Around the Big Sky

League play begins this week and the coaches expect a dogfight. Weber’s Joe Cravens said, “This is my 10th year being a head coach in this league and I think there is unparalleled parity in the league. I said this the last few years is what’s changed in the Big Sky is there is no bottom anymore.” …Eastern’s Rodney Stuckey remains the highest scoring freshman in the country at 21.2 ppg, which is 17th overall … EWU has only had four players average 20 ppg, the most recent David Peed’s school record 20.87 in 1988 … There are a spattering of non-conference games remaining – four teams, including Eastern, have Bracket Buster matchups in February – but the league is 59-45 overall, including 16-1 against lower division teams … The BSC is 20th among 32 conferences in the RPI with a season-high of 16. That’s a vast improvement over last year’s ranking of 31 … EWU is 53 in strength of schedule with Portland State 126 out of 332 teams. After that it’s Weber (273), Sacramento State (280), ISU (299), Montana (302), MSU (308) and NAU (326).