Eastern Washington’s Cedric Coward carving out important role after transferring from Willamette

After losing in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Tournament in March, the Eastern Washington basketball team wasn’t obviously in need of a roster overhaul.

Top-scorer Steele Venters was set to return, as was conference freshman of the year Ethan Price. Senior Angelo Allegri decided to come back for his final season, and, along with Casey Jones, Imhotep George and Ellis Magnuson, the Eagles had a core around which they could presumably build.

But then the bottom fell out: Nine players transferred.

And while not one of those nine was a regular starter, their absence left a notable void that second-year head coach David Riley and the rest of the basketball staff would need to fill.

It might just be that this is the new normal in the transfer portal era, with players shuffling between divisions and conferences looking for the right fit. And though Eastern Washington’s roster, for the second straight season, looks significantly different from the previous one, the upside of the turnover can be summed up simply: by the play of Cedric Coward.

“I love his game,” Allegri said after Coward scored 15 points in Eastern’s 79-68 win Saturday over UC Davis. “He gives us exactly what we need.”

So far this season, the sophomore transfer Coward is playing seventh-man minutes for the Eagles (5-7 overall), who wrap up their nonconference schedule Tuesday at home against Northwest Indian College. But those minutes have been on the uptick lately, with 24 against UC Davis and 27 the game before, a 77-70 loss to Texas Tech.

“He comes in and he brings energy,” Allegri said. “They have to respect his shot because he can shoot it, but he also goes down (and) bangs with the bigs.”

It is Coward’s versatility the Eagles like so much. Listed at 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds, Coward is averaging 6.9 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. He also has 13 assists, 11 steals, five blocks and only eight turnovers.

He also has the best 3-point percentage on the team, and his nine made 3s (out of 15 attempts) rank fourth.

“It’s funny, because it really wasn’t (part of my game) but now when you’re messing with the bigger boys, you have to expand it,” Coward said Saturday. “I think I’m a good shooter, but I’m not on those Steele-level shooting yet. I’m trying to get there.”

The Steele he referred to is sophomore Steele Venters, who is 25 of 74 from 3-point range this season and leads the team in scoring again this year at 14.1 points per game.

The Eagles don’t need Coward to play like Venters, of course, but they know his capabilities: He showed them last year at Willamette University, a Division III program that plays in the Northwest Conference along with the Whitworth Pirates.

Riley, a Whitworth Hall of Fame basketball player, knows that league well. Coward’s play jumped out at the Eagles coaches, and when they saw his name in the portal, they targeted him.

Last year as a freshman for the Bearcats, Coward led the team in scoring (19.4 points per game) and rebounding (12.0) and set a school record with 67 blocks . He made 60.8% of his shots overall and sank 29 of 64 3-pointers. He earned first-team all-NWC honors and was named the league’s freshman of the year.

“He’s a great kid. Humble, works his tail off,” Riley said. “He has the best growth mindset on our team. He’s going to be a hell of a player.”

Out of high school in Fresno, California, Coward decided playing at Willamette was the best fit. Transferring after one season wasn’t really the goal, Coward said, but playing for the next level – whatever that might be – was.

“My dad always told me to play for where you want to go, and not where you’re at,” Coward said. “So that’s been my motto.”

After he entered the transfer portal, Coward’s first choice was Eastern Washington, he said. He liked the family atmosphere preached by the coaching staff, and he’s found it to be as advertised.

The biggest adjustment from D-III to D-I basketball, he said, is the size more than the speed. At the D-III level, there just aren’t that many players who are 6-9 or 6-10, Coward said, but in Division I you see some players of that height playing guard.

“Like we’ve got Gelo (Allegri), Steele, Tyreese (Davis), they’re all 6-6 and above and they’re guards; they’re not big men,” Coward said. “That’s the difference.”

In a little more than a week, the Eagles will begin Big Sky play, the point at which they hope all the time spent building chemistry will pay off. While four starters this year – Venters, Price, Allegri and, lately, Jones – were with the team last year, the junior transfer Davis is new, and so are fellow transfers Deon Stroud (a senior from Fresno State), Dane Erikstrup (a sophomore from Cal Poly Pomona) and Ty Harper (a sophomore from Louisiana Lafayette).

But Riley, who went through this same acclimation and gelling process a year ago, said the team continues to improve, with an eye toward peaking at the Big Sky Tournament – and hopefully beyond that – in March.

“Guys are figuring out their role,” Riley said. “We’re hitting our stride right now, and we’ve still got a long way to go.”