Ellison’s Return To Action Marked By Turnovers

Washington State coach Kevin Eastman spent much of his time last week not answering questions about the academic status of starting point guard Donminic Ellison.

After refusing to take Ellison on a recent road swing through Oregon because of his academic deficiencies, Eastman put off inquiries about whether he might be allowed to return for Sunday’s Pacific-10 Conference matchup against Washington until four minutes into the game.

Then he hustled his floor leader onto the Hec Edmundson Pavilion floor and watched him struggle mightily in a lopsided 85-71 loss to the Huskies.

Ellison, who replaced starter Kareem Jackson, played 23 minutes and finished with 11 points. He made 3-of-4 3-point shots and had three assists.

But he turned the ball over six times, made some poor decisions with the basketball and never coaxed his team into any kind of a rhythm. In fact, his presence seemed to disrupt WSU’s offensive flow at times, prompting another question that Eastman tip-toed around:

Did the distractions caused by Ellison’s suspension and the uncertainty of his status heading into Sunday’s game do more harm than his return did good?

“I would just be guessing at that,” Eastman responded. “He’s got to come back sometime if he’s done what he’s supposed to do, and he did. In fact, I might add, he did it very well - the things that he needed to do to show (academic) commitment.”

Ellison, who was eligible under university and NCAA standards all along, did not honor a request to show up in the post-game interview area. But Cougar forward Isaac Fontaine, who scored a team-high 25 points, went to bat for his teammate, claiming his return had nothing to do with WSU’s disjointed offensive effort against UW..

“He missed what, maybe two games,” Fontaine said. “Besides, I’ve played with him three years and everybody else has played with him since October, so that has nothing to do with it.

“He’s been playing with us forever. In two games, we’re not going to forget who Donminic is - or what he does.”

Eastman remained steadfast in refusing to detail Ellison’s academic shortcomings, which could end up costing the Cougars the NCAA invitation many followers were expecting.

But he stressed once again that they had nothing to do with Ellison’s grade-point average and that the two-game suspension was strictly his call.

“I’ll squelch that rumor right now,” he said. “It’s not a GPA thing. But I believe, as coaches, we’re in it for the wrong reasons if we’re not helping the people we’re coaching in all aspects of their lives - not just winning basketball games.

“And to tell you the truth, if (Donminic) continues to do what he did last week (academically), then in my coaching career, that will be one of my biggest victories ever.”

, DataTimes