David Riley (born November 28, 1988) is an American college basketball

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and former college basketball player. Riley is the current head men’s basketball coach at

Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...

. Previously, he was the head coach at

Eastern Washington University Eastern Washington University (EWU) is a public university in Cheney, Washington, United States. It shares its satellite campus in Spokane, Washington with Washington State University. Founded in 1882, the university is academically divided in ...

for three seasons.

Playing career

Riley grew up in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. He played college basketball at

Whitworth University Whitworth University is a private Christian university that is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and located in Spokane, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, Whitworth enrolls nearly 2,600 students and offers more than 100 gradua ...

under

Jim Hayford Jim Hayford (born May 5, 1967) is an American college basketball head coach who most recently coached at Seattle University. He previously coached at Eastern Washington University and Division III Whitworth University where he won about 80 percen ...

. While starting for the Pirates, Riley was a three-time All-

Northwest Conference The Northwest Conference (NWC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member teams are located in the states of Oregon and Washington. It was known as the Pacific Northwest Conference from 1926 t ...

first-team selection and finished his career ranked fourth all-time in points with 1,664 along with making four

NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament (officially styled as "Championship" instead of "Tournament") is a tournament to determine the NCAA Division III national champion. It has been held annually from 1975 to 2019 & since 2022, but no ...

appearances, including two Sweet Sixteens and an Elite Eight.

Coaching career

When Hayford accepted the head coaching position at Eastern Washington, Riley followed as a graduate assistant coach. He would be elevated to director of basketball operations two years later, then in 2014 as a full assistant coach. In his first year as an assistant, the Eagles were won both the regular season and Big Sky tournament titles en route to the school's second ever NCAA tournament appearance in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. After Hayford accepted the head coaching position at

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Riley stayed on staff under new coach and fellow assistant

Shantay Legans Shantay Andrade Legans (born July 30, 1981) is an American college basketball coach who is currently men's basketball head coach at Portland. Legans grew up in Goleta, California and played college basketball at California and Fresno State. He b ...

. Riley would be a part of a Big Sky regular season title in 2020, along with a Big Sky tournament title the following year for a berth in the 2021 NCAA tournament. On March 22, 2021, Legans accepted the head coaching position at

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

and four days later, Eastern Washington promoted Riley to head coach. On April 2, 2024, Riley was announced as the head coach at Washington State University, replacing Kyle Smith, who had departed for Stanford. In March 2025, the university extended Riley's contract for one year. Later that week, at the conference tournament, Riley taunted opposing players from the bench, yelling "airball!" when a player missed a shot.

Personal life

Riley's father is an anesthesiologist at

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, his younger brother, Noah Riley, is an assistant coach for the Baltimore Ravens, while his uncle Mike Riley is the former head football coach at

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees through all 11 of the universit ...

and

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riley, David 1988 births Living people American men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from California College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Eastern Washington Eagles men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Palo Alto, California Basketball players from Santa Clara County, California Whitworth Pirates men's basketball players