WhoÂ’s Bret Vandergard and whatÂ’s he done for us lately?

[JMD]

*0-4*

[PointGuard]

Did you expect something else????

[JMD]

Nope.

[PointGuard]

LOL...yeah, this team has major inadequacies.

And not being able to recruit anyone this year is going to make things tough for some time to come, I think.

But...I'm not complaining...I knew I picked a dog.

[PointGuard]

Game #5, Nov. 29, 2013: Eastern Washington Eagles (0-4) at Lafayette Leopards (0-4)

I’ve been travelling with the team on all 5 of our road games thus far this season and trying to get in a little scouting work plus becoming familiar with coaches and other contacts who may be useful to us in other parts of the country. I’m afraid I’ve not had much more success with that than our team has in trying to carve out a victory.

Tonight there will be one less winless team in Division I ball, no matter who wins. DeLawn West is starting at SG in place of Shawn Jackson, as Coach V tries to shake things up a bit. We’ve not been good production from any of our guards thus far, so moving DeLawn from SF to SG and giving him a chance may stir things up some. DeLawn is at least not afraid to put up a 3 once in a while.

DeLawn hits a 3 on our first possession…I’m hoping that’s a good sign. We take a rare early lead (8-3). We expand our lead to 7 before letting Lafayette go on a run that puts them ahead 33-23 with 6-1/2 minutes left in the 1st half. Again our defense folds as the Leopards shred it for easy baskets. The half ends with us trailing 41-34. We turned the ball over 16 times (whereas Lafayette had 9 turnovers). DeLawn West, Cory Davis, and Joe Blackwell each scored 6 points for us in the half.

We hit 60% of our shots and are +10 in rebounds…seems like we should have won, right? Not if you let the other team hit 56% of their shots. Not if you have 28 turnovers. Not if the other team gets 21 more trips to the line (and scores 20 more points on free throws than you do).

Final Score: Lafayette (1-4)—91, Eastern Washington (0-5)—72.

Team stats:

FG %: 60% (29-51) vs 56% (28-53) in favor of EWU
FT %: 84% (27-32) vs 64% (7-11) in favor of Lafayette
3 pt %: 50% (3-6) vs 0% (0-2) in favor of EWU
Reb: 29 (including 10 offensive reb) vs 19 (including 6 offensive reb) in favor of EWU
Turnovers: 12 vs 28 in favor of Lafayette
Blocks: 1 vs 1 so even
Steals: 13 vs 4 in favor of Lafayette
Assists: 17 vs 11 in favor of Lafayette
Fouls: 13 vs 20 in favor of Lafayette
Pts in paint: 54 vs 44 in favor of Lafayette
2nd chance pts: 14 vs 10 in favor of EWU
Fast break pts: 24 vs 14 in favor of Lafayette
Biggest lead: 21 vs 7 in favor of Lafayette
Lead changes: 3
Times tied: 2

Leading Eagles’ players: PF Cory Davis-17 pts, 2 reb; C Joseph Park-12 pts, 2 reb; SF Joe Blackwell-9 pts, 1 reb, 2 assists; C Michael Taylor-4 pts, 7 reb, 1 steal.

Lafayette’s C Victor Long-17 pts, 4 reb, 1 assist, 2 steals.

As to DeLawn West--he hit two 3's, but that was it. So back to the drawing board.

[JMD]

...And counting...

[PointGuard]

The morning after the Eagles’ most recent win, I left my Ford dealership and drove over to EWU. I walked into the Athletic Department. Nancy Parker, who has been the head secretary of the department forever, greeted me as always in her friendly way. After telling her she was getting more beautiful every time I come here (and watching her roll her eyes), I said I wanted to talk with Swede Olaffson. She said he was finishing a phone call, but she got me some coffee while I waited.

After about 5 minutes, she told me Swede was free and ushered me into his office.

“Heya Swede, I appreciate your making some time for me this morning.”

“Sure, Bud, always good to see you. How’s the family?”

“Oh, they’re creating as much of a ruckus as usual, Swede. But Vicky says we owe you an invite to a bar-b-que over to our house. What do you say to next Saturday? I’d like to have you over to meet with some of the fan club members.”

“Bud, if Vickie is inviting me, you know I’ll be there. And, sure, it would be great to get together with the fan club members.”

