Eastern Can’t Lose When It Hosts Cougars

Let Eastern Washington add point guard Rodrick McClure, center Kevin Lewis and forward Karim Scott.

Make Washington State subtract forward Mark Hendrickson, shooting guard Shamon Antrum and point guard Donminic Ellison. Then throw forward Tavares Mack on indefinite suspension and make wing Chris Crosby sit out with a bum ankle, just to be sure.

Voila! It’s the first step in what one day might become an actual - dare we say it - WSU-EWU rivalry.

And rivalries are good, even if you’re WSU coach Kevin Eastman, who takes a depleted roster into Cheney for Saturday night’s 7:05 non-conference game against vastly improved EWU.

“Philosophically, I think all the area Division I’s should play each other,” Eastman said Wednesday. “Because if we’re going to make the state really go and generate more and better high school players, we have to put in our part. And our part is to create excitement with the rivalries.”

Excitement was a foreign concept in Cheney during the last six men’s basketball seasons - John Wade’s salty sideline tantrums notwithstanding - but that is changing quickly under second-year coach Steve Aggers.

After enduring a 3-23 season last year that might best be termed a hangover, Aggers and the revamped Eagles are already 3-2 - allowing them to enter Saturday night without fearing for their emotional stability.

“It’s a great game for our program, to have a Pac-10 team come into our gym,” Aggers said.

More than a year has passed since WSU’s 90-58 pounding of the Eagles at Friel Court. Since then, Aggers has signed eight recruits and had two players come off redshirt seasons. Only Mike Sims, Luke Egan and Travis King remain from last season.

“They’re tremendously more athletic and much harder to prepare for,” Eastman said. “We’re going over there with a much different mindset than we did with them coming to us last year, for sure.”

King’s ransom

In two games against Gonzaga last season, Travis King scored just 11 points, at least partly exonerating GU officials for unwittingly selecting the EWU guard to take part in a shooting contest during halftime of Tuesday night’s game against Central Washington.

King, drawn at random and therefore not in violation of NCAA rules, calmly nailed a 3-pointer to win a night’s lodging and breakfast for two at a local motel. Just to be safe, the senior donated his winnings to a friend. , The Aggers connection

As an assistant coach, Aggers tried to recruit WSU players Isaac Fontaine (to Pepperdine) and Chris Crosby (Kansas State).

Aggers is also familiar with WSU freshman Beau Archibald.

“I know his dad really well and I think Beau is just going to be a tremendous player,” Aggers said. “He’s so versatile. He has those long arms and he really plays with a lot of intensity.”

Taking five

Not since Mr. Howell sipped cocktails on Gilligan’s Island has anyone enjoyed a schedule quite like the one Kelvin Sampson’s Oklahoma Sooners are breezing through.

The former WSU coach Sampson, not Howell - eases into the season with six straight home games. The victims: Northeast Louisiana, Sam Houston State, Coppin State, Delaware State, Southeast Missouri State and Centenary.

Arizona, by comparison, will have played four Top 25 teams in its first month - including No. 3 Utah on Saturday (NBC, 10:30 a.m.).

Jim Harrick’s harangues

That acidic plume rising from Westwood is just the latest eruption from Mount Harrick, which continues to blast UCLA athletic director Peter Dalis in the aftermath of the Harrick’s controversial firing last month.

“Who are they going to hire? Who’s going to take the job knowing they fired four guys in 13 years?” Harrick told the Los Angeles Times.

Dalis, along with Chancellor Charles E. Young, said Harrick was fired for committing an NCAA violation at an October recruiting dinner and then lying to cover it up.

“Really, (we) had no violations,” Harrick maintained. “They can say there was one if they want, but not really. I’m proud of everything we did. We endowed our program. UCLA will never have to pay for a scholarship again. One of them was endowed by me.

“I’ve been in this town 37 years, never made a wrong turn, then one thing happened and …”

Coach Lavin?

Steve Lavin, Harrick’s 32-year-old understudy and UCLA’s interim coach, has already been tested.

Jelani McCoy, J.R. Henderson and Kris Johnson missed a recent team meeting, prompting Lavin to bench the talented trio for the first 8 minutes of Tuesday night’s game against Cal State Northridge.

UCLA survived, defeating the Matadors 95-73.

Notes

Idaho’s Reggie Rose and Marcus Wallace were fined $298 and $596, respectively, after pleading guilty last week to disturbing the peace. The charges, stemming from a September altercation that also involved teammate Avery Curry, were amended from battery. Curry still faces three battery charges… . Pepperdine made just 3 of 17 free throws in Tuesday’s 70-64 loss to San Jose State. “As much as it hurts, no one is going out and purposely trying to miss free throws,” Waves coach Lorenzo Romar clarified… . Leif Nelson, Utah Valley’s 6-foot-11 center and a recent WSU signee, will be in Coeur d’Alene for tonight’s game at North Idaho College… . Santa Clara freshman point guard Brian Jones leads the WCC with 17.8 points per game.

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