WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS (15-5, 5-2) at SANTA CLARA BRONCOS (13-7, 5-2)
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2025
8 p.m. PT (11 p.m. ET)
Santa Clara, Calif.
Leavey Center
Capacity: 4,200

COUGAR RADIO NETWORK
KXLY 920AM // KHTR 104.3FM
KTTH 770AM // KONA 610AM
Play-by-Play: Chris King
Analyst: Craig Ehlo

TELEVISION or STREAMING
CBS Sports Network
Play-by-Play: John Sadak
Analyst: Darren Collison
Producer: Jason Lewis

OPENING TIPS
1. Washington State travels to the Bay Area to face Santa Clara for the first half of the season series in a nationally-televised contest on CBS Sports Network, Thursday, Jan. 23 at 8 p.m. The Cougars played the Broncos last season in a nonconference neutral-site clash at Phoenix's Footprint Center, falling 61-69. WSU holds the all-time series advantage 6-4 while SCU has held the recent edge, winning three of the last four contests.
2. Coach David Riley is off to the second-best start by a first-year head coach in program history. Riley is just the second Wazzu coach to start with at least 15 wins in 20 games.
3. WSU ranks top-30 in the country in five team categories: 10th in 2-point FG% (.592), 13th in FG% (.494), 16th in effective FG% (.570), 29th in blocks per game (5.1), and 29th in assists per game (17.1). Individually, Nate Calmese ranks ninth nationally with 140 field goals and 24th with 42 steals.
4. Nate Calmese leads WSU's active roster with 17.3 points, 4.7 assists, and 2.1 steals per game. The junior transfer leads the WCC in steals, sits fourth in scoring, and sixth in assists per game.
5. Nate Calmese became the first Cougar player with 3-consecutive 20-point games in five seasons, when future NBA selection CJ Elleby scored 3-straight in December of the 2019-20 season.

LAST TIME OUT
WSU defeated Portland, 92-70, Saturday afternoon in Pullman. The Cougars controlled the paint, outscoring Portland 48-18 in the key. Wazzu also found an advantage off turnovers, converting Portland's 17 turnovers into 25 points. Nate Calmese led the game in scoring with 23 points, career-high eight assists, and four rebounds. The junior is the first Coug to have three straight 20-point games since CJ Elleby in December of 2019-20. Dane Erikstrup added 17 points with four triples. LeJuan Watts had 15 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. ND Okafor matched his WSU career-high with 12 points and six rebounds off the bench.

PICK YOUR POISON
The Cougars have distributed scoring across the majority of the playing rotation with four active players averaging 10+ points through 20 games. At least four Cougs have scored in double figures 12 times, while six different individuals have tallied 20-point performances. Nate Calmese sits fourth in the conference in scoring and LeJuan Watts ranks fifth in the WCC in rebounding.

SHARING THE ROCK
The Cougs dished out 24 assists in the win over Portland, Dec. 28, matching the season-high with the most single-game assists in six seasons. WSU boasts a 13-2 record when tallying 15+ assists, most recently defeating Portland with 17 assists. In contrast, the Cougs are 2-3 when delivering fewer than 15 assists, securing their second win with 13 assists at San Diego, Jan. 16.

UP NEXT
Saint Mary's travels to Pullman to face the Cougars in a Saturday evening matchup on national television. The Gaels have never played at Beasley Coliseum, beating the Cougs in the inaugural meeting in the first round of the 2009 National Invitation Tournament in Moraga, California. The schools last met in the 2017 Wooden Legacy in San Diego, California where the Cougars evened the series with an 84-79 victory. SMC, led by long-time head coach Randy Bennett reached the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight season in 2023-24, finishing NET 16.

RIM PROTECTORS
The Cougar team leads the WCC and ranks 29th in the country with 5.1 blocked shots per game. WSU boasts two of the top 10 shot blockers in the conference with Okafor at second (1.4) and Erikstrup at eighth (1.0). As a team, WSU has swatted away a league-best 101 shot attempts, 25 more than the next-closest WCC team.

INJURY BUG BITES
Coach David Riley confirmed in December the successful shoulder surgeries of senior Cedric Coward and freshman Marcus Wilson, both of whom will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season on 4-6 month recovery timelines. Sophomore Rihards Vavers is out indefinitely, likely for the season, with broken bones in both hands. Isaiah Watts suffered a hand injury against Washington, Dec. 18, and will miss several weeks. Riley stated in a press conference he hoped to have Isaiah back by the end of January. Since Dec. 18, the Cougs have operated with eight healthy players in rotation, plus a redshirt-freshman (Vukicevic) and a preferred walk-on (Sessoms).

DIFFERENT KINDA COUGS
WSU is built different this season, regularly playing with four or all five men around the perimeter, a different look from the 2023-24 Cougs, which played with two bigs inside most nights. The change has results in higher field goal percentages everywhere on the court, including a larger portion of points coming from beyond the arc and more efficiency around the rim. The Cougars rank 10th nationally in 2-point FG percentage.

