first four games before going through a season-ending shoulder injury in December. Though Wilson won't see the floor much for the rest of his first year of college basketball, Riley sees the investment into high school recruits as setting the program’s foundation for the future.

“We need to have a base of four-year guys and guys that have developed in the program, sprinkled in with some guys that make sense as transfers, that fit the culture and fit the need,” Riley said. “But I think I want our backbone to be with four-year guys, and we've got a hell of a crew this year to build on.”

FORWARDS/WINGS/CENTER:

If WSU’s youngsters are the program’s backbone, then Riley’s EWU imports are at its heart. Along with a slew of his assistant coaches, Riley brought five players with him from Cheney to Pullman to help establish a culture defined by toughness and unselfishness. From day one, the batch of former Eagles have been instrumental to just about everything the Cougars do in year one of the Riley era, from game preparation to execution on the court.

“They've helped answer a lot of the ‘why’ questions,” Riley said of his EWU transfers. “Like when you do drills, you obviously got to explain the drill. Or when you play games, you're trying to put guys in situations that are going to happen in games. And when guys are new to a program, they don't really understand the ‘why’ behind everything we're doing. And so I think to have those four guys that are able to explain, who've lived it before within this offense and defense, I think really, really helps and hopefully split up that process a little bit in year one.”

Cedric Coward, a 6-foot-6 senior from Fresno, California, headlined the group of former Eagles making their way to Pullman after he led EWu at 15.4 points per game last season. His reputation as a dynamic scorer preceded him heading into the 2024-25 season, as Coward was voted to the preseason All-WCC team by the league’s coaches.

Coward led the Cougars in scoring through the first six games of the season before he received season-ending shoulder surgery in December. Despite missing nearly 18 points per game, though, WSU won six of its first seven games without Coward in the lineup, including two impressive victories over Boise State (68-57) and San Francisco (91-82).

Redshirt sophomore LeJuan Watts stepped up with a career-high 24 points to go along with 12 boards and five assists in the 9-point win over the Dons. It was his sixth double-double of the season, which ties him with a slew of other players for the seventh-most in the country. Watts is second on the team in scoring at 13.6 points per game on 55.3% from the field and grabs 8.3 rebounds per game.

Ethan Price fits Riley’s system as a 6-foot-10 forward who can do a few different things in the “4” spot, such as stretch the floor and make the extra pass to an open man. Price has started all 16 games for Riley, averaging 11.9 points on 50.8% shooting from the floor, including 36.2% from deep. He's putting up 16.7 points per game in WCC play.

With Price at power forward, 6-foot-11 senior Dane Erikstrup occupies the center spot. Erikstrup, who started two games last season with EWU, is a regular in the starting five with the Cougars while playing 26.8 minutes per game. The Beaverton, Oregon, native knocks down 41.1% of his 3-point attempts and puts up 12.6 points per contest.

Casey Jones was second to Coward in scoring at 12.6 points per game, though WSU fans will have to wait a few seasons before the Sammamish, Washington, native officially puts on the crimson and grey. Upon transferring from EWU, Jones announced he’ll join the team in 2027-28 after a two-year religious mission trip.

WRAP IT UP:

After months of navigating uncharted waters, WSU appears to be headed for a brighter future once the revamped Pac-12 officially comes together in July 2026. Until then, the Cougars find themselves in a precarious situation entering a new league after having lost all of their firepower from last season’s NCAA Tournament team, as well as their head coach.

The temporary home provided by the West Coast Conference opens up different opportunities for WSU to work with, while at the same time being a step-up in competition for Riley and his staff. The way Riley sees it, the Cougars can compete for an at-large bid this season. The team’s nonconference schedule reflects the coach’s aspirations.

“I think that the beauty of coming here is that we're taking over a program that has a good culture,” Riley said. “But we got to be underdogs. We got to have a chip on our shoulder. And I think we're bringing that with our Eastern guys and the guys that were here and all the guys we recruited. We want them to have an edge going in the season. And so I think we've got a lot of guys that have a lot to prove, and I think that's the biggest thing is we want to be tough as hell and unselfish.”

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