Led by Big Sky Co-Coach of the Year David Riley, Eastern Washington earns plenty of conference recognition
Four Eastern Washington men’s basketball players and head coach David Riley received All-Big Sky recognition Thursday when the conference announced awards for the 2023-24 season.
Riley was named co-coach of the year, sharing the honor with Northern Colorado’s Steve Smiley. It is the second consecutive honor for the Eagles’ third-year head coach, who led the team to back-to-back regular-season Big Sky championships.
The Eagles are 21-10 overall and 15-3 in Big Sky games heading into the Big Sky Conference Tournament this weekend as the No. 1 seed. Riley is the first Big Sky coach to receive back-to-back coach of the year awards since Montana’s Wayne Tinkle did so in 2012 and 2013.
“They preach (at Eastern) that it’s a players’ program, and they put a lot of trust and belief in you as a player,” EWU junior Ethan Price said this week of the coaching staff. “Coach Riley is open-minded and listens to players’ ideas, whether it be in the offseason or in the heat of the moment.
“When you’re coached by someone like that, you want to play harder.”
EWU junior Cedric Coward, who doubled his scoring average from last season (7.3) to this (15.2), was unanimously named a first-team All-Big Sky selection.
Joining him on the first team were Brayden Parker, Idaho State; Trenton McLaughlin, Northern Arizona; Aanen Moody, Montana; and a trio of players who received other conference honors.
In addition to being named to the first team, Weber State’s Dillon Jones was selected as MVP, Northern Colorado’s Saint Thomas was named newcomer of the year, and Montana State’s Robert Ford III was the defensive player of the year.
The selection of Moody, Jones and Thomas on the first team was also unanimous.
Dejour Reaves of Northern Colorado was unanimously named top reserve; he started the first 11 games of the season but came off the bench the rest of the season and ranks eighth in the Big Sky in scoring (14.7 points per game).
Eastern Washington redshirt LeJuan Watts was unanimously selected as the Big Sky’s Freshman of the Year while averaging 9.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He is the eighth Eagles player to win the award, including Marc Axton (2002), Matt Nelson (2004), Rodney Stuckey (2006), Glen Dean (2010), Venky Jois (2013) and Bogdan Bliznyuk (2015) and current teammate Price (2022).
Price was named second-team all-conference, as was junior Casey Jones. Jones was also named to the all-defensive team.
Julius Mims was Idaho’s lone postseason award selection as a member of the all-defensive team.
Idaho opens the Big Sky Tournament as the No. 9 seed against No. 10 Sacramento State at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
Eastern Washington awaits the winner for a second-round game at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.