Ken Pom's Individual Stat Ratings Posted

If you have some time to kill, I would saying spending the $20 to subscribe to KenPom.com and checking out the individual and team stats is more than worth it.

Of note, Damian Lillard is 2nd in America in ORtg among players that use 28% of their team's possessions, trailing only Doug McDermott of Creighton.

KenPom is a great resource for all college basketball fans (and coaches, I have heard many refer to it).

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Guest Post: 12-5-11 Big Sky Women's Basketball Rankings

As we have had in the past it is time for another post with power rankings for the women's side of the league. Thanks again to the writer who likes to be called bigskywbball.

Sorry, I took last week off from the poll, non d1 wins and road tournaments had the power poll in shambles. But, after a good week of tough games, I am ready to give the power poll another shot! Score in parenthesis is a power score (+2 for road win, +1 for home win, +1 for neutral win, +0.5 for non D1 win, -1 for home loss)

1 - Montana State (8) - MSU threw away a chance for a big win against a weak Big 10 team last weekend against Wisconsin. Even with that missed opportunity, the Cats had big home wins against Utah State and Colorado State and a road win against a very tough North Dakota. Katie Bussey is the best scorer in the league but the Bobcats have had great balance in all their games.
Best Win - @ Portland, @North Dakota
Key Stat - The Cats have an impressive A/TO ratio of 156/143 while their opponents are struggling 111/166

2 - Idaho State (6) - After a frigid start, Kaela Oakes is back running the show in Pocatello and helped lead the Bengals to a pair of wins at the Air Force Classic this past weekend. Both Oakes and Ashleigh Vella were named to the all tournament team with Vella being named tournament MVP. The Bengals main weakness is Montana State's biggest strength (Turnovers) and that is why ISU is still at #2.
Best Win - vs. South Florida
Key Stat - Not a single player for ISU has an A/TO ratio greater than 1.0

3 - Portland State (3) - The Viks have played a very difficult schedule thus far and have won the games they should have won and lost the games they should have lost. A loss to cross town rival Portland hurts the Viks in this poll. Portland has beating PSU and UM but lost to EWU and MSU. Kate Lanz has stepped up and provided Portland State with the best backcourt in the Big Sky, but will the Viks have any answer for the Big Sky's best bigs (Baker, Semansky, Vella, Oosdyke)?
Best Win - vs. Nevada
Key Stat - Teams are shooting a whopping 53.8% from inside the 3pt arc against the Viks (No post presence)

4 - Northern Colorado (5.5) - Winners of 4 of their last 5, the Bears have turned it around after a slow start. Still having a hard time figuring them out as I am sure Coach White is having the same problem figuring out which team is going to show up each night. The Bears put up 71 points in an impressive road win over Air Force followed by grinding out an ugly 44-39 win at home against UCSB. What I do know is that Strange and Oosdyke are elite players in the Big Sky and that is good enough to keep them in the 4 spot.
Best Win - vs. Colorado State
Key Stat - Take Kaisha Brown out of the lineup and the Bears are a dismal 6-33 (18%) from 3 point range.

5 - Montana (4.5) - It is great to see Torry Hill warming up from 3, but the rest of the Lady Griz are 13 - 98 (13%) from 3 on the season. We will know if Montana is for real Monday night as they take on a very good Denver team in Denver.
Best Win - @ Wyoming
Key Stat - For the first time in forever, the Lady Griz are shooting less free throws (100) than their opponents (123)

6 - Eastern Washington (3.5) - Its been an up and down season thus far for the Eagles. Brianne Ryan had an MVP caliber November but tough games with Gonzaga and Boise State will tell us if the Eagles are for real.
Best Win - @ Portland
Key Stat - Eastern Washington is giving up 14.0 offensive rebounds per game.

7 - Northern Arizona (4.5) - NAU 5 - 0 at home and 0-4 on the road. That kind of pattern is good enough to finish somewhere in the middle of the Big Sky which is more than I am willing to give the Jacks at this point in time.
Best Win - vs. UC Riverside
Key Stat - NAU in Flagstaff: 70.4 ppg NAU on road: 55.3 ppg

8 - Sacramento State (3) - Sac has matched its win total from the 10-11 season. Are things turning around at Sac?
Best Win - vs. SIU - Edwardsville
Key Stat - The Hornets still love to shoot it from deep, taking 36.1% of their shots from beyond the arc.

