The Washington State Cougars are now in the market for a new head coach. That’s after Kyle Smith decided to take his coaching talents from Washington basketball to the Stanford Cardinal, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello.
Kyle Smith leaves Washington State basketball after five seasons
The news of Smith going to Stanford comes just shortly after Washington State basketball’s journey in the 2024 NCAA Tournament ended last Saturday when the Cougars fell short of scoring an upset against the No. 2 seed Iowa Cyclones in the second round to the tune of a 67-56 score. Before that, Washington State basketball entered the Big Dance with a No. 7 seed and defeated the Drake Bulldogs in the first round, 66-61.
Despite a short stint in this year’s edition of March Madness, Washington State still relishes the season it just had. For one, it was the first time the Cougars made it to the NCAA Tournament in over a decade. Before this season, the last time Washington State became part of a March Madness field was way back in 2008 when Pac-12 was still Pac-10.
Smith also leaves Washington State after steering the program to its 25-win season since the 2007-08 campaign. In what turned out to be his final season with Washington State, Smith led the Cougars to also a 14-6 record in the conference. When they took down the Arizona Wildcats back in February, the Cougars had the solo lead in the Pac-12 since December of 1986. It was just one of the many memories and achievements the Cougars made under Smith, who was hired by Washington State in 2019 as the successor of Ernie Kent.
Stanford basketball welcomes Kyle Smith as new head coach
It is a new dawn for Stanford basketball which is also looking to wake up from dormancy. The Cardinal have not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2014 and never recorded a winning overall record in the past two years. Stanford fired Jerod Haase as head coach earlier this March after the Cardinal went just 14-18 in the 2023-24 college basketball season. That was a minimal improvement from the 14-19 slate they put up a season before.
It did not take long before Stanford basketball announced on social media that Smith is now the team’s new head coach.
Stanford is Smith’s fourth stop in his head coaching career in college basketball. He first became a head coach in the NCAA with the Columbia Lions from 2010 to 2016 before heading to the West Coast Conference to coach the San Francisco Dons from 2016 to 2019. Overall in his career as head coach, he has a 258-193 record.
Social media reacts to Smith’s new chapter in coaching career
Of course, social media lit up with reactions to Smith’s arrival in Palo Alto.
“He’s a great coach. I hope it is successful for Stanford BB,” posted @LDRonglien on X (the social media app formerly known as Twitter).
“Good luck Coach! Hate to see you go, but nothin’ but love ,” shared @14OSU.
“Hopefully the ACC doesn’t collapse would suck for him to relive what just happened at WSU,”chimed in @trvorXX.
“Kyle Smith had emerged as the favorite at Stanford very early in the process. Just engineered one of the best seasons in Washington State history, won 20+ games all three seasons at San Francisco, set a single-season record with 25 wins at Columbia,” ESPN basketball insider Jeff Borzello tweeted.
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