Eastern Washington strong safety Matt Johnson was drafted in the fourth round of the National Football League draft by the Dallas Cowboys.

Here is Johnson's reaction to the good news: http://www.dallascowboys.com/multimedia/multimedia_center.cfm?id=FA39BF0C-A51E-FB49-370429B89D4B9678

Please join me at noon, right here, for a live chat on Eastern football. In the meantime, here are links to some recent EWU-related stories, including last night's announcement by former SMU quarterback Kyle Padron that he has been cleared to play football this fall at EWU.

The Eagles opened spring drills Tuesday afternoon, and here's my story from Roos Field, where I will be again this afternoon (wearing snow boots, judging by what I see outside this morning). I will also be sending regular Tweets, so please follow me at @srjimallen.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Big Sky Conference is gearing up for spring ball…

On the day of their first spring practice , the Eastern Washington Eagles completed their coaching staff Tuesday with the hiring of running backs coach Kiel McDonald.

McDonald is the third new coach Eastern has hired since last season. The Eagles earlier added cornerbacks coach Cherokee Valeria and tight ends/offensive tackles coach Brian Strandley.

I caught up with the Eastern Washington men's basketball team at their practice Sunday evening, and they feel tournament-tested after their big win Saturday afternoon over Idaho State. Look for a preview of the gam in Tuesday's paper. The team left for Missoula this morning to prepare for their Big Sky semifinal game at Montana Tuesday night at 7,300-seat Dahlberg Arena, which can be a pretty intimidating place:

Eastern Washington's rousing Senior Night win last night over Idaho State (check out Dan Pelle's great photo essay here) was not only a big win for the program and first-year head coach Jim Hayford, it means that fans will get one more chance to see seniors Cliff Colimon, Laron Griffin, Cliff Ederaine and Tremayne Johnson. The tip-off for the quarterfinal against ISU is at 2 p.m. Saturday at Reese Court, and tickets may be obtained at www.goeags.com or by calling 1-800-325-7328.         

If the Eastern men's basketball team wants to stay at home, it needs to win tonight against Idaho State in order to stay there tonight for an even bigger game Saturday - the Big Sky Conference quarterfinals. Tipoff is at 6 p.m. at Reese Court.

With a huge road win last night, Eastern Washington clinched a spot in the Big Sky Conference tournament. We told you that much in this morning's paper, but not the reason, which are losses the same night by Northern Colorado and Sacramento State.

…and almost everyone else in the Big Sky Conference (sorry, NAU). The Eagles get three games in six days, including two against Idaho State and one at Portland State. So where will the Eags wind up in the postseason? It's way too complicated, but if they can at least win two of these next three, it's a good bet the Eagles will host a first-round conference playoff game on March 3.

Thanks to a stirring win last night over Northern Colorado, the Eastern Washington men's basketball team will be in a nice frame of mind for Saturday's Bracket Buster game at UC Irvine. They also got some help Wednesday from Weber State, which defeated reeling Montana State, and from Portland State, which handed Sacramento State its 10th conference loss and put the Hornets on the brink of elimination from the Big Sky Tournament. So, what are the Eagles' chances for postseason play?

For the stat geeks out there, here's a look at Northern Colorado, which visits Eastern Washington for an important Big Sky game Wednesday night. The Bears are coming off a 77-64 overtime win over Montana State, and boast the 27th best field-goal percentage in the country at 47.7 percent

After a tough loss at Weber State, it's time for Eastern Washington to move on.

Just one look at the Big Sky Conference men's basketball standings (below) underscores the importance of Eastern's home game Wednesday night against Northern Colorado. A win would put the Eagles two games ahead in the loss column over UNC.

Let the scoreboard watching begin. Well, let it continue, since we do it all the time. Eastern wasn't playing last night, but was more than an interested bystander as the rest of the Big Sky Conference was in action. And while EWU's next opponent, Weber State, and Montana clinched first-round byes last night in the Big Sky Tournament, the rest of the six-team field is unsettled. In fact it's downright unsettling, expecially if your name is Montana State.

Montana clinched a playoff spot last night with a dominating win over Idaho State, joining Weber at the top of the men's basketball standings. Barring some upsets, those two will get the first-round byes in the Big Sky tournament which begins on March 3.

The Wildcats' Damian Lillard is about ready to retire the Sky's Player of the Week award, winning it for the fifth time this season. He's also the leading scorer in the nation at 25.5 points a game.

Following a tough home loss to Sacramento State, Eastern Washington is still in playoff position, but you can't help but look ahead to next Wednesday's (Feb. 15) home game against Northern Colorado as a defining moment for the Eagles. There are five conference games to play, but this one should be pivotal. And here's why:

After a tough first half, things couldn't have gone better Thursday night for the Eastern Washington men's basketball team, which rallied to beat the Lumberjacks 74-68.

The Eagles evened their conference record to 5-5, and got a great opportunity to improve  their postseason situation

Eastern Washington announced its recruiting class Wednesday morning, which includes seven defensive backs, 12 defensive players total - and a quarterback named Bowe.

“Every position required a hole or two to be filled, and we did a good job of that,” said EWU head coach Beau Baldwin.

The Eagles signed Bowe Merin, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound QB out of Stockton, Calif.

Read on to see the complete list of Eagle signees…

As in Bowe Merin, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound quarterback from Stockton, Calif., who signed a national letter of intent Wednesday to play at Eastern Washington. Here are some video highlights of Merin from last year.

For the season in his only year as a starter at St. Mary's of Stockton, Merin was 73-of-134 for 1,158 yards, 13 TDs and seven interceptions. St. Mary’s finished the year 9-3 overall and won the Tri-City League title with a perfect 5-0 record.

It was a busy weekend in the Big Sky, on and off the court, highlighted in Cheney by a nice 69-52 win for EWU over Montana State. Here's my story on the game.

The Eagles travel to Northern Arizona for  a Thursday game against an NAU team that fell into a last-place tie after getting trounced 77-43 at Sacramento State.

The Lumberjacks have lost six straight; worse they may have violated numerous NCAA rules under former coach Mike Adras, who resigned suddenly on Dec. 6.

We always seek the truth here, and my story yesterday on EWU football recruiting didn't quite hit the mark. In that story, I mentioned four quarterbacks who were considering Eastern. One of them, Andrew Berg of Kamiak (Mukilteo), rates EWU as one of four favorites, but I stated that EWU was his number one choice. Turns out that  scout.com, my source for this information, listed the schools (EWU, Idaho, Montana and Montana State. along with a few others) alphabetically, and in my inexperience, misinterpreted that list as a ranking of the schools.

Another site, rival.com lists Berg as having “medium interest” in all four schools, whatever that means.

Berg may yet wind up at Eastern, but I didn't mean to overstate his interest.

That said. we will know for sure on Wednesday and I promise to deliver a complete story.