Just finished watching the Washington Huskies dismantle Eastern Washington in Seattle, and I will link to stories as soon as they become available.

I would like to say I wish I had been there, but after witnessing the way the Eagles played and the nastry weather outside of Bank of American Arena, it would be difficult for me to sound sincere.

I am sorry, however, that I missed connections with EWU coach Kirk Earlywine following Thursday's home loss to Missouri-Kansas City, which I was unable to attend because of the snow storm. 

 

It's not so much the basketball I missed, but I would like to find out officially what's ailing Benny Valentine.  I know, I'm the beat guy and it's my job to know those kinds of things. But without being at Thursday's game; not getting a return phone call from Earlywine -- who was undoubtedly dealing with some travel issues -- on Friday, and not traveling to Seattle for Saturday night's game, I'm completely out of the loop.

I was told by an EWU official following Thursday's loss to Mo-KC that Valentine not being in the starting lineup was a "coach's decision," but it looked like the junior transfer was limping badly when he finally got into Saturday's game against the Huskies in the second half.

The television commentators didn't explain why Benny didn't play in the first half, or why he was able to limp through the second. And I didn't listen in to Larry Weir's radio broadcast.

So, does anybody out there know for sure what's wrong with Benny?  If so, post it here.  In the meantime, I'll keep trying to make contact with Earlywine for an "official" answer.

And please feel free to leave your thoughts on everything that is going on with the Eagles' program here.

Personally, I liked the way Chris Busch looked against the Huskies, but never really figured out what Adris DeLeon was trying to do. I know he's still trying to ascertain  exactly where he belongs on this year's team after missing the first eight games because of eligibility issues, but I really thought his transition might be smoother than Busch's, which is hasn't appeared to be.

I'm willing to give Earlywine the benefit of the doubt, here, because any wins and losses against non-Big Sky Conference teams at this point in the season are still irrelevant.  And with the recent addition of DeLeon and Busch, I have to believe there is still some experimenting to be done, as far as lineups and substitution patterns are concerned.

Which bring me to one last question:

Which five EWU players do you prefer to have on the basketball court at any given time?

My fave five?   Valentine, Genao, Stanojevic, Busch and BMoore -- although I realize this presents some huge defensive matchups at the small forward and power foward spots.

 

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