PULLMAN — Washington State head basketball man David Riley didn't catch a lot of Indiana Pacers games during the regular season. But that changed once the NBA playoffs got underway — thanks, in part, to some persistent nudging from his staff.
Riley wound up having the players over to his house for a few NBA Finals games, and last week in a summer workout session spoke further about it with his Cougar team.
"When you go look at these NBA Finals, the defensive intensity is what really stands out," said Riley. "Both teams picking up full court down the stretch, the rebounding was just a fricking battle."
Indiana's fast-paced, team-centric style — built around read-and-react principles and offensive flow — started catching fire not only in the postseason, but in the WSU coaching circles too. Soon, it was appointment viewing in the Cougars' group chat.
"It was about one or two games into the playoffs," Riley said last Monday in a Zoom press conference. "A couple of our assistants started texting the group chat: 'Everyone needs to watch the Pacers.'"
And the more he watched, the more Riley saw the similarities in his vision for the WSU hoops program: The way Indiana moved without the ball. The spacing. The balance. It reminded him of his team and how he's trying to build the WSU program.
"The Pacers play like us," Riley said. "There's a ton of similarities as far as just concept basketball — letting guys play off each other and trying to find second actions for each other, rather than the second action just being isolation."
The Pacers went on to lose in the finals in the deciding seventh game at Oklahoma City. But the foundation is in place.
RILEY ISN'T SAYING Washington State is at a similar level of the NBA Finals runner up — far from it. The comparison is more philosophical. The Cougs and Pacers are at different stages, but the building blocks are the same. It is all about identity, freedom, and trust.
Most importantly, for a new-look Wazzu team this coming season with intriguing transfers and rising returners, Riley in his second year at Wazzu sees serious potential headed into this coming season and especially now that the players have seen it at the NBA Finals level.
"There's a lot of pieces of what we're trying to do there," said Riley. "It's cool to see it play out at the highest level."
NOTABLE: Tickets go on sale Tuesday for WSU's tilt vs. Eastern Washington at Spokane Arena on Dec. 17, with a portion of the ticket sales going to the Cougar Collective. "Anything less than a sellout is unacceptable! Time for WSU to own the Inland Empire!" says noted WSU booster Glenn Osterhout HERE.
Related: WSU basketball headed to Europe for 3 exhibition games this summer
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