Ethridge receives warm welcome at WSU

There was an audible buzz as Kamie Ethridge entered the room and made her way to the podium through the throng of people lining the Cougar Football Complex.

The former Olympic gold medalist, flanked on her left by Washington State athletic director Patrick Chun, could barely squeeze in a word before the attendees - which included student-athletes, donors and university personnel - burst into a hearty round of applause.

The Ethridge era had officially begun.

The Hall of Famer was formally introduced as the new Cougar women's basketball coach during a news conference Tuesday afternoon. Ethridge discussed the future of the program and fielded questions from a crowd that included WSU President Kirk Schulz and men's basketball coach Ernie Kent.

"I've thought of a million things as I've gone through this process and thought about this moment and what I would do with it," Ethridge said. "I am just thrilled to be starting the next chapter with you all."

The former Northern Colorado coach takes over a squad returning just seven members of last year's roster: Borislava Hristova, Chanelle Molina, Johanna Muzet, Maria Kostourkova, Celena Molina, Alexys Swedlund and Jovana Subasic. But those same players are the key reason Ethridge made the leap to the Palouse, as the four-year Big Sky veteran found herself immediately impressed upon meeting the group.

"I don't think women's basketball is that far off here from being one of the top teams and competing with anyone in our league," Ethridge said. "It's going to take some time, it's going to take a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I just love the fact that we have a great building block on the kind of people and players in the program right now and we can do some things with that."

Ethridge joins Washington State after guiding Northern Colorado to a 26-7 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance last season. As a player, she led Texas to a national title in 1986 before following it up with an appearance in the 1988 Olympic Games and a gold medal for Team USA.

"We were looking for an exact fit, and we were going to uncover every stone and go through a process as long as it took to find that person," Chun said of his first major hire as athletic director. "When it was all said and done ... it was like, 'Wow, this is that person.' We're pumped we ended up where we're at."

Ethridge didn't discuss the finer details of her search for additional staff members, but she did offer a glimpse of her overall vision for the program, which includes a strong emphasis on recruiting in order to compete with perennial Pac-12 powers such as Stanford and UCLA.

"I hope to put together a staff that can succeed internationally and across the states," Ethridge said. "We'll go wherever players are and wherever the interest is. I think we can get the people that love this kind of community and love this college atmosphere."

As a former member of the Big Sky, Ethridge brings to the Palouse a coaching style that is primarily based on speed and perimeter shooting, rather than the Power Five staple of height.

"I love versatility, I love people stretching the floor and shooting the 3," Ethridge said. "Obviously, I haven't dealt with having as much size as we have here, so that's going to be a nice thing to have to figure out how we're going to play with size."

Ethridge shied away from directly answering whether she would attempt to sway Louise Brown and Kayla Washington into rejoining the program, instead stating that her goal was to look to the recruiting trail for new talent.

"These seven right here are the ones that have been fully committed and are on board," she said. "... As far as I'm concerned, I think these are the ones we're going to build on."

Rivalry renewal?

It's been more than a decade since the Washington State and Idaho women's basketball teams squared off in the Battle of the Palouse, but that could soon change under Ethridge's direction.

"I think Jon (Newlee) does a great job at the University of Idaho and clearly they're close, so there's lots of reasons to play," Ethridge said when asked about potentially renewing the rivalry. "I don't really have an answer right now. I know our schedule is way full and very difficult, and we're going to have to deal with that first and then we're going to deal with next year's schedule as we go. But I'm certainly open to that."

Show me the money

According to the Greeley Tribune's website, Ethridge's WSU contract is for six years with an annual salary of $400,000.

Joshua Grissom can be reached at jgrissom@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @JoshuaGNews.