Second Wind After Slow Start, Ewu’S Hansen Earns His Keep As Shooting Guard

All shooters cherish separation. Most require it, some more than others.

Ryan Hansen has been a shooter since the first day he picked up a basketball. And separation - that distance between a shooter and the opponent defending him - is something he had mistakenly taken for granted.

As the most prolific high school scorer ever to play in Washington, Hansen seldom had trouble shaking a defender and launching a shot. Even during his two-year stay at Walla Walla Community College, where he averaged 31.1 points a game as a sophomore last season, the separation always seemed to be there.

That ended this year, when the two-time Class A all-stater, who scored a record 2,411 points as a four-year starter at Cascade High School in Leavenworth, made his Division-I basketball debut at Eastern Washington University.

Suddenly, everything changed.

The offense was different. The defenders were quicker. The game was faster.

The separation was gone.

And the long-range jump shots Ryan Hansen had knocked down so routinely at every other level weren’t there. Opponents were in his face on the back side of nearly every screen. And on those rare occasions when they weren’t, they were closing too quickly for him pull the trigger.

“It was a real tough adjustment,” admitted Hansen, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound junior shooting guard. “I transferred here last spring so I could work out with the team and try to get a feel for things, but when it came down to playing games, I was surprised by how intense things were.

“I had a hard time realizing that at this level, the whole game is faster and everyone is bigger, stronger and quicker. I just wasn’t finding the open shots I was used to finding, and I was surprised that the shots I did find I was having to rush because I didn’t have the separation I was used to having.”

Not surprisingly, Hansen didn’t make much of an early season impact with the Eagles (8-14, 5-7 Big Sky Conference), who will try to pump new life into their league tournament hopes tonight when they play Cal State Northridge at Reese Court at 7:05.

In Eastern’s first four games, he came off the bench to play nearly 20 minutes a game, but he took just 23 shots and made only eight. In the fifth game, he made his first start as an Eagle and went 1 for 7 from the field and scored two points in a 91-72 loss to Washington State.

“I think the toughest adjustment for Ryan was that in community college, you can pretty much get shots any time you want them,” explained Eastern coach Steve Aggers. “But at the Division-I level, defenses are so much better and players so much quicker that early on, he had a hard time figuring out how to get his shot off.”

Hansen worked through his early season funk, however, eventually regaining the starting job he lost with his miserable outing against WSU. In his last six games, he has averaged nearly 12 points while making 25 of 50 shots, including 15 of 34 3-point tries.

He has raised his scoring average to 8.2, the third-highest on the team.

Hard work, Aggers insists, has been the key to Hansen’s development.

“I just can’t say enough about Ryan’s work ethic,” he said. “I know every day when we go into the gym, he’s going to give me everything he’s got. And for that reason, he’s worked his way into the starting lineup.”

Still, Hansen remains less than satisfied with the way his rookie season as a D-I player has unfolded.

“I’m a little disappointed in the way the season’s gone from a team standpoint,” he explained. “I know that we have a lot of talent here, but some things just haven’t gone our way and we haven’t played to our capabilities at times.

“And, personally, I’ve found that I need to get stronger and quicker. I guess I really didn’t know what to expect coming in, but I have a better understanding now of what it takes in the way of commitment and conditioning.

“I’ll have a lot better understanding next year, and I’ll expect a lot more out of myself.”

Northridge at EWU Tonight at 7