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

[PointGuard]

Man, I like this staff! (Although I’m not really a fan of Jamal’s nickname of Goober for me). There are no prima donnas and we’re bonding and working well together. We’re all enjoying the new challenge.

After the coaching staff weekend, Coach V and I sit down to discuss offensive and defensive strategies and how we will work on these in practice (when it starts later this year).

Defense is definitely a weak point for the entire squad whereas it seems as though we may have some good board-pounders and reasonably good passing skills, although our inside players need to work on ball-handling.

The two main offenses will be “motion” and “triangle”. Motion is a completely new offense for all players whereas the returning sophomores and juniors had some experience with the triangle offense in previous years here.

Because of our defensive inadequacies, we will rely extensively on “man-to-man”. Since some of the players have experience with the “1-3-1 zone” (from last year), we will continue to work on that defense while not employing it much. We won’t press a great deal, but when we do it will be “man to man”.

We’ll start out with a “balanced” attack with 70% offense sets during games, although that may change as the year progresses depending on how our players perform.

[PointGuard]

Some notes on this year’s “recruiting” actions:

Indy Elite Camp—Just 12 players on our recruit list at this camp. We sway no one towards EWU, butthis camp has some great players, so I’m hopin’ that we can attend next year when it’ll really mean somethin’ tah us.

Las Vegas Revue—31 players at this camp who are on our recruit list. This is the big one for us. Again I don’t think we get anyone tah jump aboard the Eagle Express, but we get tah do some quick evaluations an’ comparisons of a lot ah players who in a normal year, we MIGHT be able tah interest in EWU. This year we’re getting’ recruits with rankin’s over 500 tah show interest, but a lack ah interest from those recruits with rankin’s below 500. But the next week a recruit from nearby Idaho who is ranked #202 begins showin’ interest.

Houston Classic—It was fun going down there, because I met up with some people I know, but a waste for us in the future.

Chicago Classic—Not worth our time or money for the future.

In mid-July we get the 42nd an’ 67th nationally ranked players interested in EWU. They’re from Montana an’ Hawaii respectively.

School Visits—these go pretty well for Washington recruits, but very difficult tah entice out-ah-staters tah come to Cheney. Some recruits aren’t too excited by the town or the facilities, so hopefully we can get the administration tah upgrade our facilities sometime soon.

Our phone call campaign is goin’ no where fast…hard tah get the better recruits to give us the time ah day.

Memphis Hoops Summit—Had a great time in Memphis, but no one down here gives a damn ‘bout some college up in Washington they never heard of.

Big Apple Showcase—More of the same, no way tah get these players interested in our program an’ they hardly know where Washington state is located, let alone Cheney. Ya know you’re in trouble when a gangly kid (Wayne somebody) comes up an’ after finding out where Eastern Washington is located, asks, “Oh, was the town named after the Vice President?” A 17-yr old who knows there was a VP named Cheney an’ knows the name of a Republican VP—obviously the kid’s headed tah an Ivy League school.

Home visits in September and early October generally go well. We got a #39 ranked SG from Nevada, a #127 ranked PG from Idaho, a #196 ranked PF from California, a #363 ranked SG from Arizona, a #843 ranked SF from Washington, a #846 SG from California, and a #971 ranked PG from Washington very interested as the result ah the home visits. But of course, we couldn’t seal the deal since we had no scholarships tah offer.

With that, we end our recruiting efforts for this year…sort of a dry run for next year.

[PointGuard]

Summer tutoring progressed slowly…by mid summer there didn’t seem to be much improvement, so we continued the tutoring.

By the end of summer, just 3 players had GPA’s too close to 2.0, so tutoring was continued for Tim Dove, Robbie Taflinger, and Michael Taylor.

As we headed into practice in October, just one player had not improved his GPA and remained on tutoring: Robbie Taflinger.

[PointGuard]

Coach V wasn’t happy with the schedule I was able to put together. Just 2 of 11 pre-conference games at home. But I just couldn’t find schools that were willing to come to Cheney this year. Additionally our prestige, which has been declining in recent years, didn’t help entice opponents to travel to play us here.

@ Stephen F. Austin
@ Utah St.
@ Savannah St.
@ Bethune-Cookman
@ Lafayette
TULSA
@ Citadel
@ Cal-Irvine
@ Quinnipiac
@ Cornell
CLEMSON

[PointGuard]

Practice in October and early November has gone well. We’ve had a few minor player problems, but we’ve been able to handle them at a low level.

