Eastern Washington places focus on building guard depth during offseason

Now that it has been around for a full recruiting cycle, the Eastern Washington men’s basketball coaching staff has spent this offseason realigning the team’s roster with the staff’s priorities.

So far, that has included the addition of two guards, with a couple of more signings still to be finalized.

“Some people might say last year we lacked true size, which we probably did,” EWU associate head coach Ryan Lundgren said last week. “But I really think we lacked depth at the guard spot. We just didn’t have consistent guard play night in and night out.”

Lundgren has ties to both of the team’s newest players. Isaiah Moses, who started 49 of 67 games the past two seasons at UC Riverside, was someone Lundgren recruited out of high school to play for him at the College of Southern Idaho in 2022-23.

While at CSI, a NJCAA program, Moses averaged 16.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. At UC Riverside, Moses was a legitimate 3-point threat (110 for 318 in two seasons) and an 88.7% free-throw shooter while scoring 12 points per game.

“He’s a great get for us,” Lundgren said of Moses. “He’ll be one of the best point guards in this conference. He’s older, he’s experienced, a three-level scorer and a really talented player.”

The other signing is Johnny Radford, a 6-foot-1 guard from College of Idaho, which competes in the Cascade Collegiate Conference of the NAIA. Lewis-Clark State, where former EWU guard Sam Stockton played previously, is also a member of the CCC.

Radford played in 158 games during five seasons with the Coyotes, starting 66 times the past two seasons. His first season was the COVID year of 2020-21, and he has one year of eligibility remaining due to the NCAA’s ruling last fall regarding players at NAIA schools.

In each of the past four years, Radford made at least 41% of his 3-point shots – finishing his time there as the school’s career leader with 351 made 3s – and at least 84% of his free throws. Last season he averaged a career-high 13.9 points, and on the schools all-time scoring list, he ranks third with 1,771 points.

Coyotes head coach Colby Blaine was a teammate of Lundgren’s at Boise High School. After the NCAA’s ruling allowing NAIA players an extra year of eligibility – so long as their eligibility was set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 season – Lundgren said Blaine reached out about Radford.

“He’s an elite shooter, one of the best in the country,” Lundgren said.

With the additions of Moses and Radford, the Eagles will enter the season with a group of guards that includes fifth-year senior Andrew Cook and redshirt junior Maddox Monson, who used his redshirt last season, his first at Eastern. They will also have swing guards Tyler Powell and Elijah Thomas, as well as redshirt freshman Jordy McKenzie.

“Our staff has done a really good job of identifying the gaps in the roster,” Lundgren said, “… finding a high-level of talent and finding gaps and guys who fill specific roles that make us more of a cohesive team.

“Last year, getting the job late, we had to throw (the roster) together quickly, and it didn’t work consistently because we didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle in place.”

The Eagles are still finalizing the last couple of roster spots. While they lost four rotation players in Mason Williams, Nic McClain, Sebastian Hartmann and Vice Zanki, they retained forward Emmett Marquardt, the only member of the team to start all 32 games last season. The Eagles finished 10-22 overall and 6-12 in Big Sky games.

Forward Angelo Winkel saw his role increase toward the end of the season, scoring 38 points over his final eight games. But the Eagles will almost surely look to add depth at forward.

The Eagles were also one of the younger teams in Division I last season. The additions of Moses and Radford will give them considerably more game experience, something that was important to the coaching staff.

“We identified kids who are experienced and older, and we’re a lot older team just with those two guys coming in than we were last year,” Lundgren said. “They’ve played multiple years of college basketball and have proven they can produce at a high level.”