In up-and-down season, WSU’s Ethan Price using his experience to point teammates in the right direction

PULLMAN – Ethan Price was hanging out with friends at Twigs, a restaurant and bar combo on the third floor of Spokane’s River Park Square mall, when he got the call that changed his career’s trajectory.

“Wanna be a Coug?” David Riley said.

It was last spring, shortly after Riley accepted Washington State’s head coaching job, and he wanted to take his 6-foot-10 sharpshooting big with him from Eastern Washington. Riley was facing lots of unknowns – the Cougars were set to play two years as WCC affiliate members, last season’s roster was all but gutted and WSU’s athletic director was only interim – but Riley knew he wanted Price on his first Cougars team.

Riley knew what he was getting from Price on the court: He’s a reliable threat from deep. He’s a heady player who makes the right decisions. He supplies valuable rim protection with around a block per game, and with three seasons of college basketball under his belt, Price figured to fit right in.

As WSU embarks on the final five-game stretch of the regular season, bringing an end to Price’s college career, Riley has also enjoyed something else from Price: A natural leader whose experience is paying dividends in all kinds of ways. As the Cougs ended a five-game skid last week, setting up a critical final swing of the season, Price’s leadership has proven just as valuable.

“I just think having that steady experience, steady presence in our locker room and our huddles,” Riley said, “the guys have respected him since day one, just because he’s a heck of a basketball player, but more just how he carries himself. He’s an everyday guy. I think that’s what you need to have consistency in a program. These guys that are young are gonna take a lot from him, and he’ll have his fingerprints on this program for a long time.”

Price, who swatted away Pepperdine’s buzzer-beating attempt last weekend to seal an 87-86 comeback victory, is making sure of that in more ways than one. He’s averaging 12 points and five rebounds on 36% 3-point shooting, and he’s scored in double figures in six of his past seven games. His three blocks against Pepperdine were one off a career high.

He’s knocked down tons of huge shots — he canned four huge triples to keep WSU afloat in a loss to first-place Saint Mary’s earlier this month, and he tallied 20 points in a key win over San Francisco in early January — but he’s also been there for the Cougs in other ways. In a season like this, as WSU tumbles out of NCAA Tournament at-large bid candidacy with a wayward second half of the season, that has mattered.

Often the first to bring the other four players together during breaks in the action, especially when things are heading south, Price’s respect around the locker room is clear. Nicknamed “Mr. Consistent” by Riley, Price has earned the role by showing up in just the same way, a steady hand during practices and games alike.

He comes by it naturally. Thrown into the fire as a freshman at EWU in 2021-22, Price started all 34 games in his first season of college, a far cry from high school ball in his native Bury St. Edmunds, England. He won Big Sky Freshman of the Year honors, and though the Eagles experienced a middling season in Riley’s debut as a head coach, Price’s future looked promising.

But what he took away most from that season, which set him up to enjoy the leadership position he does now, happened during practices. After wins and losses alike, Price would show up and see the same type of enthusiasm from two seniors, Rylan Bergersen and Linton Acliese III.

“Those two, I think just being able to see kind of the energy that those two brought, and kind of just the everyday guys they were,” Price said. “You never would go into a practice and see those two slacking or you would never be like, ‘Oh, I wonder if they’re gonna bring the energy today.’ I think just playing with guys like that definitely helped me.

“I don’t feel like I should ever have a day where, ‘Oh, Ethan’s not bringing it today,’ or ‘His energy isn’t there.’ Because I feel like even on the days where you might not be shooting as well, playing as well as you want to on both ends of the floor, I feel like energy is definitely something you can control on a daily basis.”

In some ways, Price is a product of those around him, of the players and coaches he trusts the most. Price’s first season of college basketball was also Riley’s first year as a head coach. Price had previously committed to former EWU coach Shantay Legans, but before Price could make the trip across the pond, Legans took the same job at Portland.

That gave Price some pause. Did he want to stay committed to Eastern Washington? Riley had led the charge in recruiting Price, who also had interest from USC and Georgia Tech, but now the head coach was changing. Over the phone, Riley told Price he liked his chances at earning the Eagles’ head coaching job, encouraging Price to honor his commitment.

I’ve trusted this guy, Price thought. I’m gonna stick at it. If he gets the head coaching job, I’ll follow through on that and keep my promise.

“I think coming in initially, you see someone as an assistant coach who’s never been a head coach,” Price said, “you have your doubts for sure. You think, ‘Has he been in this spot before? Has he been in this situation before?’ But I was kind of in the same situation. I’d never been in that spot before. I never played college basketball. That team that I went to, I was kinda thrown in that deep end to be able to learn and figure stuff out, and he’d done the same thing.”

In that way, Price has grown up alongside Riley, one absorbing lessons from the other. Price remembers Riley’s first few pregame speeches, which needed some work, Price laughed. These Cougs haven’t had a perfect season, but they’ve always been able to rely on Price, whose stretch-five capabilities might not be the best thing about his game. For a shorthanded team like WSU, it might be the way he applies his steady, calming presence.