ATLANTA – Washington State Men’s Basketball Head Coach Kyle Smith was named a 2024 Werner Ladder Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year Semifinalist, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Friday morning. Smith, the John R. Wooden Pac-12 Coach of the Year, has guided WSU to its best season in the Pac-12 era and a 20-win regular season for the first time since 2007-08.
Coach Smith is the first Cougar men’s basketball coach to earn the recognition since Tony Bennett won the 2007 Naismith National Coach of the Year, following a second-place finish in the Pac-10 and an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time since 1993-94.
This season, Smith surpassed 250 career wins and led WSU to a 23-8 regular season finish, the best since 2007-08, when Wazzu finished the regular season 23-7 and went to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. Smith guided the Cougs to a 14-6 Conference record, matching the WSU all-time League wins record set in 1979-80 and 1982-83. Smith is the only coach in Cougar history to earn two top-10 wins in the same season. WSU won eight straight League games for just the third time in program history (1946-47) and strung together two 7-win streaks against Conference opponents in back-to-back seasons for the first time in WSU history.
Smith is the first head coach in Washington State men’s basketball history to finish at or above .500 in his first five seasons on the Palouse. Smith is the only coach in Washington State history to post a winning record in the Pac-12 era and the first since WSU posted a .500 or better record in five-straight seasons from 1992-96.
The Cougars return to the court tonight in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals, Friday, March 15, to face Colorado at 7:30 p.m. PT from T-Mobile and on FS1.
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