The 2023—24 WSU women’s basketball season was one of excitement, high expectations and disappointment.
The Cougs went into last season ranked No. 24, but lost the program’s third all-time leading scorer in Charlisse Leger-Walker just over halfway through the season to injury. After three straight NCAA tournament appearances, WSU missed the tournament and instead competed in the inaugural WBIT tournament. Wazzu finished strong though, advancing to the tournament semifinals where they lost to eventual champion Illinois.
Since the program hired head coach Kamie Ethridge in 2018, WSU women’s basketball standards have changed. Back-to-back 20-win seasons for Ethridge is a major milestone and she received a contract extension through 2030 in April, but last season brought more questions than answers.
The Cougs saw five players graduate and one player transfer at the end of last season, including Leger-Walker and several pivotal pieces. The Pac-12 fell apart in front of their eyes and now they enter a new conference in the WCC. The program is heading into a new season with a lack of clarity that has not been seen since Ethridge’s first year with the team.
However, that does not mean the former National Coach of the Year is not coming in with a plan.
The Cougs enter the 2024—25 season with a recruiting class of six new well-scouted prospects, all of whom hail enter from international territories. This class infuses the program with a new identity and a diverse array of talents.
The location of WSU and the name, image and likeness pool have both presented challenges for Ethridge, but the program loves the players they have acquired internationally and the athletes relish the opportunity to work in the American system and program, Ethridge said.
“You know, we’ve got to go wherever we can go to get to the best players we can get,” Ethridge said. “Clearly, you know where we’re located, sometimes it’s not the easiest place to get to and we don’t attract every American that’s a good player. So we’ve found that we can go to other countries and get some of the very best players and I love coaching internationals.”
Headlining the class are guards, Charlotte Abraham and Alice Dart, coming from France and Australia, respectively. Abraham is a strong and versatile 6-foot wing who has high-level experience playing for Villeneuve from 2022—24 and earning a silver medal on France’s U18 3×3 team in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
Dart is a 5-foot, 10-inch combo guard who averaged nearly 10 points per game in the Australian semi-professional league NBL1 and was highly successful with the Queensland State Teams in the national team’s development program. In the announcement of her first signing of the 2024 class, Ethridge compared Dart to Leger-Walker, citing her tangibles and three-level scoring.
The 2024 class included a flurry of guards, with Jean Chiu and Marta Alsina joining Abraham and Dart. Chiu is from Taiwan and played three seasons at the University of Taipei, bringing a package of speed and passing vision that will likely make her the backup point guard. Alsina comes from Barcelona, Spain, where she played for Segle XXI and earned medals on the 3×3 and 5×5 youth national teams.
Rounding out the newcomers for WSU are a couple of wings to shore up the bench depth in Dayana Mendes and Keandra Koorits. Both stand at 6-foot-2 inches and have excellent length and versatility. Mendes is from Paris, France, and Koorits is from Estonia where she spent the 2023—24 season on the Estonian national team.
Ethridge expressed confidence in her upcoming class and said with the addition of some stronger and more versatile athletes, this year’s team will be better defensively and shoot more efficiently.
“Again, the only thing this group hasn’t done that we brought in is they haven’t scored a point and they haven’t proven anything,” Ethridge said. “But, I think they have the ability, talent and potential to really help us maybe become the very best team we’ve ever had.”
Shifting from a roster of five seniors and fifth-year players to just one is a hard transition, putting a lot of responsibility on a few to be leaders for a roster that is sporting six newcomers and is majority underclassmen. Luckily for the Cougs, the experienced few are talented and ready for the challenge.
WSU will be led this season by two All-WCC Preseason Team members in sophomore Eleonora Villa and senior Tara Wallack.
Villa averaged 12.9 points and 2.3 assists per game as the team’s second-leading scorer last year. She made the All-Pac-12 Freshman Team and finished second in total points (463) for a freshman in program history. She also was first in minutes (1,199) and games played (36).
Ethridge said she normally gets mad when her players do not know their upcoming opponents, but Villa’s work ethic presents an exception.
“It is really a testament that she doesn’t care who she plays,” Ethridge said. “She doesn’t let her nerves get in the way, she shows up every single day at practice and she’s not blown away by you. She’s just respecting the game, respecting who they’re playing and plays her best and isn’t afraid of any big moment.”
Villa received high praise from her teammates as well.
“What she can’t do is the real question,” Wallack said of Villa’s freshman season. “She can just score at any level on the court and she’s kind of like a secret weapon because she doesn’t speak that much.”
Wallack shoulders a lot of responsibility as the team’s only senior and is arguably the most crucial to this team’s success. Wallack averaged 10.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game last season, providing much-needed rebounding and shot-blocking for a team short on frontcourt depth. Wallack was one of four players averaging double-digit points, but with Leger-Walker’s departure, more opportunities will open up on the wing and in the frontcourt.
“Well you know the responsibilities of being a senior and I mean it’s my last chance, last year, to leave everything on the floor and I think I have to just get that mindset across to the team,” Wallack said.
Wallack showed humility, attributing her success to players like Villa and junior guard Astera Tuhina having her back. Wallack described Villa as someone who the whole team knows can get a bucket when needed and said of Tuhina “you could classify her as experienced as I am.”Wallack was also quick to praise the newcomers on the team.
“You know, the newcomers, everyone is just so passionate about the game and the freshmen, you can’t get them out of the gym,” Wallack said. “They’re always in there, they always want to get better and I mean they’re leaving everything on the court.”
The Cougs’ depth is solidified by junior guard Kyra Gardner, sophomore guard Jenna Villa, redshirt freshman Candace Kpetikou and the tallest member of the team, sophomore center Alex Covill, who stands at 6-foot-6.
But the glue to the starting lineup is Tuhina. The Pristina, Kosovo native is the second longest-tenured Cougar along with Gardner and averaged 9.4 PPG and 3.4 APG while shooting 43.1% from deep on 3.5 attempts per game. Tuhina was an All-Pac-12 Freshman honorable mention in the 2022—23 season.
Tuhina can space out the floor, run the offense, put in effort on the boards and play excellent perimeter defense as she averaged 1.3 steals per game last year. Ethridge and Wallack both consistently reference her basketball intelligence as one of her strongest skills.
WSU now prepares for a season without Leger-Walker, with six new members and a challenging non-conference schedule. The Cougs will face Stanford, Iowa, Texas Tech and Oregon on the road before a home contest against BYU. In WCC play, they look forward to two matchups against basketball powerhouse Gonzaga.
In a season that will include many firsts, Ethridge provides a stable foundation and displays a strong sense of confidence in a team picked to finish second in the WCC preseason poll.
“We’re just looking forward to coaching against great coaches and obviously the new experience of going into environments and in different places and trying to challenge ourselves to compete for a championship,” Ethridge said. “It’s still our goal, that’s still our standard and looking forward to whoever we might play on any given night.”
The Cougs open the regular season with a home game against Eastern Washington University Nov. 4 in Beasley Coliseum.
