Analysis: Why WSU coaches would do well to retain freshman guard Tomas Thrastarson

PULLMAN – In a back room at the Spokane Arena, where Washington State freshman guard Tomas Thrastarson enjoyed a career-best scoring outing in late December, his head coach and teammates couldn’t stop raving about him.

Head coach David Riley praised Thrastarson’s stay-ready mentality. Sitting next to Thrastarson, point guard Nate Calmese smiled when the Iceland native used English, his second language, to chat about his scoring outburst. The Cougars were 12-3 after the win, and one of their youngest players was showing real promise.

But what Riley liked more than Thrastarson’s scoring, which came with a 4-for-5 showing from beyond the arc, was the way he crashed the glass. On one sequence late in the game, Thrastarson came over from the weak side to tip in a miss, leveraging his 6-foot-6 size to show he isn’t just a 3-and-D prospect.

“It was a huge bucket,” Riley said of Thrastarson, who has three more years of eligibility. “Obviously, he hit the corner 3s, and you guys have seen him with his Euro steps, where he’s physical and doing all this stuff, but he’s willing to get the dirty work done. That was a huge play. They had scored a couple buckets, and he came in. Those momentum players are what win games. That’s how you build momentum, and I thought he did that.”

As WSU gets set for the College Basketball Crown tournament in Las Vegas, where the Cougars will take on Georgetown in the first round on March 31, it’s become clear how Thrastaron’s early season outburst set the stage for his promising future. As WSU contends with the transfer portal, which claimed guard Isaiah Watts on Tuesday, it’s also become apparent how important it is for the club to retain Thrastarson.

Earning a nod to the all-WCC freshman team, Thrastarson has averaged somewhat pedestrian numbers this season: 4.3 points and 3 rebounds on 56% shooting, including 41% from deep on about one attempt per game. He started 10 games in the absence of Watts, who was injured. But what speaks louder are the tools Thrastarson has. His 6-6 frame. His ranginess. His physicality. His defense and his willingness to hit the glass when others might not.

The Cougars will be losing a lot this offseason. Watts is already on his way out. The team will also bid farewell to seniors Ethan Price and Dane Erikstrup, who are out of eligibility. Calmese, who signed with an NIL and skill development agency on Wednesday, is one to watch. Same goes for sophomore wing LeJuan Watts, whose combination of skillset and size will no doubt garner him attention from coaches from other schools.

It’s worth noting that after WSU bowed out of the WCC Tournament earlier this month, LeJuan Watts said he plans to stay at the school, saying, “I’m a Coug, for sure.” Riley took care to massage Watts’ declaration, saying, “We’ve gotta process this game. Tough questions for the kids.”

Thrastarson was also one of three more Cougars to say they plan on returning, joining forward ND Okafor and wing Ri Vavers.

But with or without those guys, Thrastarson might be the youngest Cougar with the brightest future, making his retention especially important for the program. It might not be clear based off his numbers, but it’s evident in his intangibles, in the way he has the tools to blossom into a star later down the road.

“We’ve been really big on just making sure he’s playing confident, playing aggressive,” Riley said in December. “He’s got good instincts on both sides of the ball. He played high-level professional basketball in Iceland, so he’s played on big stages. He’s played with physical players and grown men, and what he’s done has been really impressive.”

Some of Thrastarson’s best plays this season tell the story best.

Earlier in March, in WSU’s road win over Pepperdine, Thrastarson showed more willingness to rebound. Early in the game, Calmese pulled up for a midrange jumper, and on the release, Thrastarson was at the 3-point arc on the other side of the court. The ball careened off the rim, and by that point Thrastarson was in position for the rebound. He grabbed it, scored and drew a foul.

Earlier in the season, in WSU’s win over Northern Iowa in Las Vegas, Thrastarson put some of the same skills on display, this time with the ball in his hands. He attacked a hard closeout, picked up the ball in the paint, got a defender off his feet with a sweet fake, then finished on the same side of the basket, again through contact.

But on that play, Thrastarson had the opportunity to attack the closeout because defenses respect his 3-point shot, and rightfully so. He doesn’t take many of them, but Thrastarson had three games this season with multiple triples, including the 4-for-5 effort against Loyola Marymount in Spokane and two 2-for-2 outings in losses to Gonzaga. He may not be an entirely willing shooter, but he’s a capable one.

Take the Cougars’ home loss to the Zags. The hosts were down double digits early, and Thrastarson found himself open on the wing. He let it fly and it was all net.

Thrastarson developed something of a habit of sinking the timely 3-pointer. A couple of weeks earlier, in WSU’s road setback to Pacific, he did the same, pulling the Cougars back within one with a trey.

But a lot of what makes Thrastarson so valuable, of what makes it so important for WSU coaches to keep him, happens on defense. He had 19 blocks, including as many as three in one game, which came in a loss to Washington. In total, he posted six games with multiple blocks. He’s shown sharp timing to make those, jumping at just the right time to swat away shots at the rim.

Thrastarson also had nine steals, two in a road win over Pepperdine. It doesn’t bother him to get dirty on the perimeter, nor in the paint, where he rose up for a couple of blocks.

Thrastarson is far from a perfect player. He isn’t much of a shot-creator, which means he often needs a primary ball-handler to get him open looks. He might be a little shy from the perimeter, and he doesn’t have the same type of athleticism that many wings in the WCC have – and those on teams joining the rebuilt Pac-12 in 2026.

But for WSU, Thrastarson is a project worth keeping around. With 20 minutes per game in 30 contests, he did well to show why.