9 - Weber State (0) - Not a lot to be excited about in Ogden although it appears that Coach Ord is doing some fine work recruiting.
Best Win - San Jose State
Key Stat - The Wildcats are sending their opponents to the Free Throw line an average of 23.4 times per game

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Big Sky Weekend Roundup

I have already written about about Damian Lillard (er, Weber State's) win over San Jose State and Eastern Washington's loss to Washington State, but here is a quick look at the rest of what happened in the Big Sky on Saturday and Sunday.

- Idaho State picked up a nice home win over North Dakota, beating the Fighting Sioux 76-63. This avenges their 63-47 loss to UND earlier this year. The Bengals had a few stellar performances, most notably by Kenny McGowen with 18 points and Abner Moreira with 14 rebounds. It is a win to build off of, and we will see if they can continue the momentum tonight against Boise State.

- Montana got routed by Oregon State, losing 71-46. Not a lot to say after a drubbing like that in a game that I thought the Grizzlies would keep competitive. Once again, back to the drawing board for Wayne Tinkle.

- Montana State trailed Cal State Bakersfield at half, but used a strong second half to win a nice game, 72-68. Xavier Blount, the heralded JUCO wing, had a huge day for the Bobcats, scoring 26 points (including 21 in the second half). Montana State is solidifying itself as a team in the top half of the Big Sky.

- Northern Arizona fought valiantly, but came up short against Arizona, 53-39. Mike Adras is going to need to work all of his magic to make this team adequate offensively, at least until Gabe Rogers returns. NAU was led by Nor Cal product Colin Gruber.

- Northern Colorado took care of business this time, beating NAIA Johnson & Wales. Six players scored in double figures for the Bears, led by Emmanual Addo's 17 and 10. Nothing too noteworthy about this one.

- Portland State dominated Walla Walla 102-47, improving to 5-2, the second best record in the Big Sky. Now if they could just take on some stiffer competition, we could learn a lot more about them.

Anything else important happen?

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Eastern Washington Disappoints Against Washington State

Everyone was ready and willing to anoint Eastern Washington as the second best team in the Big Sky and the top challenger to Weber State. Then Saturday happened.

The Eagles went to Pullman to take on a mediocre Washington State squad and got hammered 75-49. EWU shot 25% from the field, while the Cougars shot 50%, thoroughly dominating all phases of the game.

“They were very well prepared for us,” said Hayford. “Our defense wasn’t good – they shot 50 percent. Our offense wasn’t good – we made 25 percent. And they beat us up on the boards. We forced turnovers, but we just laid an egg and I’m really, really disappointed.”

Collin Chiverton led the team with 12 points, but was just 3/11 from the field. After really playing solidly in every game this season (win or lose), this is not one they will look back fondly on.

They will get a little bit of a break, as they take on Linfield on December 8th.

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Craig Ehlo Leaves Eastern Washington Coaching Staff

Craig Ehlo was an assistant coach for Eastern Washington, but he has left the program to take a job as Assistant Coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

A source close to the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball program confirmed Saturday morning an earlier rumor that Eagles assistant Craig Ehlo has accepted a coaching job with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

It's definitely a big blow for Coach Hayford, who talked before the year about how nice it was to have three assistants. It is a bush league move by Ehlo, though you can understand the allure of the NBA.

Here's hoping Coach Hayford doesn't miss a beat.

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Predicting the Best Games Of The Week

There is some quality Big Sky action this week as always, so let's take a look at best game in the week ahead.

@ Utah 62, Idaho State 54 (12/6)
This won't be a sight for sore eyes, as both teams have struggled this year. Idaho State got their first Division I win on Saturday against North Dakota, while Utah is still looking for theirs. The Utes would be a mediocre Big Sky team, and they might not win a conference game all year. This is a game Idaho State can win if they can hit a few outside shots, but I don't see it happening.

@ BYU 77, Weber State 73 (12/7)
Damian Lillard is fresh off scoring 41 points against San Jose State, but the Wildcats will miss senior Kyle Bullinger, who will miss the first start of his career after injuring his elbow. Weber State doesn't have a natural fit to replace him, and there is some worry that they have become a little dependent on Lillard for scoring. Hopefully Scott Bamforth can get free for some good looks. I would pick Weber if Bullinger was healthy, but this is tough for the first game without him.

@ Montana 67, Nevada 62 (12/8)
Montana badly needs a win, as they haven't look all that good at 4-4. They will know they have a nice opportunity for a quality win against a pretty good Nevada team. Montana has the talent, but they have not been consistent yet this year. It will be interesting to see how much Wayne Tinkle plays guys like Keron DeShields and Kevin Henderson (more talent and athletic but less experienced) compared to guys like Shawn Stockton and Jordan Wood (less talented but more experience).