We decide to redshirt one player, SF Don Watson, a 6-6 freshman. He should benefit from some seasoning plus avoid getting splinters from sitting on the bench. While he’s disappointed, he’s accepted the decision as something that ultimately should benefit him.

[PointGuard]

Michael Jackson, the father of Shawn Jackson, has been continually calling and writing with complaints that “promises” by the previous coach aren’t being honored. He expects that his son should be assured of a starting position as he says Dawes Johnson promised. His complaints border on harassment at this point, and include threats that donations from his bank and others may be ended.

I’ve spoken with Bret Vandergard about it. It sounds like Shawn Jackson is really a very good player and very likely may EARN a starting role. But the coach wishes to wait until the season starts to announce the starters. I’m supportive of him so will have to endure calls from his father, at least for a while. Swede Olaffson, our AD, agrees that we can’t allow parents to begin calling the shots for our athletic programs. And at this point, we can’t reconstruct what Dawes Johnson may have said or how he may have said it...or how Michael Jackson may have interpreted what he said.

[bloomington]

michael jackson - ha!

[PointGuard]

LOL...to be honest, I hadn't really given that any thought.

[PointGuard]

Hey folks, Eastern Washington is hoping to turn over a new leaf with Coach Bret Vandergard at the helm. Earlier today, Coach Vandergard named his starters to kick off the 2013-2014 season. It’s a very young team, so there’s no way to know just how this team will do this year.

Here’s the players who will take the court for the season tip-off against Stephen F. Austin:

At PG: TIM DOVE, 6-1 freshman from Odessa, Washington (3.5/4.0)
At SG: SHAWN JACKSON, 6-4 freshman from Spokane, Washington (3.0/4.5)
At SF: TERRENCE HILLIER, 6-7 sophomore from Zilah, Washington (3.0/4.0)
At PF: CORY DAVIS, 6-9 freshman from Tonasket, Washington (3.0/3.5)
At C: JOSEPH PALMER, 6-8 junior from Pullman, Washington (3.0/3.5)

Coming off the bench will be:

PG ROBBIE TAFLINGER, 6-5 junior from Tacoma, Washington (2.0/3.0)
SG BRIAN ROBISCH, 6-4 junior from Eatonville, Washington (1.5/3.0)
SG WILL DAVIS, 6-1 freshman from from Mabton, Washington (1.0/4.0)
SF JOE BLACKWELL, 6-3 sophomore from Vancouver, Washington (2.5/4.0)
SF TRAVIS DAWSON,6-8 sophomore from Port Orchard, Washington (3.0/2.5)
SF DELAWN WEST, 6-6 junior from Washougal, Washington (2.0/3.5)
PF BRIAN DEARMAN, 6-8 sophomore from Kennewick, Washington (2.5/2.5)
C ODIE JOSEPH, 6-9 sophomore from Spokane, Washington (2.0/3.0)
C MICHAEL TAYLOR, 6-10 junior from Ocean Shores, Washington (2.0/2.0)

Redshirting this year:

SF DON WATSON, 6-6 freshman from Renton, Washington (1.0/4.0)

It’s surprising that Coach Vandergard has opted to start 3 freshman. He says that all positions were open at the beginning of practice and all positions were hotly contested, but that those named as starters won those battles. Now they just have to produce to keep their starting roles.

[Note: numbers in parentheses were not actually part of the Eagle Flight blog, but were added solely for those familiar with DDSCB3 who are reading this dynasty thread.]

[PointGuard]

The Big Sky Conference media association released the results of the polling of its members predicting the final Big Sky standings this season. Here’s the results of the poll:

1. North Dakota Fightin’ Sioux
2. Southern Utah Thunderbirds
3. Northern Colorado Bears
4. Northern Arizona Lumberjacks
5. Idaho Vandals
6. Sacramento State Hornets
7. Montana State Bobcats
8. Portland State Vikings
9. Eastern Washington Eagles
10. Idaho State Bengals
11. Weber State Wildcats
12. Montana Grizzlies

Coach Bret Vandergard said he wasn’t surprised that his team was expected to finish near the bottom of the pack, but he hoped that the Eagles would provide some surprises. “The guys had practiced well this fall and have to coalesce as a team. They’re excited to begin play. Since we’ve got a very young team, they have a lot to learn. But we’ll work on eliminating mistakes and improving individual skills and teamwork.”

Vandergard expects to use a deep bench. His team will be tested early as they play 9 of their 11 pre-conference games on the road plus their first conference game is against Big Sky favorite, North Dakota.

Center Joseph Palmer has been named team captain. Palmer said, “Practices were tough this year and since no one was assured of a starting position, the competition was intense.”