He’s been the engine of Washington State’s offense this season, averaging a conference-high 21.7 points in Pac-12 games, but Isaac Bonton recently approached coach Kyle Smith with a play call that had nothing to do with high ball screens or pick-and-rolls.

BERKELEY, Calif. – Most of Washington State’s basketball players hadn’t left the general Palouse region in at least six months – let alone for a basketball game – before boarding a plane for the Bay Area on Wednesday. Understandably, Kyle Smith was anxious to see how a young team with three freshman starters would fare in a setting other than the one that played host to the first nine games of the season.

Jim Shaw wears two hats for Washington State’s basketball team: full-time assistant coach, part-time rehabilitation specialist.

John Andrzejek will be the first to confess it was a shot in the dark. Even with all the channels of communication available to college basketball coaches and the players they recruit in 2020, there’s no handbook for how to track down a 17-year-old kid who grew up in the Delta State of Nigeria, moved to Senegal to polish his game at the African branch of the NBA Academy, then hopped across the Indian Ocean to train at the Centre of Excellence in Canberra, Australia.

They’ve shot the ball at a higher clip, they’ve sustained their intensity on the defensive end and they’ve used their interior size to rebound the way they’re expected to as a Pac-12 basketball team playing against inferior opposition from conferences like the Southland, Big Sky and SWAC.

Kyle Smith says the moment might call for a toast.

Washington State coach Kyle Smith gave the Cougars' 71-68 win over Eastern Washington the "gutsy" label.

When the defending Big Sky Conference champion Eagles visit the Cougars on Saturday night at Beasley Coliseum, it will be the first time the regional men's basketball programs have met since 2012.

The offseason came with mixed results for Kyle Smith.

Washington State men's basketball coach Kyle Smith has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the Cougars' season opener against Texas Southern, according to a press release from the school.

A few thoughts went racing through Kyle Smith’s head as No. 11-seed Washington State upset No. 6 Colorado in the first round of the Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament in March.

In 2010-11, Columbia's basketball program made many of the strides fans hoped it would when the Lions hired first-year coach Kyle Smith, going 15-13 with an improved 6-8 record in the Ivy League. But Smith's team experienced a small dropoff in year two, finishing with a 15-15 record while going just 4-10 in conference play.

If Washington State's basketball team isn't able to improve on a 6-12 record in Pac-12 Conference play from last season, it probably won't be because the Cougars are repeatedly losing battles in the low post.

Gonzaga’s Mark Few and Washington State’s Kyle Smith are among 35 coaches from various sports across the country joining an initiative to enhance job opportunities for minority candidates.

Kyle Smith and Eran Ganot have five years of experience sitting on the same bench, but for the first time the former Saint Mary’s assistants will sit opposite one another, when Washington State and Hawaii meet in an early nonconference game this fall.

When Andrej Jakimovski signed with Washington State on Sunday, giving the Cougars their sixth recruit in the 2020 class, the Macedonian prospect had yet to register on 247Sports.com’s database.

More than a year ago, Andrej Jakimovski was the top scorer and third-leading rebounder while representing his country, North Macedonia, at the 2019 FIBA U-18 European Championship B in Oradea, Romania.

Washington State fans and recruiting enthusiasts were waiting on pins and needles for a basketball recruit Wednesday afternoon. They got the good news they hoped for, just not from the player they were expecting.

The coronavirus pandemic may be shaping how college basketball coaches are doing business these days, but the business itself is not too much different than usual.