@ Weber State 75, Southern Utah 62 (12/10)
This will be a Big Sky game next season, but the Thunderbirds are not at the caliber of Weber State. They are 4-4 on the year, but their best win is against UC Davis. Damian Lillard should have another big day. Opponents are shooting 56% from 2-point range against Southern Utah, meaning Lillard should be able to get to the rim. Look for big man Kyle Tresnak to continue his ascent to being one of the better bigs in the Big Sky.

@ Montana State 69, UC Riverside 64 (12/11)
Brad Huse's biggest concern with all of the newcomers was how they would mesh defensively, and so far his concerns have come to fruition. The Bobcats have not been very good defensively. Fortunately, they've been pretty solid offensively, led by PG Rod Singleton, who has been a leader for them. Christian Moon has also been really solid, as he knows his role and plays it very well. His ORtg is excellent, thanks to a nice outside touch and an ability to take care of the basketball.

Eastern Washington 71, @ Cal State Fullerton 70 (12/11)
Eastern Washington has been really good this year because they take care of the ball offensively, and force turnovers defensively. On the other hand, Cal State Fullerton has been one of the worst teams in the country at taking care of the basketball. Sometimes it's that simple. EWU needs to shoot the three ball, but if they can knock a few down they could get this road win.

Season Record: 12-5

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Damian Lillard Pours It On Against San Jose State

On Saturday night in Ogden we saw one of the best performances of the young college basketball season. Damian Lillard of Weber State dropped 41 points, had 8 rebounds, and 4 assists in Weber State's 91-89 Double OT victory. That paragraph only barely does Lillard's performance justice.

In regulation with the Wildcats down by 3, it was Lillard who buried a three pointer with under 10 seconds to send it into OT. Then in the first OT:

In the first overtime Lillard scored eight of WSU's nine points including another three-pointer that tied the game at 71. Then with the Wildcats down four with 2:00 to play, Lillard scored five quick points. He first hit a floater in the lane, then stole the ensuing inbounds pass and scored, and was fouled on play and hit a free throw to give the Wildcats a one-point lead.

In double OT, he was even better. He scored 9 of Weber State's 13 points, including the game-winner. With about 10 seconds to play, the Wildcats trailed by 3. He drove to the lane, scored a basket and was fouled, completing the three-point play to give Weber State the lead and ultimately the win.

"I didn't really feel like I couldn't let the team lose," Lillard said. "I felt like we couldn't let ourselves lose on our home floor. I think that's what it was more about than me not letting them lose. I'm the leader of the team. I felt like I should be the first one to step up and say 'I'll do it,' and tonight I did."

This follows Lillard's 36 point performance against St. Mary's, and has upped his already nation-leading scoring average to 28.2 PPG. He is the best player in the conference and he showed it on Saturday, with a performance that Weber State fans are going to remember for a very long time.

[Editor's Note: Later in the week, two posts about the game... a look at the injury to All-Conference forward Kyle Bullinger, and a look at if the Wildcats have become too dependent on the scoring of Lillard.]

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Same Old Sacramento State?

Not too long ago, Sacramento State was 3-1 and leading McNeese State by 17 at the half, looking to make it 4-1. Since then, they have played five bad halves of basketball, looking every much the team that hasn't had a winning season in over 20 years.

They had the second half collapse against McNeese State, got blown out by Cal Poly 77-51, and got pounded 82-53 by Oklahoma last night.

Freshman PG Dylan Garrity, who has been so good for most of the season, struggled big-time against Oklahoma, with 4 assists against 7 turnovers. The Hornets turned it over 22 times, could not get consistency on offense, and could not stop the Sooners from scoring.

With the loss, Sacramento State is down to 3-4 and have 4 non-conference games to go before the Big Sky schedule comes. They travel to Cal State Bakersfield, and then have 3 home games against Cal-Maritime, North Dakota, and SE Missouri. If they want to have a chance to finish at the .500 mark, they need to win at least 2, and probably 3 (or even better, all 4) of those games. Going 3-1 would put them at 6-5 headed into conference play (also with the Bracket Buster remaining). Given their less-than-steller conference record in past year's, this would at least give them a puncher's chance to win more than they lose.

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Montana and Montana State Recruits Among Washington's Best

In a ranking by Sea Town Sports, two future Big Sky players were ranked in their top 25 best high school basketball prospects in the state.

#20 was future Montana Grizzly Jake Wiley.
#22 was future Montana State Bobcat Ryan Shannon.

