1971–72 Washington State Cougars men's basketball team

The 1971–72 Washington State Cougars men's basketball team represented Washington State University for the 1971–72 NCAA college basketball season. Led by first-year head coach Bob Greenwood,   the Cougars were members of the Pacific-8 Conference and played their home games on campus at Bohler Gymnasium in Pullman, Washington.

The Cougars were 11–15 overall in the regular season and 3–11 in conference play, seventh in the standings.

Hired in July to succeed Marv Harshman, Greenwood was an assistant at Iowa for a year and before that the head coach at Washington University in St. Louis;  he resigned from WSU in mid-March, after just one season. Assistant coach Dale Brown became the head coach at LSU a week later,   and freshman coach Homer Drew went with him to Baton Rouge.

George Raveling, an assistant at Maryland under Lefty Driesell, was hired by WSU athletic director Ray Nagel a few weeks later in April, and led the Cougar program for eleven years.