Kamie Ethridge was named the head coach of WSU women’s basketball on April 15, 2018. She is the eighth person to lead the Cougars women’s basketball program.
Coach Ethridge has continued to raise the bar every season she has been on the Palouse. The Hall of Famer has brought her winning ways to Pullman, quickly elevating the WSU women's basketball program into the upper echelon of the college women's basketball landscape. Ethridge has guided Washington State to five-straight postseason tournament appearances, and its first back-to-back-to-back 20-win seasons.
After seeing its win total increase each season under Ethridge, Washington State continued their winning trend with a third-straight 20-win season in 2024-25. In 2022-23, she led the program to the first Pac-12 title in any WSU female team sport by winning the 2023 Pac-12 Women's Basketball Championship in Las Vegas, navigating the Cougars from the Pac-12 basement to Pac-12 Champions in just five short seasons.
Since coming to Pullman, Ethridge has led the Cougs to the 2023 Pac-12 Championship, earned a berth as a No. 1 seed in the inaugural 2024 Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, made three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances (2021, 2022, 2023) and set program records for most wins in a regular season with 23 victories in 2022-23, breaking the 44-year-old single-season program record of 21 wins set by the 1978-79 team, and then tying that 21-win mark in both the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
The program entered the 2024-25 season with six freshmen, and Ethridge’s staff developed the young group throughout the year, culminating in the program’s fifth-consecutive postseason berth with a WNIT appearance and a win to advance to the tournament’s Super 16. Ethridge also led the team to a pair of program records during the year, setting the WSU record for made threes in a season with 245, and blocks in a season with 220, which also ranked third in the nation.
Ethridge is 116-104 overall through seven seasons at Washington State. Her 116 wins are the most by a seventh-year coach in WSU women's basketball history. Ethridge was named the 2022 Pac-12 Coach of the Year by the media after guiding the Cougars to 19 wins in 2021-22. The Cougs posted a school-record second-place finish in the Pac-12 standings in 2021-22 after winning a program-record 11 Pac-12 games. The Cougars' 36 Pac-12 wins collected over the last four seasons (2020-24) are the seventh-most Pac-12 wins by a school.
Going into the 2023-24 season, the program earned its first-ever appearance in the Preseason Associated Press Top-25 Poll, appearing at No. 24 in the preseason poll. WSU ranked as high as 21 in the 2023-24 season, a ranking that set a program record for the highest ranking in the AP Top-25 Poll in program history. The 2023-24 season also saw the Cougars defeat No. 2/4 UCLA, becoming the highest-ranked team Washington State had ever defeated in program history. Washington State has won 12 games against ranked teams under Coach Ethridge. Five of those 10 wins have come against teams ranked inside the top 10. The Cougars set a program record with six wins over ranked teams in 2022-23.
Ethridge has brought in elite talent from all over the globe during her tenure at Washington State, which includes New Zealand native and three-time All-American Honorable Mention selection Charlisse Leger-Walker. WSU players such as Ula Motuga (Australia), Johanna Teder (Estonia), Bella Murekatete (Rwanda), Krystal Leger-Walker (New Zealand) Jessica Clarke (Canada), Tara Wallack (Canada), Astera Tuhina (Kosovo) and Eleonora Villa (Italy) have gone on to play for their national team programs.
Washington State would capture the biggest banner in school history during the 2022-23 season, as the Cougars won the 2023 Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas. As the tournament’s No. 7 seed, Ethridge guided the Cougs to the school’s first female Pac-12 team championship by winning four games in five days in Sin City. By capturing the Pac-12 Championship, Washington State earned the Conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, granted the Cougars their third-straight March Madness trip, a program first. Washington State earned a No. 5 seed at the 2023 NCAA Tournament, which is the highest seed that WSU has ever earned at an NCAA Tournament. The Cougars matched up against No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast in the first round in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
The Cougs knocked off three straight ranked teams in Las Vegas en route to the 2023 Pac-12 Championship, beating No. 3/4 Utah in the Pac-12 quarterfinals (66-58), No. 20/21 Colorado in the semifinals (61-49), and No. 19/16 UCLA in the Pac-12 Championship Game (65-61). It marked the first time in program history that Washington State had won consecutive games against ranked teams. The win against No. 3/4 Utah is the highest-ranked team that Washington State has ever defeated in program history.