Have read lots of good things about both of their games, so they look to be solid Big Sky players for the next few seasons. It will be exciting to watch their development.

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Another Damian Lillard Article

As I pointed out earlier this week, Damian Lillard is tops in the nation in scoring. This fact has not gone unnoticed elsewhere, as Roy Burton of the Standard-Examiner has a nice article on it.

"When you have guys around you that are kind of a threat, guys like Scotty (junior shooting guard Scott Bamforth), Bull (senior forward Kyle Bullinger) and Tres (sophomore center Kyle Tresnak), it opens things up for me," Lillard said. "It's only five games in. I don't think much of it. It's cool to say you lead the nation in scoring, but I'd rather be 5-0 than lead the nation in scoring."

Give the article a read if you haven't already.

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Guest Post: Northern Colorado And The 'Disease of More'

We have another guest blog from poster MP, who last wrote about Northern Arizona. Today, he chimes in on the Bears loss to Westminster College.

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“Success is often the first step toward disaster.”

• Pat Riley, from his book, “Showtime”, talking about a phrase he coined, the “Disease of More”.

I am a University of Northern Colorado student. At 2:00 on Thursday afternoon, my roommates asked if we should go to the Bears game that night against an NAIA opponent, the Westminster College Griffins. After a few seconds of deliberation, we all unanimously decided against it. We believed that with the opposition being a school that we had never heard of until UNC’s schedule came out at the end of summer, mixed with final exams starting next week, our time could be better spent.

So I went to the library to study, keeping up with the score on my phone. I noticed at halftime, the Griffins held a 32-29 edge over the Bears. “The Bears just came out sloppy, they will take care of business in the second half,” I thought to myself. About 30 minutes later, I checked the score again, and saw Westminster had taken a 16-point lead with 4 minutes left.

A couple minutes after that, I looked at my phone again, only to see this:

Westminster (UT) 73 Northern Colorado 60 FINAL.

I left the library. I needed to clear my head.

You see, last year’s run of winning the conference and advancing to the NCAA Tournament was the stuff made of dreams. All of it still seems like a blur eight months later. When I decided to come to the University of Northern Colorado in 2008, the school was mired in the middle of their Division I transition. There wasn’t a lot of school spirit on campus, because it’s tough to get inspired over athletic teams that were being beaten handily by opponents that were bigger, faster, and stronger than us.

Flash forward to last season. Tad Boyle had done one of the most incredible coaching jobs in the nation to have Northern Colorado poised to make a big run for the conference title before he left to take the job at the University of Colorado. B.J. Hill, who had been Boyle’s right hand man through the climb from the bottom to the top, guided the Bears to that fairy tale journey that culminated on that Wednesday night in early March at Butler-Hancock, when UNC defeated Montana to take the conference crown, and go to The Dance.

Now, in present day, we are here. A night in which the Bears suffered their most discouraging, most embarrassing loss since the initial days of the Division I transition.

This is where Pat Riley’s “Disease of More” comes in. Life is filled with ups and downs, peaks and valleys. Sometimes those peaks come to us at an early time in our careers, when there is still work to be done in the future. Six players (Mike Proctor, Elliott Lloyd, Paul Garnica, Tate Unruh, Emmanuel Addo and Connor Osborne) all played valuable minutes in last year’s title team. No matter what, they will always have “Big Sky Champions” tied to their name. They could lose every game for the rest of their career, but they will still have that honor tied to them forever.

But, their jobs aren’t done, they still have eligibility remaining. The only thing more difficult in life than reaching success is duplicating that same success all over again.

The “Disease of More” is what keeps coaches awake at night. As Riley put it, after a championship of any sort; guys want more playing time, more shots, more respect. But in doing so, they forget the essence of what made the season prior so special and so successful. I’m not necessarily trying to diagnose this “disease” on this UNC team, but there appears to be early symptoms of it showing up in December.

The six aforementioned returning players can bask in that 2010-2011 season all they want when their careers are over. But for now, there is work to do. There are nine newcomers to this team who want to go through those same peaks that they didn’t get to experience first-hand a year ago, newcomers who are looking for that leadership to take them to the top. Three-and-a-half weeks into the regular season, it has yet to show up.

The veterans on this Northern Colorado team have to ask themselves, how will I be remembered here? As a player who was on that one NCAA Tournament team and settled after that? Or the player who made the University of Northern Colorado a successful, revered program year-in and year-out?

