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A season pissed away

O

oldtimeewualum

Active member
OK...let's call a spade a spade: this season we are underachieving more than any since the Stuckey days. Coach Hayford inherited a team that was picked by the coaches to finish 3rd in the conference and we are struggling to beat a team that is 315th in the RPI...and how about the terrible decisions and obvious lack of discipline down the stretch tonight?! Our only saving grace is that fact that the Big Sky is the worst it has been in many, many years. Currently the BSC is 26th in the conference RPI rankings. The worst final RPI that the Big Sky has "earned" over the past 15 years is. his is a historically bad year for the conference, and we are supposed to have our best team since the Giac regime,yet we are struggling to get into the top half?! I still believe we will finish 4th or 5th, but the new coach inherited a group that is much better than a middle-of-the-pack finish.

I am really disappointed...
 
I agree it hasn't been the season we expected with such a great start...but if we win Saturday (which we should) and the griz beat the bobcats in Bozeman saturday and ISU at home monday, which they should win both of those games, than we will be in a tie for 3rd place, right where everyone predicted.

It wasn't the best start to the conference season, but its all about how you finish in conference. Eastern should finish 3rd or 4th in conference this year and host a first round playoff game. We win that first round game and you just never know. This team can compete with anyone in the league and win on any given night. If I was Montana or Weber and I had to play my first game in the big sky tourney against EWU, I would not be too happy.

I think we finish strong and make a run in the tourney. We have to remember this is our coaching staff's first year in the league, they brought in a new system and although we had an experienced team, we lost our staring point guard and most of the players had to learn a new system. It takes time. We have toned down the fouling and if we starting hitting the 3 consistently, we will be a very dangerous team.
 
we all know oldtimeewualum dislikes the coaching staff...so be it. I'm not thinking this season is pissed away but then again I'm not posting at 3:28am either. I believe this team has the ability to finish strong and make noise come tourny time. Here's hoping oldtimeewualum will have some positve things to say before the end of this season.
 
Obzerver you have been a long time Eagle (Savage?) booster who has always stayed positive during the good and bad times. "Oldtimeewualum" on the other hand, I don't think is even an EWU alum, instead he might be Earlywine's dad? If this is a season 'pissed away' how does he describe Kirk's seasons as Eastern coach? Hayford might tell you he inherited some players that wouldn't have made his D3 Whitworth teams. I am a true old time ewu alum who is thrilled to have Hayford as coach, and I am looking forward to the future of Eagle basketball (before a program with more resources hires him away from us). Good luck Eagles in the Big Sky tournament where we haven't been for awhile.
 
Spoeagle, are you so old you forgot the Eagles were in the conference tourney last season? The fact is we have much better athletes and a deeper bench this season, but still have a losing record. That's not improvement. Hayford made a huge jump to a team with a lot of promise. It doesn't get much better for someone in his situation. Lastly, there is not one Eagle that wouldn't immediately compete for Northwest Conference MVP, much less START for the Whitworth Pirates. Some of you need to go watch a basketball game in Cheney.
 
Everyone is right in this post, though I don't get bringing up Earlywine. He is long gone and this is Hayford's team now. Hayford has had success and will have success. He has not gotten this team to play consistently nor taken advantage of the talent he inherited. He is also no dummy and would never say that any of these players weren't good enough to play D-3 at Whitworth. To think that he did say that or that it is a correct assessment is absurd. The question for me is did we overachieve early or were we really that good and we've regressed since? This is a mature team in terms of experience, but not acting like one in terms of execution. We are plagued by not playing good defense and poor shot selection. Those two traits are normally tied to coaching and should be in this case. Chiverton's "tough" act of throwing an elbow with a minute to go in last night's game is poor discipline. His awful shot selection, at times, is poor discipline, his lack of any defensive intensity or rebounding is poor discipline. The kid can score, no question, but selfishness is a cancer that spreads and it has. After struggling last night against one of the worst D-1 teams in the country, I am sticking to my fourth place prediction with an early exit. Next year we will have nearly an entire team of Hayford's guys and then we will really see whether he can coach or not. Until then, I remain both optimistic and a realist.
 
Agree I was a little premature in saying the season has been pissed away. Obviously we still have a ways to go and could still finish 3rd - probably should finish 3rd. However, it is really frustrating to see us continue to make mistakes late in close games that you might expect from a young, inexperienced team, but certainly not one with that is dominated by upperclassmen. Fouling 3 point shooters, calling timeouts we dont have, getting technicals, taking bad shots in the 1st 10 seconds of the shot clock when we have a 5 point lead with 2 minutes remaining... It seems to go on and on and is not getting any better. Although we won last night, and a win is a win is a win, if we dont find some intelligence and discipline, we will not be able to beat Weber or Montana - with a team that is talented enough to do so. THAT is my frustration.

To address an earlier post: I agree with 1990 - Earlywine's name hasnt been brought up for a while. This has nothing to do with him, so I am not sure why it came up now??? But since it was in comparing those seasons, I will say this: you are comparing apples and oranges. Earlywine inherited a disaster that needed to be stabilized and he did just that and had the program headed in the right direction in addition to getting the academics, graduation rates, and discipline on solid ground. Much like Coach Wulff down at Wazzu, he did the heavy lifting but was fired before reaping what he had sown. THAT is what I would say about the Earlywine years. Thanks for bringing it up.
 
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