“Well, that’s one of the reasons I came by this morning, Swede. I’m getting some vibes from members of the club that there’s some unrest. Hell, we all were a bit concerned when you hired a young buck with no experience, but figured you did your homework and he’s work out OK. But the team’s winless. You know, I like to take a flyer by hiring some inexperienced car salespersons at times. But they gotta produce or they don’t stay long.”

“Hey, no one is happy that we’re Oh and Five, but I’m sorta to blame for that, Bud. Saddling Bret with 5 straight games on the road to start the season was no way to treat a new coach. And Bret inherited a bunch of players that the previous regime didn’t exactly recruit with great care. It’s much too early to be tearing him apart. Hell, I figured this would be a down year so I’m not surprised by what’s happened thus far. But, I understand how some of the fan club can be upset and concerned. Maybe me meeting with them at your house is a good way to alleviate some of their concerns.”

“Damned right, Swede. Some of these guys have short fuses. But you’ve got a way about you that can help buy some time. Sure would be good if we picked up a win in our first home game in a few days, though. You can bet there will be a lot of the fan club at that game and some will be looking closely at how Vandergard is handling the team.”

“Oh I most agree that a win would give people some hope for our team. But ultimately, I think we have to hang in there no matter how things turn out. We need to give Bret some time to build for the future.”

“I hear ya, Swede…but some wins will help avoid an insurrection.”

“Tell Vickie I look forward to coming over this Saturday. I’ll bring a bottle of her favorite wine.”

I headed out unconvinced that this new coach was going to be able to do much to improve things this year…or in the future. Hell, not only is he inexperienced, but his who staff is pretty sketchy. I don’t know why he didn’t bring in one or two seasoned assistants.

[PointGuard]

CB: I’m here with Ted Norcross. Ted has been watching college basketball for over 60 years and was an sports announcer on TV and radio in the Spokane area for 50 years before retiring 5 years ago. But he’s continued to follow Gonzaga, Washington State, and Eastern Washington round ball.

So Ted, what’s up with Eastern Washington’s basketball team this year?

TN: They're a team with some major holes in the lineup. The guard’s in particular just aren’t pulling their weight. And things aren’t much better at the 3 position. There’s been very little scoring from the perimeter and most of these guys shy away from shots outside the arc. The guards have tossed up a TOTAL of 7 shots from 3-point distance. That’s ALL of the guards in all 5 games! But maybe it’s a good thing they won’t shoot from outside since they have not made a single 3 point shot yet.

The SF’s have hit 8 of 16 from beyond the arc in the 5 games. So those guys need to be shooting more from outside...be more aggressive. Joe Blackwell hasn’t played much, but when he’s been in there, he’s shot well and put some quick points on the board. Hopefully the coaching staff realizes this soon and gives him more opportunities.

Also the guards and SF’s don't have many rebounds. They need to mix it up more and attack the boards and go after balls that are tipped outside. All-in-all, they just seem hesitant and lack confidence. But they’re young, so maybe they will mature as the season progresses.

CB: So are there any strengths on this team?

TN: The interior guys have been doing most of the scoring and they’ve shot well also. They aren’t great rebounders, but that’s been improving somewhat as the team plays more games. In particular, I’ve been impressed with Michael Taylor. He’s been coming off the bench, but has been consistently productive. And I think that the coaching staff is realizing this since Taylor’s been getting more floor time with nearly every game.

CB: What do you think about the coaching staff, Ted?

TN: It’s much too early to seriously critique them. As I said, they’re not working with solid players at every position. At this point they are experimenting. I just hope they can get the team playing better ball and coalescing by the time conference play begins.

CB: What do you think about there being no seniors on the Eagles this year?

TN: Well the good thing is that everyone will be back next year. And the bad thing is that everyone will be back next year. Obviously this team doesn’t have a tremendous amount of experience or talent, so it would have been good if they could have gone shopping for a new infusion of talent this year.

But if the players on this squad improve throughout this year and into next year, they might be able to contend within the Big Sky next year.

CB: Ted, it’s always good having you on with us. Thanks for your perspectives.

TN: Any time Corky.

[PointGuard]

Game #6, Dec. 2, 2013: Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (4-2) at Eastern Washington Eagles (0-5)

We finally get to see this year’s version of Eastern Washington basketball. After 5 straight defeats on the road, the Fan Club turnout for this game is less that I’d hoped, but the true fans are here.