That’s what’s at stake here for these Bears. They will have a few weeks to shake free this debacle and gear up for the official start of conference play, and that is when everyone will find out who they really are. And maybe, just maybe, they can flip some words around in Pat Riley’s iconic phrase around to being:

“Disaster is the first step toward success.”


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Montana Loses Tough One to San Francisco

I don't know Wayne Tinkle, have never met the man. But based on hearing him speak and watching him on the sidelines, I have to imagine he is getting very frustrated with the inconsistency of the Grizzlies this season.

After beating Long Beach State, they collapsed at the end of the game in a 65-62 loss to San Francisco. The Grizzlies trailed by 6 at the half, but came out strong in the second half. They led 59-53 after an Art Steward layup with 4 minutes remaining, but the Dons went on a 12-3 run to end the game, stunning the home crowd.

San Francisco got some huge plays down the stretch, and there were three that really were the difference. First, with Montana up 62-59, San Fran sophomore PG Cody Doolin hit an open three with 1:40 to play. On the ensuing possession, with the shot clock winding down, Doolin simply beat Shawn Stockton off the dribble, hitting a shot in the lane to put the Dons up.

The last big play... after a timeout, the Grizzlies gave the ball to Will Cherry to take to the lane, and it looked like he was going to get an easy layup for the tie. Suddenly, the Dons big man Cole Dickserson came from the weak side for a huge block, and that was essentially the game.

Montana got a desparation three-point attempt from Derek Selvig as time expired, but it wasn't even close.

For Montana, senior Art Steward was the star, notching a double-double with 17 and 10. Other than him, the big guns struggled. Will Cherry had 5 points and 3 assists, Kareem Jamar had 12 points, and Derek Selvig had 6 points. Montana needs 40 points per game from these guys.

Montana will not have time to sit and sulk about this one, as they travel to Oregon State for a game on Sunday. They have the team capable of winning that game. However, they need to be more assertive offensively, and their stars need to make plays. If not, there will be a lot more nights like this one.

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Montana State's Tre Johnson Suspended Indefinitely

I am a little behind the 8 ball as it appears this happened a few days ago, but Montana State F Tre Johnson was suspended indefinitely by Coach Brad Huse. According to Gidal Kaiser:

The latest I have heard on Tre is that it's not for anything illegal or academic, just for pure petulance. He and Huse have been arguing for some time since the season started, I understand, and it came to a head either just before the team left or as the team was heading to Idaho.

Johnson was leading the Bobcats in rebounding with 7 per game, so his absence will certainly he felt.

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Northern Colorado Loses To NAIA Westminster College

Before the season began, some Northern Colorado fans called me crazy for picking the Bears to finish seventh in the Big Sky this year. After Thursday, that prediction does not seem so crazy.

Northern Colorado fell 73-60 to Westminster College, an NAIA school out of Salt Lake City, UT (which, looking at their website, the campus does look pretty cool). It was not a fluke either... the Griffin, outshot the Bears, and led at the half, so it was a game they led throughout.

The Bears got good production from Paul Garnica (14 points) and Tate Unruh (16 points), but there weren't a lot of bright spots. Their frontcourt did not produce much, and they turned the ball over 16 times compared to 8 for Westminster. The Parsons also shot nearly 50% from the field.

Northern Colorado started 0-4, but I gave them a bit of a pass because they played a tough schedule, and played some good teams pretty competitively. They rebounded to beat two lower level Division I teams, and it looked like they were on the rise. But there is no sugarcoating this game, it is a BAD loss.

In the grand scheme of this season, obviously the Bears are not going to be getting any at-large berths, and so the non-conference season is simply a preparation for conference season. UNC proved that last season, when they parlayed a 4-7 non-conference record into a regular season and conference tournament title. This is a young team, and maybe this will be the wake-up call that they need to grow as a team.

TIme will tell.

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Nice Article on Chehales Tapscott

From the Portland State website:

Between rebounding and his scoring, Tapscott had a lot of options when he left CCC. He heard from all the Big Sky Conference schools, Pepperdine, Cal State Fullerton, Iowa and Nebraska as his time there was winding down. He stuck with PSU because “even when I went to community college, Coach Geving said 'OK, when your two years at Clackamas are finished, we still want you'.”

Give the whole article a read to learn a bit more on the best player for Portland State.

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My 12-1-11 Big Sky Power Rankings

I posted by Big Sky Power Rankings for the beginning of December over at The Upset Blog, so give them a check out.

