Eagles expect high standards for next year

From the moment Rodney Stuckey stepped on campus at Eastern Washington University, men’s basketball coach Mike Burns predicted great things.

He never wavered from that belief, even as his first team struggled through an 8-20 season with Stuckey sitting out for academic reasons.

That belief was rewarded in a big way.

Stuckey, despite playing point guard for the first time, led the Big Sky Conference in scoring with an Eagles-record 24.2 points per game and was the first freshman to be voted Most Valuable Player. He was also named the Collegeinsider.com Freshman of the Year and made the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VIII team among his numerous honors.

“He definitely lived up to (expectations) and, to be quite frank, he probably exceeded them,” Burns said. “There’s no question he raised the bar to an elite level his first year. That was exciting to him, his teammates and for the program.”

Burns was just as bullish about the six other new faces on his roster and they came through as the Eagles improved to 15-15 against a schedule that was ranked the 107th toughest out of 334 Division I teams. Nine of the losses were to teams that advanced to the postseason, including NCAA tournament teams Marquette, Southern Illinois, Gonzaga, Washington and Montana (three times).

Eastern also improved from 5-9 in the Big Sky to 9-5, good for third place in a league that improved from 31st in the power index for leagues to 17th.

It was the last loss, to Montana in overtime of the BSC tournament semifinals, that has Burns champing at the bit.

“One of the things I can already sense about our guys – coming as close as they came to where we ultimately wanted to go has given them a hunger to work in the off-season that will produce better results for us next year,” he said. “They’ve had a taste and they know what it takes to get to where they want to be.”

Senior guard Deuce Smith is the only loss from the Eagles’ nine-man rotation.

Two highly touted point guards, Michael Smith out of Brewster and junior college transfer Omar Krayem, are coming in so Stuckey can move to his natural position on the wing.

He’ll join 6-foot-5 Matt Penoncello, a redshirt freshman who developed into a lockdown defender and clutch shooter.

Brandon Moore, a 6-9, 230-pound banger, redshirted and should improve the front court of Paul Butorac, who set a school record for blocked shots, Jake Beitinger, Derek Risper and Kellen Williams.

“We were so young this year and with so many new faces, I think the one thing they learned down the stretch was how to play together and kind of lean on one another,” Burns said. “A little experience, combined with their talent has me very excited about next year right now.”

But it is Stuckey, whose average was the highest in the nation among freshmen and sophomores and No. 9 overall, who is the face of the program.

Stuckey scored a school-record 45 points in his first conference game at Northern Arizona, which went on to win the conference and a berth in the NIT.

“I think he feels, and we feel, there are definitely things he can get better at,” Burns said.

“With him it’s not any one thing, it’s just the experience of having played 30 Division I games and knowing what it takes to win those games, and knowing what it takes to play at a consistently high level.

“Experience means a lot in this game and now he has some. You take an already great player and give him some experience and I think we’ll see him do even more special things next season.”

If all goes according to plan, the Eagles should be deeper and better next year, when they could be the league favorite.

“I don’t think you can ever have too much depth,” Burns said. “Depth creates competition and competition helps people elevate their game.”