‘I want to be here’: WSU women’s hoops coach Kamie Ethridge embraces people-first culture

Not long ago, Washington State lost its volleyball coach, men’s basketball coach and athletic director in the wake of the Pac-12 Conference’s collapse.

One coach who remained? Sixth-year women’s basketball coach Kamie Ethridge.

“I want to be here,” Ethridge said in May. “I don’t think there’s very many jobs that can be better than this job. You know, the fact that we’re able to retain most of our athletes and they’re not hitting the portal, the fact that we can continue to have success in recruiting. I really do believe I’m in a situation where I’m not looking to leave, and I feel very much supported here.”

The former National Coach of the Year and College Basketball Hall of Famer has made the postseason in each of her past four seasons, including three straight NCAA Tournaments. She led the Cougars to the 2023 Pac-12 Tournament Championship in Las Vegas, WSU’s first women’s conference tournament championship in school history.

Ethridge recruited program legends Charlisse Leger-Walker and Bella Murekatete, and her current roster includes an All-Pac-12 freshman selection in each of the last two years – Astera Tuhina in 2023 and Eleonora Villa in ’24.

It’s a good bet that WSU fans were bracing to lose Ethridge following a 2023-24 season during which the Cougs reached the semifinals of the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament despite Leger-Walker’s season-ending knee injury .

Instead, Ethridge signed a one-year extension, her third straight such deal. Her contract runs through the 2029-30 season.

Ethridge said that former WSU athletic director Pat Chun, who left Pullman to take the helm of in-state rival University of Washington, painted the picture of how successful WSU women’s basketball could be.

“Believe me, our resources were 12 out of 12. We were 12th out of 12, you know, compared to everybody else in the league, but you don’t have to be first in the league in resources. You don’t have to be the first in facilities. You have to be first in people,” Ethridge said. “And I thought that (Chun) was an example of hiring great people and giving us the support that we needed, you know, and being OK with being who we are.

“We don’t have to apologize for being Washington State and living in Pullman. I love this place. I love the kinds of athletes we can attract here. And I think (Chun’s) vision was something really appealing to me.”

Ethridge said new AD Anne McCoy, who has worked for WSU for over 20 years, fits that “people first” mold perfectly.

Moving on from a legend

While the Cougars coach is staying, WSU is losing someone who Ethridge said “changed the program forever.”

Charlisse Leger-Walker, third all-time leading scorer in program history, announced she was transferring to UCLA in May.

Ethridge said there was no doubt that Leger-Walker would have gone pro if she had not suffered a season-ending ACL injury Jan. 28. The injury gave her three options: go pro anyway, return to WSU or enter the transfer portal.

“She grew up together with a group of players that – we were so young when they all came in, and now we’re really old, and they’re all leaving, you know, her best friends are leaving and I just think sometimes in life you get to the end of a road and you know, you don’t feel like ‘Oh, I need to start over in the same place,’ ” Ethridge said.

While Leger-Walker’s departure does leave a program-legend-sized hole in the roster, Ethridge is more than prepared to replace her with a strong international recruiting class and the continued development of program leaders Tara Wallack, Astera Tuhina and Eleonora Villa.

“We literally have 13 players that can all compete for a starting job. I mean, so we’re really really deep. I think we’re really versatile. I think we’re probably as talented as we’ve ever been, in a lot of ways, but it’s inexperienced talent right now. You know, like, there’s going to be some growing pains,” associate head coach Laurie Kohen said.

A unique connection

The program has found great success in recruiting and retaining student-athletes because they don’t promise too much up front, Ethridge said. WSU does not have a name, image and likeness donor base on par with other schools.

“If they want money, then they probably won’t choose us,” Ethridge said.

“That’s one of the attractions of staying here: If I can continue to do it the way we’re doing it and not lose players and compete at a high level without getting into the world of, you know, NIL, I’d gladly you know, want to stay here and see if we can do something special here.”

While organizations such as the Cougar Collective, a collection of WSU alumni who want to support student-athletes with NIL opportunities, do their best, small crowds at WSU basketball games have become the norm.

Ethridge said she wants the women’s basketball team to win more and at the right time in order to catch a similar flame that the men’s team caught.

Kyle Smith’s Cougs were drawing just 3,000 people in mid-February, before getting ranked, beating Arizona in Tucson and hosting Bronny James and USC. That confluence of factors led to three straight 8,000-plus crowds with WSU’s final regular season game seeing a 9,000-person crowd.

Ethridge said the Cougs need to get out into the community and make a lot of friends who will go to games, from elementary school kids and their families to ZZU CRU, WSU’s organized student section.

“We need ZZU CRU to really get committed to us,” Ethridge said. “It usually starts well, we haven’t finished very well. I think we have a hard sport, because sometimes there’s four games a week. And then there’s two games the next week and you just want to take a break the next week. So you don’t go to those games and you know, we’re competing for the same person, right?”

Taking the next step

Each player in their end-of-season exit interviews with Ethridge said they considered making the NCAA Tournament a top team goal.

WSU women’s basketball will compete in the West Coast Conference as an affiliate members for the next two seasons. The Cougs will play a full conference schedule alongside fellow remaining Pac-12 school Oregon State, guaranteeing them quality matchups against reigning tournament teams Gonzaga, Portland and OSU.

Ethridge said she is confident WSU women’s basketball can succeed in the WCC and nationally at an even greater level because her program prioritizes people.

From the nutritionist to the academic support staff to the trainers to her coaching staff, the Cougs offer a top-tier experience, Ethridge said.

“Those are the things that are gonna affect your life every single day,” Ethridge said. “So we want to make those elite and if we do that, I think we can continue to succeed in recruiting and getting great, great talent in choosing us and staying in here to be with us (for) four years.”