Washington State’s success in Las Vegas helped the Cougars make their first appearance in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll since the 2020-21 season, as WSU came in at No. 22 in the March 6 AP Top-25 Poll. The No. 22 ranking set a program record for the highest ranking in the AP Top-25 Poll in program history. WSU came in No. 23 in the March 13 AP Top-25 Poll, marking the first time in school history that the Cougs have been ranked for consecutive weeks.
Ethridge also guided Washington State to a program record of 23 wins in 2022-23, as the Cougars went 23-11 overall. The 23 wins broke the previous program record of 21 wins set by the 1978-79 team. The Cougars’ success on the road allowed WSU to set the program’s single-season record for most wins, as Washington State won a program-record 14 games away from Beasley Coliseum in 2022-23. Ethridge led WSU to nine wins in true road games in 2022-23, tying them with the 1981-82 team for the most road wins in a season. The Cougars also captured five victories in neutral site games, setting the school record for most neutral site wins in a campaign. All six of Washington State’s wins against ranked teams in 2022-23 came in a road game or a neutral site contest.
Ethridge’s success at Washington State during the 2022-23 season earned her National Coach of the Year honors from The Athletic. Ethridge became the first WSU women’s basketball head coach to be named a National Coach of the Year by a National publication. Ethridge holds the program record for most wins by a fifth-year coach, as she has won 74 games during her five seasons on the Palouse.
Washington State continued to shatter the glass ceiling in Ethridge’s fourth season with the Cougs in 2021-22. WSU set numerous program records and made a return trip to the NCAA Tournament for the second-consecutive season. WSU ended the 2021-22 season with a 19-11 record. The 19 wins were then a program record for most wins in a season in the NCAA Era (post-1981-82), which has since been broken by the 23-win total of the 2022-23 team. Washington State finished tied for second in the Pac-12 in 2021-22 with an 11-6 conference record. The 11 conference victories set the program record for most Pac-12 wins in a season, while the second-place finish marked the Cougars’ highest finish in the Pac-12 standings in program history. The Cougars earned a No. 8 seed at the 2022 NCAA Tournament, where Washington State was matched up with No. 9-seed Kansas State in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Ethridge lifted Washington State to new heights in her third season at the helm in 2020-21, as she guided the Cougars to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 30 seasons. Washington State earned a No. 9 seed in the 2021 NCAA Tournament, where they took on No 8 -seed South Florida in Austin, Texas. Ethridge also led Washington State to its first-ever ranking in the Associated Press top-25 poll, coming in at No. 25 in the Jan. 11, 2021 poll. WSU won a program-best 11 games at Beasley Coliseum in 2021-22. Washington State ended its third season under Ethridge at 12-12, marking the first time the program has posted a .500-or-better overall record since the 2014-15 campaign.
The Cougars knocked off three top-25 teams in 2020-21, which included a 67-63 win over No. 5/4 UCLA on Feb. 5 in Pullman. The win over the Bruins marked the program’s first victory over a top-five opponent. WSU also defeated the eventual national runner-up Arizona in Beasley Coliseum, as the Cougs knocked off the No. 7/10-ranked Wildcats, 71-69 in overtime, on Jan. 10 in Beasley Coliseum. Washington State won nine Pac-12 games during the 2020-21 season, which is tied for the second-most Pac-12 wins in a single season in program history. Academically, the Cougars posted their highest cumulative grade point average in program history in 2020-21 with a team GPA of 3.629. Washington State was selected to the 2020-21 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll for the first time in program history, posting the 20th-best team GPA in all of NCAA Division I women’s basketball that season.
The 2019-20 campaign featured a challenge like no other Washington State women’s basketball team had seen before. Coming into her second season in Pullman, Ethridge scheduled a school-record 15 games against teams ranked inside the top-25, with 11 of those contests coming in Pac-12 Conference play. The tough sledding proved to be fruitful for the Cougars, as they posted a two-win improvement from year one under Ethridge’s guidance, finishing at 11-20 in 2019-20. Ethridge helped guide Borislava Hristova and Chanelle Molina to their second All-Pac-12 selection under her direction in 2019-20. Hristova earned All-Pac-12 honors for a program record fourth time, as the forward ended her career as WSU’s all-time leading scorer with 2,269 career points.
