Weight No More When There’s Less Of Melvin Lewis, He Does More For Eastern Eagles

The smaller Melvin Lewis gets, the more imposing he becomes.

As the bad numbers keep coming down, from 318 pounds last summer to 270 at last check, the good numbers reach new heights.

The payoff - just the first installment, Lewis insists - was Saturday night, when the Eastern Washington center did what was beginning to seem impossible.

He led the Eagles, who hadn’t pulled off a conference victory 735 days, to a 72-66 Big Sky win. Not just any Sky win, either, but a Sky win over Boise State.

“Did I read that wrong?” one former Big Sky assistant wondered, taking the time to call. “Surely that didn’t happen?”

It did happen. Eastern (4-16) had never won at Boise, and needed 22 points and 16 rebounds from the 6-foot-8 Lewis to do it. Now the Eagles, who had lost 29 straight conference games, want more.

They’ll get their chance when Idaho visits tonight. And Lewis, playing his way into shape, will be a deciding factor. “Right now, coming off a win like this, we’re pretty fired up for this game,” said Lewis, a Chicago native who transferred from College of the Sequoias in central California. “We felt like we should’ve won at Idaho.”

Should’ve won at Idaho, Lewis says, as if the last nine years and 19 consecutive Vandals victories over EWU didn’t happen. “I mean, we’ve got six new transfer guys, including myself, that really want to win, and I think we’ll get it done.”

Lewis is used to getting it done, if you believe what you read. The bio sounds impressive.

“Graduated in 1991 from Martin Luther King High School,” EWU’s game program reads. “Led his team to a mythical national championship via national rankings.”

It would be true, if it weren’t mythical, or if Melvin Lewis were Rashard Griffith. While it was Griffith who led King High, the Chicago prep machine, to national acclaim on his way to stardom at Wisconsin, it was Lewis who had a front-row seat.

“My role on that team,” Lewis recalled, “was, well…”

King coach Landon Cox can help. “Who?” the coach queried, pausing as the Rashard Griffiths blurred with the Marcus Libertys, at the expense of the Melvin Lewises.

“I mean, that’s been a long time ago,” Cox rejoined, almost tersely. “He didn’t play much.”

So much for memories.

Lewis fills in the blanks.

“The center right now for Wisconsin, Rashard Griffith, and a 7-3 guy (Thomas Hamilton) … Well, in practice, I would guard both of them.”

Whether he led or followed, the King thing looks good on the resume. “Everyone wants a `King’ player,” Lewis attests.

Unless that King player doesn’t go to class, as Lewis admits was the case when he left Chicago for Moberly Area CC in Missouri.

“It was a matter of cockiness,” Lewis said, unconvincingly. “Seriously, it was. Because I played and, at a certain point, I felt I was getting real good. And it was like I had a chip on my shoulder and I didn’t go to class.”

Humbled, Lewis returned to Chicago, where he took a job at the restaurant where his mother was a chef. That winter, he met Jeraline, who recently became his wife.

One of his only basketball contacts that 1992-93 season was Annan Houston, a cousin Lewis was particularly close to. Houston was gaining valuable experience playing at Sequoias. Lewis was gaining costly pounds at home.

Finally, Houston convinced Sequoias coach John Boragno to take a chance on Lewis.

“We found him sitting in Chicago,” Boragno said. “His transcripts were a reclamation project. Not necessarily Melvin, but the transcripts were.

“The first time I looked at the transcripts, I said, `No way.’ And then they convinced me to go back and look again, and I said, `Well, there’s a way, but it’s a 100-1 chance and it’s going to involve a lot of blood, sweat and tears on Melvin’s part.”’

Lewis enrolled at Sequoias two summers ago, taking a correspondence course on the side to become eligible. That was the easy part. After a year away from basketball and a recent appendix operation, getting in shape was the real test.

“What hurt Melvin here was it took us a while to get his weight off,” Boragno said, sounding much like Eastern coach John Wade. “He turned the corner Christmas time and was a much better player the second half of the season.”

It’s a familiar story. Through 12 games this season, Lewis averaged 7.6 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. In the eight games since, those numbers have bulged to 15.1 and 9.6.

And with Lewis’ dream weight of 255 finally in sight, the challenge will be to prevent another off-season relapse.

“I want to try to get into a pro-am league or some kind of league and just play basketball constantly and improve my game,” Lewis said, shifting his thoughts to next season. “Because I wouldn’t mind getting a Big Sky Championship.”

At Eastern, that would top any miracle diet.

MEMO: Two sidebars ran with story: 1. Tonight Idaho at EWU, 6:07 p.m., Reese Court. 2. Idaho at EWU On TV: 6:07 p.m., Prime Sports Northwest; on radio: KSBN 1230 AM in Spokane, KRPL 1400 AM in Moscow