Northwest Notes Aug. 9, 2025

Idaho-WSU basketball games will be men's/women's doubleheader

Idaho and Washington State will open the college basketball season with a men's/women's doubleheader at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman on Monday, Nov. 3, the Vandals announced.

Idaho and WSU's women's basketball schedules list the women's game as being on Nov. 3, time TBD. 2025-26 men's schedules for Idaho and WSU have not been posted.

The Idaho and WSU men will meet for the 280th time. The Vandals and Cougars met continuously until not playing in 2022-23 season.

Idaho coach Alex Pribble, who came to Moscow in the 2023-24 season, pushed to resume the series.

"It's been a priority to keep the [Washington State] game on the schedule," Pribble said. "Not only is it a great early season challenge, but it's a game that really means something to this community. Being able to play a road game just 9 miles away, and bring some Vandal fans over to Pullman, should make for a great night of college basketball on the Palouse." 

Idaho and Washington State first faced off Jan. 13, 1906, a 28-11 victory for the Cougars in Pullman. Thirteen days later, Idaho got revenge with a 30-8 triumph in Moscow.

That Jan. 13 game was 57 years, five months, and 18 days before the Big Sky Conference was founded on July 1, 1963. Additionally, three current and future members of the league (Portland State, Sacramento State, Utah Tech) had not yet opened their doors at this time. 

Washington State has many ties to the Big Sky outside of its history with Idaho. Heading into his second season as Cougars coach, David Riley arrived in Cheney as a graduate assistant for Eastern Washington in 2011, was hired as an assistant coach in 2014, and elevated to head coach in 2021. From then until 2024, EWU went 62-38, earning two trips to the NCAA Tournament and Riley was named Big Sky Coach of the Year in his final two seasons.

This marks the fourth non-conference game to be announced for Idaho men's basketball in the 25-26 season. In conjunction with the Big Sky, Idaho Athletics announced its annual Big Sky-Summit matchups. Men's basketball will host North Dakota on Dec. 3 in the ICCU Arena and will face South Dakota State in Brookings on Dec. 6. Additionally, the Vandals are scheduled to travel to South Bend, Ind., to take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. 

The rest of the non-conference schedule will be released soon.

Since the debut of Idaho women's basketball in 1974, the Vandals and Cougars have faced off nearly annually. In the early days of the rivalry, the two programs squared off multiple times a year, including three times each in '75 and '76. 

After a three-year hiatus in the series, Idaho, under the direction of second-year head coach Arthur Moreira, made it a point to re-ignite the women's side of the Battle of the Palouse, traveling to Pullman in the inaugural season under Moreira.

In just her third game in a Vandal uniform, grad student Rosie Schweizer introduced herself to the Palouse with a game-high 23 points, including going 3 for 4 from the arc against WSU as Idaho hung tough all game long. The Cougars won 71-60.

"It's really exciting to open the season at WSU in a doubleheader with our men's program," Moreira said. "There is no better way to kick off college basketball season than with a Palouse showdown. We will have two competitive basketball games that will bring tons of excitement to hoop fans in this area. It's a must watch."

Washington State head coach Kamie Ethridge also came to Pullman following a successful stint in the Big Sky. She joined the program in 2019, following four years at the helm of Northern Colorado. In those four seasons, the Bears won 20-plus games in three of them, including a school-record 22 in 2014 that was re-broken in 2018 with 26, earning Ethridge Big Sky Coach of the Year.