PULLMAN, Wash. — After one of the greatest seasons in Washington State men's basketball history, it's quickly turned into a new era. The David Riley era. The 20th head coach in program history was formally introduced on Thursday in Pullman.
Riley is certainly no stranger to the area. He played college basketball at Whitworth and spent the last 13 years as part of the Eastern Washington men's basketball coaching staff.
"I think this is such an amazing opportunity for me, like this is a dream job. This is unbelievable. I'm so excited to be at Washington State University. This is the perfect spot for the way I want to run a program," Riley said.
Riley calls it a dream job. WSU President Kirk Schultz calls it the perfect fit.
"The primary thing I wanted us to do in the search is fine an exceptional basketball coach that fits our culture. Secondary is the area where they're from those types of things. And if you get both of those, I think that's great," Washington State president Kirk Schulz said. "If I go back to what Coach Dickert mentioned this last week, you know, we want people want to be here. I think you add all those three things together. And you know, that was all in one. And lucky that he said 'yes."
Rather than overhauling the program, Riley was adamant that he hopes to keep a roster that is up in the air intact.
"I want these guys because they're really good. And we're going to keep going like this. We're going to keep that same trajectory. Now, with the guys we have. We want guys that want to be here.," Riley said.
A number of players showed up to the press conference. Like the players, Riley embraces the underdog mentality.
"While I was at Eastern Washington, we did the same thing. We had an underdog mentality. We had a fighting mentality. We had a group that wasn't necessarily the McDonald's All-Americans, or whatever you want to call it, the the five star guys," Riley said. "But, we came in, we worked, we got better and we had a developmental program, and I think that these guys have had that same mindset."
He's embracing the underdog mentality so much, that he's already in the midst of creating a new name for his offense.
"We're going to have a unique style. I think the pace and space and the concept offense are kind of the two things, but I like the 'Wheatfield Underdogs.' I'm still sticking with that," said Riley.
It will be a busy couple of weeks going forward for the new WSU head coach. He hopes to keep names such as Andrej Jakimovski, Jaylen Wells or Rueben Chinyelu in crimson and gray.
Good news is, all three were in attendance for the press conference.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.