Washington State Athletic Director Anne McCoy this week announced one year contract extensions to both Kamie Ethridge and David Riley, locking them in through the 2030-31 seasons. Ethridge has been a consistent winner in the last four season and has guided he squad to three NCAA Tournament appearances and the WBIT semifinals. One more win in the WCC Tournament and she’ll notch her third straight 20-win season in Pullman.
For those who’ve been around long enough and know the history of women’s basketball at WSU, that’s a heck of an accomplishment. So, her contract extension is no surprise.
David Riley, on the other hand, is a more curious case. I don’t like to judge a guy after one season—a season of major transition for the university and one in which injuries greatly affected the team.
But to extend a guy who’s 18-13 heading into the WCC Tournament leading a team that lost twice to Pacific, can’t hold onto the ball and has a knack for frustrating losing streaks is definitely an eyebrow raiser.
WSU raced out of the gates this season to a 13-3 record, only to have gone 5-10 since. They turn the ball over nearly 15 times a game and give up 78 points a game—good for….319th nationally. I know it’s one season, but I’d like to see coaches have a list of accomplishments before being given a contract extension. Maybe there are great things behind the scenes that we’re unaware of, and if so, those are definitely worthy of discussion for justifying a contract extension.
But this gives me flashbacks to the Bill Moos days when he automatically added a year to Ernie Kent’s contract each season. We saw where that got us.
David Riley is young and clearly knows how to win with less. If you think WSU is constantly operating with less than its peers—which it definitely is—you should pay attention to the issues Eastern Washington University has been dealing with the past decade. Riley guided his teams at EWU to two 20-win season and two postseason appearances, all while the fate of his athletic department was essentially in jeopardy.
So I don’t want to dismiss Riley. There’s plenty of time to prove his worth. And with a new conference on the horizon, perhaps McCoy is setting him and the program up for stability. The new Pac-12 won’t be the Big Sky or even the current WCC, so the challenge is perhaps the heaviest of his coaching career.
But it was a head scratcher seeing him get another year added to his contract, given the season we’ve watched. There’s more to prove, and here’s to hoping Riley can show us the extra year is worth it.