Good morning,

And let me apologize about last night's post, which obviously didn't include the unedited version of the game story I wrote following Eastern Washington's 63-50 Big Sky Conference loss to Montana at Reese Court.

Let's just blame it on my technological ineptitude and move on . . . to this link to my game story as it appeared in Thursday morning's S-R and this link to the column filed by John Blanchette, as he looks at all that has gone wrong with the Eagles, of late. I've also included this link to the game story that ran in Thursday morning's Missoulian.

 

 

Personally, I felt that Eastern played as poorly as I've seen them play under Kirk Earlywine's guidance.  The missed shots aside, the Eagles didn't defend with the intensity I've become accustomed to seeing -- especially in the post, where the passing of Montana's big men was terrific.

And I have to believe the frustration of Eastern's fans -- and players, as well -- grows with each new lineup experiment.

Gary Gibson, who fueled the Eagles' late-game comeback Wednesday night, admitted as much after the game.

"It felt kind of messed up at times; a litlte bit awkward," said the junior guard, who finished with seven points, four assists and three steals in 26 minutes of playing time. "But we should be able to adapt to rotation changes liek that. We've been doing it all year.

"I just thought we were relaxing a liittle bit during parts of the game, when we really need to go full tilt the whole time.  We had too many letdowns; too many (possessions) taking it easy, and trying to take it off and put it back on.

"We've got to put the foot to the pedal the whole game."

Among some of the peculiarities in Wednesday night's game:

-- Chris Busch, a first-year transfer who Earlywine seemed really high on during preseason drills and welcomed back openly after he became eligible at the quarter break, did not get off the bench in the first half and played only 12 minutes in the second.  Yet he was as effective as he's been since being added to the roster, scoring four points and pulling down five rebounds.

-- Junior center Brandon Moore, after missing all five shots he took in the first half, rode the pine for a long time following intermission and played only 18 minutes the entire game, finishing with four points and a team-high six boards.

-- Junior forward Mark Dunn, after knocking down a 3-pointer to give Eastern its first points and finishing the first half with 12, played only nine minutes in the second half and finished with 14 points, one rebound and no personal fouls -- which might speak to a lack of aggressiveness.

-- Adris DeLeon, a senior guard and the Eagles top returnign scorer, who -- like Busch -- became eligible at the end of the first academic quarter, played only nine minutes and accomplished virtually nothing, as evidenced by the 12 zeros that occupied all but four of the statistical columns alongside his name on the final stat sheet.

I could go on, but figured I should take a breath and let you blog readers have your say.  Ready ... aim ... opine.

 

 

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