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WSU Men's Basketball

Former Washington State standout Craig Ehlo takes on new role in Cougars’ broadcast booth

Craig Ehlo, the former Washington State hoops standout who played 14 seasons in the NBA and resides in Spokane County, will return to Pullman in a broadcasting role this season.

Learfield IMG College announced Tuesday that Ehlo will join Cougars broadcaster Matt Chazanow as a color analyst on all WSU home games during the 2019-20 season – Kyle Smith’s first as Cougars coach.

“I’m thrilled to be part of the Cougar Radio Team and work with Matt Chazanow next year,” Ehlo said in a school news release. “WSU gave me everything in my life today; my wife of 34 years, Jani, 14 seasons in the NBA and even my first time on a radio broadcast. Everything I have is because of WSU and I look forward to the direction that Cougar basketball is headed.”

Ehlo is coming back to Beasley Coliseum 38 years after joining George Raveling’s 1981-82 Cougars as a transfer from Odessa (Texas) College. The 6-foot-6 guard/forward was instrumental in leading WSU to the 1983 NCAA Tournament in Boise, where the Cougars beat Weber State before falling to top-seeded Virginia.

In his two years with the program, Ehlo had 91 steals and 191 assists, totaling 135 assists as a senior when he assumed a point guard role for Raveling’s team.

Ehlo’s 14 years in the NBA were spread among four teams – the Houston Rockets, who drafted him, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Atlanta Hawks and the Seattle SuperSonics. The Lubbock, Texas, native spent the bulk of his career in Cleveland, playing seven years for the Cavs.

Though he scored more than 7,000 points in the NBA, Ehlo is best known for being the one to guard Michael Jordan when the Chicago Bulls star hit a first-round playoff series-clinching pull-up jumper – famously known as “The Shot” – in 1989.

Ehlo has taken more than a few reps in the radio booth, serving as an analyst at Gonzaga for five seasons. He was also an assistant coach at Eastern Washington from 2011-13. For the past few years, Ehlo has provided color commentary at the collegiate and NBA levels.