Eleonora Villa gave Washington State one of the offseason’s biggest wins, not just in the Pac-12, but anywhere. Keeping a player who averaged 16.5 points per game last season is a major boost for Kamie Ethridge’s program, and Villa now looks like one of the conference’s top returning players. If everything breaks right, she could even push into Pac-12 Player of the Year territory.
The 5-8 guard from Lissone, Italy, is set to begin her fourth season at WSU this fall. She has already stacked up plenty of recognition, earning second-team All-WCC honors in each of the last two seasons and landing on the All-Pac-12 Freshman team in 2023-24.
Villa’s durability has been a big part of her value. Over two seasons, she has appeared in 104 of Washington State’s 105 games and started 95 of them. In that stretch, she has averaged 14.3 points, 2.8 assists and 2.4 rebounds while shooting 44.7 percent from the field and 32.9 percent from 3-point range.
Still, the biggest issue for the Cougars is not what Villa can do. It’s what they can do around her.
She will almost certainly be Washington State’s leading scorer and the player taking the most shots, but the Cougars need more help from the rest of the roster. Without that secondary scoring, defenses can load up on Villa and make life harder for everyone else.
That makes her retention even more important for a team that had reason for optimism entering the offseason. With only two graduating seniors and two minor transfers, Washington State already had a foundation to build on for 2026-27. Bringing Villa back changes the picture entirely as the Cougars chase an NCAA Tournament return.
“She is just unique and one of a kind,” Ethridge told Cougfan.com in April. “Ele is just not that type (to look elsewhere), she likes her teammates, she likes this place, she feels like she's getting better.
She wants us to get better as a team and as a program. I think our job is to make sure that she doesn't have to carry the entire burden every single time she steps on the floor, but she is a unique person who is happy.
“I think every time we've ever interviewed her, all I can say is she is a happy person. She's not chasing something, thinking that there's something better out there, and she is just a one-of -a-kind player in person.”
Villa also has a chance to climb deep into the Washington State record book. She enters the season with 1,487 career points, which ranks seventh all-time at WSU. If she matches last season’s total of 560 points, she would become just the second Coug ever to reach 2,000 career points and would move into second place on the school’s scoring list behind Borislava Hristova.
Passing Hristova would require Villa to average more than 22 points per game. That’s a steep climb, but not an impossible one for a player with her scoring touch, especially if Washington State makes a long postseason run.
In Other News...
Former Cougars Coach Jim Walden Dies At 88
Jim Walden, who spent a combined 17 seasons guiding Washington State and Iowa State, has died at 88, prompting public condolences from both programs. For Cougars fans, his name still carries a familiar place in the schools football history, not only for the years he spent on the sideline but also for the way he remained connected to the game long after coaching ended.
Washington States message reflected the respect Walden earned over time, while Iowa State also acknowledged his passing and the impact he had on its program. He later moved into broadcasting for 11 seasons, extending a football life that touched multiple corners of the sport and left both schools with a shared reason to remember him. [Read more 🡒]
Washington State Just Got A Preseason Boost Coug Fans Will Love
Washington State picked up a notable preseason nod from Athlon Sports, with a cluster of Cougars landing on its All-Pac-12 teams ahead of the fall. The recognition reflects the kind of individual talent the program believes it has assembled, and it gives the roster an early dose of outside validation before the games start to count.
Athon Tripp and Tony Freeman headlined the group on the first team, while other Washington State players were spread across the second, third and fourth teams. Freemans placement was especially notable because it came in more than one role, and quarterback Caden Pinnick also drew attention after transferring in from UC Davis and earning a spot on the third team. [Read more 🡒]