Smith Named Pac-12 Coach of the Year, Rice Freshman of the Year

PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State men's basketball head coach Kyle Smith was named the Pac-12 John R. Wooden Coach of the Year and redshirt-freshman Myles Rice was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, as the Cougar program earned six honors in the Pac-12 Conference's postseason awards, the League announced Tuesday morning. Rice also earned All-Pac-12 First Team and Pac-12 All-Freshman Team honors, along with fifth-year senior Isaac Jones garnering All-Pac-12 First Team recognition and junior Jaylen Wells earning an Honorable Mention nod.
 
Rice became the first player in WSU men's basketball history to be named the Conference Freshman of the Year, scoring 15.3 points per game. Seven times, Rice was named Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, becoming the first player in Conference history to win 4-straight weekly awards, while tying Evan Mobley for most Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards in League history.
 
The Columbia, S.C. native became the Cougars' all-team freshman recordholder in single-season points (473), field goals attempted (385), and steals (48). Rice scored in double figures 24 times this season, capped by dropping a WSU freshman single-game record 35 points at Stanford, Jan. 18, to become just the third freshman in the last 20 years to put up 35 points with eight assists as a freshman, joining Trae Young and Markelle Fultz.
 
In addition to his Freshman of the Year honors, Rice was also named to the All-Pac-12 First Team and the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team. The standout freshman leads the Cougs with 121 assists, second in WSU freshman history and fourth in the Pac-12. With 48 steals, Rice also averages a team-best 1.55 steals per game, fifth in the League.
 
Smith, in his fifth season at WSU, became the fourth coach in Cougar history to be named the John R. Wooden Coach of the Year, and first coach in the Pac-12 era to earn the award. Tony Bennett was the last Coug helmsman to earn Coach of the Year from the League. Smith has guided WSU to a second-place finish in Pac-12, its best finish since Bennett led the Cougs to second in the 2007 Pac-10 final standings.
 
This season, Smith surpassed 250 career wins and led WSU to a 23-8 regular season finish, the best since 2007-08, when Wazzu finished the regular season 23-7 and went to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. Smith guided the Cougs to a 14-5 Conference record, matching the WSU all-time League wins record set in 1979-80 and 1982-83. Smith is the only coach in Cougar history to earn two top-10 wins in the same season. WSU won eight straight League games for just the third time in program history (1946-47) and strung together two 7-win streaks against Conference opponents in back-to-back seasons for the first time in WSU history.
 
Smith is the first head coach in Washington State men's basketball history to finish at or above .500 in his first four seasons on the Palouse. Tony Bennett posted three-consecutive winning seasons before leaving the program. Smith is the only coach in Washington State history to post a winning record in the Pac-12 era and the first since WSU posted a .500 or better record in five-straight seasons from 1992-96.
 
Two Cougars were named to the Conference First Team for the first time since Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver were named to the 2007 All-Pac-10 First Team, and just the fourth time in school history. Three Cougars earned Conference recognition for just the fourth time in school history. Rice, Jones, and Wells became the first WSU trio to pick up League honors since Don Collins, Bryan Rison, and Stuart House all nabbed Pac-10 votes in 1980.
 
Alongside Rice, Jones was named to the All-Pac-12 First Team as WSU's leading scorer and rebounder. The Spanaway, Washington senior averaged 15.4 points per game over the season, surpassing 1,000 career points, Feb. 17, in just two seasons of Division-I basketball. A two-time Pac-12 Player of the Week, Jones shoots the ball at a .580 clip, fourth in the Pac-12 and 28th nationally.
 
Jones has excelled on the glass, averaging 7.6 rebounds per game, fourth in the Pac-12, with nine double-doubles this season. In January, Jones posted back-to-back double-doubles in wins at Southern California and against then-No. 8 Arizona. The performance earned Jones several national player of the week awards, including ESPN, Naismith, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Pac-12 Conference honors. Jones recognition as Pac-12 Player of the Week marked the first Cougar honoree since Noah Williams was named the Conference Player of the Week, Feb. 22, 2021.
 
Wells, an All-American transfer from Division-II's Sonoma State, earned his first-career Conference recognition, picking up Honorable Mention on the All-Pac-12 Team. The Sacramento native averaged 12.2 points per game, improving in Conference play to 14.6 points per game. Wells scored in double figures 21 times, including 14-straight through Pac-12 play.
 
Wells led the Cougs to their win at Arizona, Feb. 22, securing the best road win in WSU program history, with a career-high 27 points, including the game-tying 3-pointer and ensuing free throw for the win. He followed with 27 points in a win over UCLA, matching his Division-I career-high, including shooting a perfect 10 of 10 from the freethrow line, finishing the season with an 83.3% clip at the charity stripe.
 
Washington State begins postseason play Thursday, March 14 in Las Vegas at 6 p.m. PT. The Cougars will face the winner of Cal and Stanford, playing as the No. 2 seed in the 2024 Pac-12 Tournament.