Washington State University Athletics

Seventh-year Cougar head coach Kelvin Sampson had nearly completed his rebuilding of the men’s basketball program when Isaac Fontaine arrived at Washington State as a freshman in the fall of 1993. WSU had advanced to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) two seasons prior, making its first postseason appearance since the 1982-83 season. Fontaine stepped in and made an immediate impact, helping lead the Cougars to a No. 8 seed in the 1994 NCAA Tournament and a 20-11 overall record. Sampson left WSU for Oklahoma after the season, but Fontaine guided his team to consecutive NIT appearances in 1995 and 1996, respectively. The only 2,000-point scorer in WSU history, Fontaine received Pacific-10 honors all-four of his years in a WSU uniform, becoming the 10th Cougar to earn Pac-10 All-Conference First Team honors twice (1996, 1997). He was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshmen Team (1994) and was an All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention honoree as a sophomore (1995). On top of his conference honors, Fontaine also received accolades from NABC, USBWA, and the Associated Press. As a senior he was one of 18 finalists for the John R. Wooden Award and was WSU’s 1997 Pac-10 Medal winner. In addition to holding the school’s scoring record (2,003 points), Fontaine also holds the WSU all-time career best mark for 3-point percentage (.457). His 90-consecutive games started streak ranks second all-time in school history. Following graduation, Fontaine signed a professional contract with Scavolini Pesaro (Pesaro, Italy), an AI Division team in the Italian Basketball League. He also played for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies during the 2001-02 season.