Here were my rankings:

1. Weber State
2. Montana
3. Eastern Washington
4. Portland State
5. Montana State
6. Sacramento State
7. Northern Colorado
8. Idaho State
9. Northern Arizona

Check out the site for a more thorough look at each squad.

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Cliff Ederaine Named Big Sky Player Of The Week

Eastern Washington forward Cliff Ederaine was named the Big Sky Player of the Week this week for his performances against Hawaii and UC Davis.

Ederaine, a 6-foot-7, 205-pound senior forward from Moreno Valley, Calif., averaged 20.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and two blocks per game as the Eagles notched a road win over Hawai’i, and topped UC Davis in Cheney.

Ederaine was the natural choice, as he had a very productive week. If he can keep that level of production up, EWU becomes even tougher.

Other canidates were Melvin Morgan of Idaho State, Will Cherry of Montana, Rod Singleton of Montana State, Emmanuel Addo of Northern Colorado, Charles Odum of Portland State, Joe Eberhard of Sacramento State, and Damian Lillard of Weber State.

Past winners were Eberhard and Scott Bamforth of Weber State.

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Northern Arizona and Idaho State At The Bottom Of The Big Sky

On Wednesday night, Idaho State traveled to take on New Mexico while Northern Arizona took on BYU in a neutral court game. Nobody really expected them to win, but it would have been nice to see them keep the games competitive.

Unfortunately, both got blown out. New Mexico beat Idaho State 65-41, while BYU dispatched of Northern Arizona 87-52. There are a couple positive if you look hard (for example, Melvin Morgan had his third straight 20+ point effort, scoring 23 of the Bengals' 41 points), but neither team has to be feeling good at all about how their early season has gone.

Both teams are without a Division I victory, and I am not sure when the first one will be coming for either squad. Idaho State has been close to a couple (against Oklahoma and Loyola Marymount), while Northern Arizona has been blown out by every D1 team they have played this year. It is hard to see anything but long seasons in Flagstaff and Pocatello.

The light at the end of the tunnel for Idaho State fans is that it is hard to see Joe O'Brien lasting past this season, and they should get the coaching change they have been wanting. The light at the end of the tunnel for Northern Arizona fans is that they have an extremely young team that should get better as the season goes on, and should be much improved next year with another season of good coaching from Adras.

However, both of those lights appear really dim right now for fan bases that will have to get used to a lot of losing this season.

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Sacramento State Suffers A Bad Loss

There has been a lot of good things happening so far this year for Sacramento State basketball, but let's not file Wednesday night as one of those things. For the second straight game, the Hornets laid an egg in the second half, losing 77-51 to Cal Poly. They trailed by 8 at the break, but were outscored 40-22 in the second half.

In the Dylan Garrity Assist Watch, he had 5 on the game, but also had 4 turnovers, his worst ratio of the season. Sacramento State simply could not knock down outside shots and they had a terrible game rebounding, as Cal Poly beat them on the boards 40-21.

It is back to the drawing board for Brian Katz, whose team will travel to Oklahoma on Friday.

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Eastern Washington Coasts to Victory

Eastern Washington became the third Big Sky team to take on Idaho this year, and if we use them as a barometer, the Eagles are better than Montana and Montana State. They jumped out to an early 27-7 lead en route to a 73-66 victory, pushing their record to 4-2.

“That will make the drive home to Cheney a little easier,” said first-year head coach Jim Hayford. “I’m really, really proud of our players. We had a great offensive rebounding effort, and obviously, we came out shooting the ball really well and got them on their heels. Idaho came back with some big punches, but we didn’t rest on that big lead and showed poise. I’m just very proud of our players.”

Cliff Ederaine continued his impressive senior season, notching 13 points and 8 rebounds, having another efficient night from the floor. Cliff Colimon also had 13 points, and dished out a team-high 6 assists to go with it. Junior big man Jordan Hickert had his best game of the year off the bench, as he hit 4 three balls to finish with 12 points.

There were two keys to this game. The first was the defense, as the Eagles held them to 4 points for the first 9 1/2 minutes of the game, helping them build their lead. Jeffrey Forbes was key defensively, as he held Idaho's leading scorer Deremy Geiger to just 8 points. The other key was three-point shooting, as Eastern Washington made 13/28 in the game. Their offense is heavily predicated on hitting the outside shot, so when they do that, they can beat anyone.

It is early in the year, but the Eagles are looking extremely impressive, and certainly have jumped into the top 3 in everyone's mind. They travel to Washington State on December 3rd, and that is a winnable game. If they do pull it out, the Mid-Major top 25 might soon be making room for Eastern Washington.

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