It’s Very Clear UI Knows How To Beat Eastern

Are you sitting down?

Better get one of those glycerin tablets ready to put under your tongue in case the shock is too great.

Here goes: Idaho pulled out a men’s basketball win over Eastern Washington on Friday night.

Knock you over with a feather, right?

OK, so the Vandals’ 75-53 win is a news flash with all the breathless uncertainty of “NFC Wins Super Bowl.”

What truly IS stunning about the development is that the Vandals win makes it 21 in a row over their Big Sky Conference neighbor and traveling partner.

Twenty-one. Black-jack.

Twenty-one straight anythings is a lot.

But 21 straight wins in athletic endeavors - where the unchartable forces of momentum and emotion and simple quirky bounces frequently result in inexplicable upsets - is remarkable domination.

It was January 1986 when Eastern last sacked the Vandals. EWU coach Joe Folda got the decision over Idaho’s Bill Trumbo.

A cold streak for EWU? Nothing worse than the Pleistocene Epoch.

Seven head coaches have worked at the two universities in the meantime, with John Wade going 0-10 against Idaho in the five years preceding last spring’s hiring of Steve Aggers.

“We don’t think about those 20 games, we’re 0-3 in league now, that’s what we think about,” Aggers said of his first loss to Idaho.

Idaho coach Joe Cravens, who always appears willing to tell it as he sees it and let the bulletin-boards fall where they may, said he felt a little pressure coming into the game.

Clearly, he didn’t want to be the coach to finally lose to the Eagles.

KRPL radio broadcaster Tom Morris, who has called every one of the 21 Idaho wins, was asked to pinpoint a constant in that stretch, a thread to stitch one win to the next.

“I think one thing is that Idaho has just always found ways to win games,” Morris said. “If you look at the records, there haven’t been a lot of blowouts, but there’s always been a guy who steps up and finds a way to win.”

The finest single game in the series was the 1990 meeting in the Big Sky Conference championship game.

“That was the most exciting game of my life,” Morris said. “The game was tied with the clock running out and Ricardo Boyd hits a 3 and we go to the NCAA Tournament.”

As he said, somebody found a way to win.

Many schools take pride in what they call “hoop hysteria.” At EWU, it’s been more a case of well, what else is there to do in Cheney tonight?

For instance, a couple years back, EWU had a “Banner Night” contest for students.

Three banners. Total.

Friday, the crowd of 2,023 was fairly reserved until it grew extremely loud in the middle of the second half. An important defensive stand for the Eagles?

Actually, the cheerleaders were swinging bags of Subway sandwiches over their heads and the fans in the student section were screaming for them to be quickly tossed into the crowd.

Some fans are hungry for wins, others for 6-inch cold-cut combos.

As it has all season, despite the presence of only two wins, EWU played hard and aggressively for the first 17 minutes of play.

In the final 23 minutes, though, the Eagles scored 16 points.

And although none of the Eagles - particularly Aggers - would admit it, it seemed as if the proverbial towel was tossed in at some point in the second half.

“Midway through the second half, when we got them down by 15, I could sense, like, they’re about to roll over and die,” said Idaho point guard Reggie Rose, a defender so fierce he growls at opponents as they dribble within hearing range.

And although Idaho’s Harry Harrison had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, it was the defense of Rose that was the thorn in the side of the Eagles.

“It’s a tumble effect and it starts with Reggie,” Idaho guard Shawn Dirden said. “When I see him playing defense like that, then I get into my man and Eddie (Turner) gets into his man …”

Eastern remains an entertaining team to watch, however.

Curtis Porter, for instance, is a flashy player who can take the ball around behind his back and dribble between his legs.

And that’s just before his free throws: a brief Globetrotter routine he conducts that only lacks a ball with a rubber band and a fake waterbucket filled with confetti.

And then, of course, there is 300-pound center Melvin Lewis, who played 16 minutes on Friday.

Fifteen of those were in the key.

None of this, however, is the foundation for something that Morris pinpointed as the main difference between these teams - a winning tradition.

That will have to be built by Aggers a game at time, as the team learns - as Idaho has - to unearth that elusive “way to win.”

Despite the outcome Friday, and the abysmal 2-12 record that includes no wins over Division I opponents - Porter sees great progress under Aggers.

“This is a reconstruction year,” Porter said. “I’m not going to put anything negative on years before, but I will say that the attitude is a lot better among the team and staff. Last year, about this time, everybody started going their separate ways.

“But this group, we’re sticking together.”

Which, at least, is a very good place to start.

, DataTimes