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WSU Men's Basketball

WSU’s David Riley on Cougars’ placements on all-WCC teams: ‘An honor for all three of those guys’

Washington State guard Tomas Thrastarson dunks the ball against St. Mary’s in the second half on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman, Wash. (Geoff Crimmins/For The Spokesman-Review)
By Greg Woods gregw@spokesman.com(509) 459-5587

PULLMAN – Washington State landed only one player on the All-West Coast Conference men’s basketball teams, announced Tuesday, with two more earning honorable mention honors.

Freshman guard Tomas Thrastarson secured a spot on the all-freshman team, and sophomore wing LeJuan Watts and junior guard Nate Calmese were selected honorable mention. To head coach David Riley, that sounded about right.

“I think it’s an honor for all three of those guys to be chosen by the coaches and to be where they’re at,” Riley said. “I think those awards mostly go to the winning teams, and with us finishing where we did, we’ve gotta have a better season. We’ve gotta win more games. We can start talking when that happens.”

A native of Iceland, Thrastarson played in 28 of 31 regular-season games for the Cougars (18-13), who are the No. 6 seed in this weekend’s WCC Tournament in Las Vegas, playing the No. 7, 10 or 11 seed on Saturday night. Thrastarson also earned 10 starts in the absence of sophomore guard Isaiah Watts, averaging 4.4 points on 56% shooting for the season, with four double-digit scoring outings .

Also on the all-freshman team were San Diego’s Tony Duckett, Mikey Lewis of Saint Mary’s, Portland’s Austin Rapp and San Francisco’s Tyrone Riley IV.

“I didn’t really know about it,” Thrastarson said. “LeJuan just told me about it earlier (Tuesday) that I was selected.”

After spending his freshman year at Eastern Washington, LeJuan Watts averaged 13.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists in the regular season, including the program’s second triple-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in a Jan. 23 loss to Santa Clara. He led the team in minutes per game.

Calmese, the team’s leading scorer in the absence of injured wing Cedric Coward, averaged 15 points, 4.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds during the regular season. He shot 47% from the floor and 27% on 3-pointers.

Other WCC honorable mention selections included Luke Barrett of Saint Mary’s, Oregon State’s Nate Kingz, Loyola Marymount’s Jevon Porter and Caleb Stone-Carrawell, and Pepperdine’s Stefan Todorovic.