Tulsa nearly won the Alaskan Classic Tournament, losing the championship game to Fresno State by 2 points, so the Eagles will have their work cut out for themselves trying to win their first game of the season.

Our team looked shaky at the beginning of the game, turning the ball over once and allowing Tulsa’s PF Jesse Nesland to slide in and get two easy layups in the first minute of play. But we began hitting some shots after that and took a 21-13 lead with 8-1/2 minutes to play in the half. The lead grew to as much as 11 points, but Tulsa made a run at the end of the half to draw within 4 points, 36-32 at the break. The Eagles shot well (58%) and out-rebounded the Golden Hurricanes 16-10. We turned the ball over too much though (12 times), even though Tulsa had 11 turnovers. Jesse Nesland scored the first 11 points for Tulsa, but was held scoreless after that. Joe Blackwell came off the bench for the Eagles to score 14 points in 12 minutes at the SF position.

Tulsa cut the lead to 3 early in the 2nd half, but the Eagles continued their hot shooting which allowed them to pull away. The game produced mixed evaluations from different Fan Club members. Many were concerned that the Eagles made far too many turnovers, but most were impressed with their shooting and tenacity. Even though I don’t think the team is trying to force the ball inside, the guards are passing up shots thus placing the offensive burden on our inside players. The PG’s hit 5 of 10 shots and scored a combined 10 points while making 5 assists, but the SG’s hit just 2 of 7 shots and scored a grand total of 4 points.

Final Score: Eastern Washington (1-5)—71, Tulsa (4-3)—60.

Team stats:

FG %: 61% (28-46) vs 43% (20-47) in favor of EWU
FT %: 68% (15-22) vs 67% (4-6) in favor of Tulsa
3 pt %: 42% (5-12) vs 17% (1-6) in favor of Tulsa
Reb: 23 (including 4 offensive reb) vs 21 (including 8 offensive reb) in favor of EWU
Turnovers: 21 vs 23 in favor of EWU
Blocks: 3 vs 2 in favor of EWU
Steals: 10 vs 9 in favor of Tulsa
Assists: 16 vs 12 in favor of EWU
Fouls: 12 vs 20 in favor of Tulsa
Pts in paint: 46 vs 28 in favor of EWU
2nd chance pts: 13 vs 10 in favor of Tulsa
Fast break pts: 20 vs 12 in favor of EWU
Biggest lead: 13 vs 4 in favor of EWU
Lead changes: 4
Times tied: 2

Leading Eagles’ players: C Joseph Palmer-19 pts, 9 reb, 1 assist, 2 blocks; SF Joe Blackwell-14 pts, 1 reb, 1 assist; C Michael Taylor-10 pts, 5 reb, 1 assist, 3 steals.

EWU’s C Joseph Palmer was the player of the game.

Top Tulsa player: Jesse Nesland-16 pts, 3 reb, 1 steal.

[PointGuard]

Bud and Vickie threw a great BBQ party with lots of good food and drink. Bud’s had a successful car dealership in Cheney for many years and he displays his wealth through his home, cars, clothes, and hospitality…and also his generous contributions to Eastern Washington University. He footed the bill for a big part of the new Business School building which now bears his name. And his wife, Vickie, even though now in her early 50’s, is one helluva good-looking woman.

Man, am I glad we won last night’s game. That made things a lot more pleasant at Bud Springfield’s party for members of the Eagles’ Wings Fan Club. Yes, there was still some bitching about the team’s slow start, but it was greatly tempered by the convincing win against a good team at home. I took some heat for setting up a schedule with so many away games, but that all will pass.

Michael Jackson was at the party and bent my ear again about his son, Shawn. Even though Shawn has been starting, I think Michael thinks Shawn’s unproductive start is the result of the coaches rather than Shawn being a young player learning the system and trying to elevate his game against a new level of opposition. The kid has a lot of natural talent, but it just needs refinement, but his father can’t see that. He expects his son to be the star, as I’m sure he’s been at all levels in the past. Shawn’s a good kid, and I imagine his father’s expectations aren’t helping him at this point. You’ve heard of “stage mothers”, well Michael is a “court father”, and I think that he’s not only hard on the coaching staff but also his son.