FLOOR GENERAL CALMESE
Nate Calmese leads the Cougars in scoring, steals, and assists. The junior leads the WCC in steals and has seen all his ballhandling statistics improve over three seasons, including increases in assists from 2.0 to 4.7 per game (+135%); steals from 1.2 to 2.1 per game (+75%), and rebounds from 2.5 to 3.4 per game (+36%).

THE PRICE IS RIGHT
Ethan Price, a senior transfer from Eastern Washington, has started all 120 games of his career for Coach Riley. The Englishman delivered a career-high 28 points, Jan. 9, against Pacific, with a career-high six 3-pointers. Price surpassed 1,000 career points during his junior season with the Eagles. Early this season, Price dished out his 200th career assist and the senior most recently surpassed 500 career rebounds to become the first Cougar player since Kyle Weaver (2004-08) to record at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 200 career assists.

TRIPLE-DOUBLE THREAT
Coach Riley has describe LeJuan Watts as a consistent triple-double threat. The sophomore standout got the closest he's been as a Coug with eight points, 11 rebounds, and career-high eight assists in the Dec. 30 win over LMU. It was the most complete performance since Kyle Weaver delivered the only triple-double in WSU history, Jan. 13, 2007 with 14 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. LeJuan Watts notched his sixth double-double, Jan. 4, against San Francisco with a career-high 24 points and team-high 12 rebounds. Watts has led the Cougs in rebounding 14 times and ranks fifth in the WCC with 7.9 rebounds per game.

EFFICIENT IN THE ARC
In the Nov. 18 win over Northern Colorado, the Cougars shot 76.7% from 2-point range, the highest single-game 2-point percentage by a Wazzu team since December 9, 2007, when the Cougs shot 76.7% from inside the arc against Portland State (26-40). WSU boasts the top 2-point percentage and effective FG percentage in the WCC. The Cougs' 2-point percentage of 59.2% ranks 10th nationally, while their effective FG% of .570 ranks 16th in Division-I as of Jan. 22.

NONCONFERENCE SUCCESS
The Cougars concluded the nonconference schedule at 10-3, earning 10 nonconference wins for the first time since 2010-11, a group that ultimately reached the NIT semifinals with junior Klay Thompson. Coach David Riley became the first WSU first-year head coach since Ken Bone in 2009-10 to win 13 of his first 17 games. Riley became the third coach in Coug history to start 13-5 or better in his first season on the Palouse.

TINKERING WITH TEMPO
The Cougs are averaging 81.6 points per game, second in the WCC behind Gonzaga and 37th nationally. WSU is 13-3 when scoring over 70 points. WSU got only its second win when being held under 70 points in a 65-61 mudfight at San Diego, Jan. 16.

TOMAS TEASES TALENT
With a short bench, true freshman Tomas Thrastarson made his first career start against Northern Iowa, Dec. 21, and has held the starting spot ever since. The Icelandic native delivered a season-high 17 points and six rebounds in the WCC home opener against LMU, Dec. 30. The freshman has gone on to score in double figures three times, averaging 8.6 ppg in WCC play.

ERIKSTRUP EXCELLENCE
Dane Erikstrup has started every game as a Coug and scored a WSU career-high 24 points in WSU's win over his former team Eastern Washington, Nov. 21. Erikstrup made a homecoming in the Cougars' inaugural WCC game, playing his 80th career Division-I game at Portland, Dec. 28. Since WCC play began, Erikstrup has delivered career-highs in rebounding three times, including his first Cougar double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the win at San Diego. In conference play, the senior is averaging 6.9 rebounds per game.

OKAFOR BACK ON THE FLOOR
Junior ND Okafor, a transfer from California, played his first minutes as a Coug in the Nov. 11 win over Idaho. Okafor missed the first two games due to concussion protocol. In his Cougar debut, Okafor delivered a career-high 12 points, with six rebounds, a block, and a steal. Okafor ranks second in the WCC with 1.6 blocks per game, recording at least one block in 15 of 16 games played. In the Nov. 15 game against Iowa, Okafor pulled in five boards to eclipse 100 career rebounds. Okafor has twice matched his season-high in WCC play, scoring 12 points in both meetings with Portland.

'ZAY SETTLED AS A STARTER
Isaiah Watts, the only returning letterwinner from the 2023-24 roster, is on pace to quadruple his scoring, rebounding, assists, and steals output from his freshman season. In 10 games, the West Seattle sophomore  eclipsed his freshman season totals in points, rebounding, steals, and assists. Three times Isaiah has surpassed 20 points, including a career-high 22 points against Eastern Wash. Zay made his first career start in place of an injured Cedric Coward, Nov. 26, grabbing a career-high five steals and remained in the starting lineup until an injury in his non-shooting hand against UW that will sideline him for several weeks.

CORRECTION TO OKAFOR
Prior to this week, ND Okafor was incorrectly classified a junior on the WSU roster. This has been corrected to his proper classification as a redshirt-sophomore after receiving a medical hardship waiver in August for his season-ending injury as a sophomore at California.