Saturday's season-opening men's basketball loss to Portland showed those in attendance at Reese Court that a lot of things have changed about Eastern Washington's men's basketball team since last winter.

Third-year coach Kirk Earlywine has brought in some splendid young guards who have upped the athleticism ante.  That is allowing the Eagles to play with a little more freedom and take the first open shot they get, rather than work the play clock on each possession in hopes of keeping the game in the 50s so they can stay close.

Unfortunately, their inability to score the basketball hasn't seemed to change, as evidenced by the 1-for-9 shooting start they had against the Pilots, a senior-laden team that might just be capable of ending Gonzaga's dominance in the West Coast Conference.

We have this link to the Saturday's game story that appeared in the S-R, this link to the Oregonian's gamer, along with more postgame quotes from Earlywine and the Eagles' leading scorer, Benny Valentine, below.

Read on.

 

One of the first questions I asked Earlywine following Saturday's loss was about his decision to bringn last year's leading scorer Benny Valentine off the bench.  I certainly seemed relevant, considering the Eastern was down 10-2 before Valentine came in and scored his team's 10 points to drag the Eagles back into it.

Earlywine balked at the question at first, saying he wished the school's sports information director Dave Cook was around to help him with his diplomacy -- which makes me think Earlywine was sending a message in not starting the 5-8 guard in either the Eagles' second exhibition game or Saturday's season opener.

"The guys who are playing the best will get the most minutes, and Benny did play very well last Sunday," Earlywine finally said.  "He played significantly better in this game, so ...

"I don't have a starting lineup set right now, and it'll be the same way in March. That thing kidn of evolves.  Let's leave it at that."

Valentine admitted he would rather be starter, but didn't seem overly upset about having to come off the bench.

"I don't know why I did," he said, "but I'm not questioning it. Today we needed a spark, and I provided that, so, it really didn't me that much.  Everybody wants to start the game, but it's really about whatever's best for the team, so you've got to play hard and bring whatever you've got to the table.:

While it was Valentine and fellow senior Brandon Moore who shouldered most of the scoing load against Portland, several of the Eagles' young players looked highly capabale -- at times.

Freshman point guard Glen Dean, who played a team-high 37 minutes and finished with nine points, five assists and a steal, looks like the kind of player the Eagles will need on the floor most of the time.  He was solid with he basketball against Portland's half-court defensive pressure, but didn't shoot the ball particularly well, making just three of eight field-goal tries.

Junior wing Alden Gibbs again displayed exceptional quickness -- especially on the defensive end, where he came up with four steals while playing just 19 minutes, but redshirt freshman guard Kevin Winford, the team's best shooter, was hampered by early foul problems that limiting his playing time and probably contributed to his 2-for-5 shooting effort that included three misses is as mnay attempts from beyond the 3-point line, where the Eagles were a miserable 5-for-18.

"I thought my new guys played good," Earlywine said. "They missed some shots, but I think a part of that you can credit to Portland voer being very sound defensively, and then also to it being kind of first-game jitters."

The Eagles burped up some shots early in the second half, which is something they didn't do much of last season. And while most of them were off target, Earlywine seemed to have no problems with them being taken so early.

"I liked the shots, we just didn't make them," he said. "They were quick shots, but they were good shots.. It's hard when you compound getting outrebounded with giving up 54 percent (shooting) from the arc, and then pile on to of that shooting just 30 percent (yourself). It's really surprising we were in teh game with a chance."

Now the Eagles must prepare for a Monday night mathup against Washington State in Pullman.  Earlywine did a great job of devising defensive game plans against Portland State teams that were coached by Ken Bone.

But now that Bone has moved on to WSU and dealing with better athletes, himself, it will be interesting to see how well Eastern fares.

 

 

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