Don’T Look Up, But Eagles Sit In First Place

Maybe you don’t need go-to guys. Maybe you only need go-to-it guys.

This is the theory being tested these days at Eastern Washington University, where the basketball going - no matter how it’s modified - is always exceedingly tough.

And yet here we are two weekends into Big Sky Conference play and there are the Eagles alone at the top of the standings - an achievement to be celebrated, no matter whether it turns out to be temporary or a trend. It has been a full decade since the Eagles have nested so high even this early in the season.

“Whether it’s for one day or two months,” said coach Steve Aggers, “it’s nice to be there.”

Well, apparently not for everyone. Aggers revealed Tuesday that little-used reserve Delwin Corner had left the team - presumably in the hope of being used more somewhere else, and best of luck to him.

Still, it’s a curious time to be pulling the ripcord, when the plane is taxiing up to the Jetway.

Ah, timing.

There is a certain amount of shock value in Eastern’s 3-0 Big Sky start, not only because of the ancient history but the more recent Y1.999K variety. On the other side of the calendar, the Eagles had beaten just one NCAA Division I team - Idaho, which hasn’t exactly set many records for overachievement this winter.

In fairness to the Eagles, it should be noted that the slide-rule geek on USA Today’s payroll once had Eastern’s non-conference schedule rated as the 20th toughest in the nation - and rugged it was, with hostile-site dates against Gonzaga, Baylor, Oregon State and Colorado, among others. Of course, the get-healthy cupcakes on EWU’s plate like Cascade and Northwest - and we thought those were airlines - aren’t measured on that computer, or virtually anybody’s radar.

If we didn’t see the makings of a swift conference getaway, Aggers did - sometimes.

“We had spurts,” he said. “We played well in the first half against Oregon State and Colorado. The Gonzaga game hurt our confidence level. We were capable of good things, but guys had to learn their roles.”

Which was difficult, because the coaching staff hadn’t finished casting the play yet.

They had recruited a new point guard, junior college transfer Jamal Jones, which required shifting senior Deon Williams - once a first-team All-Big Sky player - to what’s commonly known as the two spot. That bumped Ryan Hansen, the Eagles’ best known long-range threat, to the bench.

“We felt like we had to get our best athletes on the floor from the start,” Aggers explained.

In time, however, he saw the value in bringing a couple of them off the bench, instead. So Jones has been turned into EWU’s sixth man, and senior Will Levy has been retooled into a super sub, as well.

“Deon has been a point guard all his life and he struggled moving without the ball and shooting the ball,” Aggers said. “Offensively, we were anemic, and bringing Ryan back helped that - people focusing on him so much that it’s opened things up for Chris White inside, and he’s improved a ton since Christmas.

“Moving Deon back to the point helped him play better and helped us, and Jamal has become a real emotional lift off the bench. He changes the game for us. The intensity level seems to go up, kind of like it did for Gonzaga the last couple of years when Quentin Hall was on the floor.”

The wholesale shuffling has impacted some stats. The Eagles don’t have one player among the top 20 scorers in the Sky, and only Hansen is averaging in double figures on the season.

Refreshingly, that’s not an issue.

“We’ve played hard as a team, and played unselfishly,” Aggers said. “I’d say we’re learning how to play together under pressure and that’s what the best teams do.”

Pressure? The Eagles led for 38 minutes at Idaho State, only to see the Bengals seemingly snatch away the victory on a bucket with a second left. No problem - Hansen’s 55-foot heave at the buzzer snaked through for the deserved, if improbable, win.

Likewise, the Eagles held off Cal State-Northridge the other night by a narrow point thanks to a Levy free throw with 4 seconds to play - though they still had to weather two shots by the Matadors.

It’s enough to have Aggers wondering whether he’s seeing a return of the karma his team enjoyed two years ago - when the Eagles won 16 games and finished third in the Sky - which then vanished last season.

“We may not be as good talent-wise as we were two years ago,” he said, “but we have good chemistry and we’re getting great leadership.

“No question, we were frustrated with how we played last year. The year before, we were 11-1 at home. We had 10 games decided in the last two minutes and won nine of them. Last year, I think we had six of those and lost every one.”

The 1998 team also won a few on the road. This team gets to prove itself now, with four straight away from Cheney - at the ridiculous bandbox at Sacramento (where the home team is unbeaten this year), preseason favorite Weber State and the two Montana schools.

In the Big Sky’s untenable nine-school alignment, the Eagles play five of their first seven conference games on the road.

“So we can’t be anything but realistic,” Aggers said, “but so much of this game is just getting your team to play together in a confident manner, and at least we’re there right now.”