Eastern Washington basketball coach Jim Hayford spent part of Monday afternoon at a J.C. Penney store in Huntsville, Texas, doing some Christmas shopping for his assistants.  "And if they don’t work out, they can always return them in Spokane,” said Hayford, dispensing the kind of practicality that’s served the Eagles quite well so far. Read on . . . 

Despite an 81-77 loss Sunday night at Washington, the Eagles are 8-2 and ranked 16th in this week’s mid-major poll after wins over Indiana, Seattle and San Francisco. Pretty heady stuff, if you let it get to your head. No chance with this veteran group, Hayford said.

After the landmark 88-86 win at Indiana on Nov. 24, Hayford, forward Venky Jois and guard Tyler Harvey have received numerous interview requests from national media.

“That’s fine,” Hayford said. “Tyler and Venky are so grounded – I just want to make sure it doesn’t get in the way of their studies.

The rising attention is a reflection of rising expectations.

“I’m getting to the place where as a program, we’re not taking satisfaction in playing these games close,” Hayford said less than 24 hours after the Eagles let one get away at No. 17 UW.

Eastern led 70-69 with 2:10 left, but the Huskies made three straight shots before putting the game away at the free-throw line.

“We just need to commit to finishing them … if you’re going to do something special, you have to win the last four minutes,” said Hayford, whose team is midway through a five-game road trip that began Dec. 6 at Seattle U. and ends Friday at California.

Tuesday night the Eagles are at Sam Houston State, another mid-major that is 5-4 with narrow losses to UNLV (56-54) Texas A&M (66-63) and LSU (76-67). Coming three days before the game at Cal, this one looks like the kind of trap the Eagles have been setting for others.

Only EWU’s opponents have been taken by surprise; Hayford said that this year’s team is the product of three years of program-building – progress that wasn’t always reflected on the scoreboard.

This year, the key players have played as Hayford expected. Harvey, the defending Big Sky scoring champion, is averaging 20.5 points while hitting 43 percent of his 3-point shots; Jois is averaging 20.3 points and eight rebounds; and senior point guard Drew Brandon has 43 assists to 17 turnovers, along with eight boards a game.

Forward Ognjen Miljkovic and guard Parker Kelly are both hitting better than 45 percent from long range, while newcomers Bogdan Bliznyuk and Kyle Reid are adding some muscle inside while playing 10 minutes a game.

The long road trip is grinding, Hayford admits, but should pay dividends for a program that’s 9-19 in Big Sky road games under Hayford.

In particular, the win against a physical USF team last week offered a confidence-booster after a game “that we weren’t supports to win, but found a way to win,” Hayford said.

After the Cal game, Eastern will be home for the holidays. The Eagles are home Monday against NAIA Lewis-Clark State, and open Big Sky Conference play at home on New Year’s Day against defending champion Weber State.

Despite the early successes, Hayford said he’s still cautious. “There’s nothing in me that’s cocky. My confidence is in my players – we respect our opponents, but we don’t fear them.”

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