Eastern considers future
In defense of Eastern Washington’s recently completed basketball season, well, there isn’t one.
The Eagles, with one of the best players in Big Sky Conference history, failed to qualify for the conference tournament with a top-six finish when they expected to be in the hunt for the championship.
The glaring problem was poor defense.
“We have to get better defensively,” third-year coach Mike Burns said. “That’s nothing more than effort and will. Around here we hung our hat on that a long time. I don’t know if you take it for granted. We just didn’t do certain things at a level we were accustomed. We just have to improve.”
Wasted was another stellar season by sophomore Rodney Stuckey, who sparked an offense that scored 84.2 points a game (third in the nation), shot 49.5 percent (sixth) and averaged 17.7 assists (sixth).
The flip side was the Eagles allowed 82.6 points, which was 321st out of 325 Division I teams, and 47.8 shooting (310th).
EWU finished 15-14, 8-8 in conference. It’s the first time a team with at least a .500 conference record didn’t make the tourney, ending the Eagles’ nine-year run. EWU accomplished that despite the presence of Stuckey in a conference ranked 24th out of 31 in the RPI.
Stuckey, a 6-foot-5 guard who is pondering a jump to the NBA, continued his assault on the EWU record book. He averaged 24.6 points (seventh in the nation), 2.4 steals (18th) and 5.5 assists (24th).
Stuckey has until the night of April 29 to decide his future. If he doesn’t hire an agent, he has until June 18 to withdraw his name.
“You obviously don’t want to lose a player of his talent, but if he’s in a position to take care of him and his family, God bless him,” Burns said. “If he does return, we will have one of the best players on the coast on our roster.
“You’ve obviously got to prepare for both instances. How we will play without Rodney is going to be different than how we play with Rodney. If he does move on, it’s going to create some opportunities for other kids. We have enough depth and talent without him. And to have a kid playing in the NBA, it’s exciting for the program.”
Even without Stuckey and four seniors – including starter Paul Butorac, who averaged 14.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and shot 64 percent (seventh in the nation) – Burns considers he has five starters returning.
Point guard Michael Taylor (5.7 ppg, 54 assists, 41 turnovers), wings Matt Penoncello (6.3 ppg) and Marcus Hinton (6 ppg, finishing with a flourish), and forward Kellen Williams (8.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg) all had multiple starts. Burns believes 6-9 sophomore-to-be Brandon Moore (5.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg) is ready to blossom.
“I’m extremely excited about the kids we have coming back and the conviction they made about getting better,” Burns said. “As of right now we have everybody back with the exception of (guard) Omar Krayem. Combine that with the kids we signed, we have a great group.”
Forwards Jack Loofburrow (6-7) and Chris Sprinker (6-8) redshirted. Joining the Eagles in the fall are 6-3 guard Trey Gross from Stockton, Calif.; 6-10 post Nathan Lozeau from Marysville-Pilchuck (Wash.); and 6-8 wing Kaylone Riley from Phoenix College.
Krayem, a junior college transfer who started 13 games and averaged 8.4 points, decided to try to play closer to his family in California.
“If there is one thing you could look back on that hampered our consistency is we did have so many directions we could go,” Burns said. “We’ll try to pare down the rotation this year. Nine is probably the best. Guys are going to earn their minutes. That’s part of the conviction of doing things better at the defensive end of the floor.”