Eagle Madness attracts crowd as EWU fans pick up where they left off

The last time Reese Court saw a crowd this big, the Eastern Washington men were celebrating an appearance in the Big Dance.

On Tuesday, they were just dancing, dunking and draining 3-pointers – a bit of comic relief before the real games begin for the Eagles men and women.

The occasion was Eagle Madness, Eastern’s fan appreciation event that drew about 300 fans and caused coach Jim Hayford to comment, “When I first got here, we were barely getting this many students for games.”

Then again, Eastern hadn’t been to the NCAAs since 2004 and had never won 26 games as a Division I school, while the Eagles women were coming off a 21-win season that included wins over Florida, Wichita State and Washington State.

As women’s coach Wendy Schuller noted, the teams’ 47 combined wins were the most in school history.

“You make such a difference,” Schuller told the crowd.

But if success is its own reward, the Eastern men’s and women’s teams were rewarded with an enthusiastic crowd that cheered for every event, no matter how silly. For the players, it was a sign that enthusiasm will pick up where it left off last year.

“We want to thank you for last year,” forward Felix Von Hofe said. “We really managed to feed off that.”

The Eagles repaid the favor as fans fed off the free pizza while being entertained by the 3-point shooting of Cody Benzel and the ridiculous slam dunk by Venky Jois. Using Benzel as a prop, Jois kicked the ball off Benzel’s head and grabbed the ricochet for a slam to earn the biggest cheer of the night.

The main event was the mixed-team scrimmage, which gave fans a first look at the newcomers for both teams. New point guard Austin McBroom was absent because of grad school studies, but no matter, there were plenty of deft passes and dunks – especially from Jois, who stole a bad pass from Bogdan Bliznyuk and took it the other way for a slam.

Moments later, Bliznyuk made a slick move that included a behind-the-the back pass to himself for a layup. Not a bad night for players who’d spent the afternoon running wind sprints for missing too many free throws in practice.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Jois, who still managed to work up a sweat.

Next up for the women is an exhibition game on Friday against Saint Martin’s. The men open Nov. 13 at Mississippi State, with home games Nov. 15 against George Fox and Nov. 17 against Seattle.