Coug fans have a lot to be confident in regarding the 2023–24 WSU women’s basketball team.

WSU won its first Conference title last season, which means they enter the new season as defending conference champions for the first time in program history.

However, No. 24 WSU does not enter the new season without adversity. Only eight players will be healthy enough to play on opening day, head coach Kamie Ethridge said Monday in her preseason press conference.

The Cougs carry 13 players on their roster, but five of them may not play Nov. 6 when the Cougs host Cal Poly to tipoff their regular season. The group of unavailable payers includes veterans Johanna Teder and Jessica Clarke, sophomore Krya Gardner, and redshirt freshman Cia Eklöf. On Wednesday, Teder announced that she would not play this year because of injury.

The Cougs’s anticipated starting lineup is intact with All-Pac-12 players Charlisse Leger-Walker and Bella Murekatete headlining a lineup that also includes junior Tara Walack, University of Idaho graduate transfer Beyonce Bea and reigning All-Pac-12 freshman Astera Tuhina, now a sophomore of course.

The Cougs will demand quick contributions from their three healthy freshmen, including Eleonora Villa, Jenna Villa and Alex Covill.

“They bring a skillset that puts them on the floor and makes them successful,” Ethridge said.

Ethridge said she expects the four other players who are unavailable to return within the first several weeks of the season, but not necessarily by the Cougars’ first week of the season in which they play three games.

“Coming in for a new season with a new team new faces, and you never know what you’re gonna get until you get you know your first practices or even just your first scrimmage. So I’m really excited about our team this year,” Leger-Walker said.

Ethridge said the seniors do a good job of holding the freshman accountable to the program’s standard.

“The upperclassmen are looking at the freshmen every day and saying ‘please understand that this is my last go-around, get this, come to practice ready come with an expectation that I’ve got to be great today,” Ethridge said.

Following Ula Motuga’s five stellar year on the Palouse, WSU needed a forward to match her intensity and rebounding role. They found their gal eight miles away at the Univeristy of Idaho.

The Washougal, Washington, native Beyonce Bea scored 1,938 points in four years at Idaho.

“Bea is the easiest person to coach,” Ethridge said. “She’s no maintenance.”

Ethridge said Bea will likely be the team’s leading rebounder, but might not post as many points per game at WSU.

At University of Idaho, Bea posted around 20 shots per game on her way to becoming the second-highest scorer in Idaho women’s basketball history.

“Bea chose us because I think she really wanted to win at the highest level,” Ethridge said. “It is our responsibility to put her in a position to affect the game and to help us and again, she’s someone you can count on. She’s a big-moment player.”

Bea joins an offense that includes Murekatete, Tuhina, Teder and Wallack. Ethridge said she expects the Cougs to spread the ball more, which may provide further opportunity for Leger-Walker to score more as teams are less inclined to double or triple-team her as her teammates may make opponents pay for that decision.

“I expect [Leger-Walker’s] numbers to go up,” Ethridge said. “I think we can play really free this year because the weapons on this court make it easier to not put too many pressures on ourselves.”

Leger-Walker said a lot of pressure comes from within and that she has tried to not put as much pressure on herself.

“What a burden to have to be on our team and know that the only way we win is I have to score 25 and I have to shoot a great percentage every night and I don’t think she feels that right now and that’s our hope is that we have a balanced scoring,” Ethridge said.

While WSU has experienced remarkable success in recent years, its attendance still lags behind what other similarly successful teams receive and behind that of WSU men’s basketball.

Ethridge said fans can and should confidently go to Beasley knowing that the Cougs are for real.

“You want people to expect you to win,” Ethridge said. We want to have an expectation of people showing up in our gym and getting the fans behind this team. I think we’ve earned that, I think we need that.”