Ethridge won her 100th career game as a head coach on Jan. 5, 2020, with a 96-75 victory at Cal. The win at Cal also featured Borislava Hristova becoming Washington State’s all-time leading scorer, breaking Jeanne Eggart’s 38-year-old school record. The Cougars outscored the Bears 31-6 in the first quarter en route to the 21-point victory. The 31 points were the most ever points scored in an opening frame in WSU history.
The 20 victories collected by Ethridge during her first two seasons on the Palouse is the second-most by head coach through two seasons at Washington State.
Ethridge won her first game at WSU on Nov. 16, 2018, with an 87-84 double-overtime victory over Nebraska at Beasley Coliseum. She would nab her first Pac-12 win against rival Washington, 79-76, on Dec. 30, 2018, in her first-career Apple Cup contest. The win over Washington would be her first of two that year as she led the Cougs to a season sweep of the Huskies for just the second time in program history. In addition, Ethridge guided her team to its most lopsided win over Washington in the NCAA era, as the Cougs defeated the Huskies by 33 points, 94-61, on Feb. 15, 2019, in Pullman, to complete the series sweep.
Ethridge came to Pullman following four seasons as the head coach at the University of Northern Colorado, where she posted a combined 83 victories and led the Bears to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in her final season.
In four seasons at Northern Colorado (2014-18), Ethridge posted three 20-plus win seasons, including a school-record 26 wins en route to being named the Big Sky Coach of the Year in 2018. She led UNC to a then-school record 22 wins in her first season before topping that mark in 2018. In addition, she guided the Bears to two postseason appearances in her four years.
Prior to UNC, Ethridge established herself as one of the premier teachers in the game. Her reputation was not just as a coach, but also as a player, earning a gold medal with the United States at the 1988 Olympics, winning an NCAA National Championship as a player at the University of Texas, and being inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.
Ethridge spent 18 seasons (1996-2014) as an assistant coach at Kansas State, where she was part of a staff that took teams to nine NCAA postseason tournaments, four WNIT postseason tournaments (including winning the 2006 WNIT Championship), and two Big 12 Championships. The Wildcats advanced to six Sweet Sixteen while totaling a record of 350-226 over that span.
In addition to her service with the Wildcats, Ethridge served a four-year term on the USA Basketball Women’s Player Selection Committee, which is responsible for the selection of numerous teams, including the World University Games, Pan American Games and Jones Cup teams. In the summer of 1999, she was invited to lead a point guard camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., for current, past and prospective USA Basketball talent.
Prior to Kansas State, Ethridge spent five seasons with Vanderbilt as an assistant coach from 1991-96. The Commodores won the SEC postseason tournament twice en route to advancing to the Sweet Sixteen all five seasons, including one Final Four trip in 1992-93. Ethridge played a major role in recruiting five high school Kodak All-Americans and 13 Gatorade State Players of the Year to Vanderbilt.
In her first year of coaching, Ethridge joined the Northern Illinois program that advanced to the WNIT Postseason Tournament.
Ethridge had a prestigious playing career at the University of Texas, including leading the Longhorns to the 1986 national championship, where she was named the Most Valuable Player. She served as a team captain, and starting point guard, for the Longhorns while putting together the first perfect season in NCAA Division I history, finishing the 1985-86 campaign 34-0. Ethridge and Texas advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen every season while moving on to the Elite Eight twice.
A two-time Kodak All-American, Ethridge was honored with the Wade Trophy and the Honda Broderick Cup, awarded to the top female student-athlete in the country, in 1986. The final jewel in her awards crown was the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Player of the Year Award, presented annually to the nation’s top senior collegian under 5-foot-6 in height, that same season.
Ethridge continued her playing career after Texas while competing on the international level. She was a member of the U.S gold medal-winning Olympic team at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Ethridge also won gold medals for Team USA at the 1986 Goodwill Games, 1986 World Championships and the 1987 Pan American Games.
Ethridge had her #33 jersey retired at Texas in September of 2019 as she became the first female athlete in Longhorns Athletics history to earn the honor.
