The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Kamie Ethridge named head coach at Washington State
04.15.2018 | Women's Basketball
Ethridge was the 1986 recipient of the Honda Award for women's basketball.
Kamie Ethridge, a Longhorn Legend and member of the Texas women's basketball 1986 NCAA Championship team, on Sunday was named head women's basketball coach at Washington State University.
Ethridge takes over the Washington State program after four seasons as head coach at the University of Northern Colorado, where she recorded 83 victories in her tenure and led the Bears to their first NCAA Tournament appearance this past season. There, she recorded three 20-plus win seasons and was named the Big Sky Coach of the Year in 2018
A Lubbock, Texas, native, Ethridge was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Texas Women's Athletics Hall of Honor inaugural class in 2000. In 1986, Ethridge was the recipient of the Honda Award for basketball and was the overall Hondra-Broderick Cup winner across all sports. She claimed the 1986 Wade Trophy, awarded to the best women's basketball player in the country. Additionally, she garnered the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, which recognizes the most outstanding NCAA Division I female basketball player under 5-foot-8.
Ethridge led the Longhorns in assists for three consecutive seasons (1984-86) and in steals for two seasons (1983-84, 1985-86). She is the University of Texas' all-time career leader in assists with 776. Ethridge was a senior in 1985-86 when the Longhorns went 34-0 and won the 1986 NCAA Championship, becoming the first women's basketball program in history to record an undefeated season.
Ethridge, a two-time All-American, won an Olympic gold medal with the United States at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Ethridge earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from UT in 1987, spending her final year on the Forty Acres as a student assistant coach. She was then a graduate assistant and assistant coach at Northern Illinois from 1989-91 and then spent five seasons as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt, helping the Commodores to two Southeastern Conference Tournament titles, five NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances and an appearance in the 1993 NCAA Final Four.
Ethridge then spent 18 seasons as an assistant coach at Kansas State (1996-2014), most recently as associate head coach. She helped lead the Wildcats to a record of 350-226 during that span, as Kansas State advanced to nine NCAA Tournaments, six Sweet Sixteens and four Women's National Invitation Tournament appearances. The Wildcats won two Big 12 Championship titles during her time in Manhattan and claimed the 2006 WNIT Championship.
Ethridge has served USA Basketball the past two summers as an assistant coach for the U-18 and U-19 national teams, respectively.
