EAA meets Coach Hayford, legans and player, Dean

[Rontheoldwiseeagle]

Great talk with coaches and Dean yesterday evening. If you have seats behind the bench you might want to move this year. The glare from the heads of coach Hayford and Legans might make it hard to see. Thank god Vic doesn't sit in that area.
Not a lot of news from the presentation except, the coaches are out on the road looking for additional talent for the next years. They are in personal reviews with each of the present players, so we may still have a few that deside their playing day might be better somewhere else. Dean was really up beat about the new season. He had great grades the quarter and is pre med, that is way cool.
We will be playing UCLA on Dec 14, it is not a home game. :kisswink: We will be playing WSU more often.
Earlywine had an extra $100 contributed to the basketball program while he was here. Coach just put the first check of $10,000 in to the bank for extra basketball funding.
Hayford was very excited about having Legans on the staff and said he would have pick him out of the several hundred apps. he had for assistants.
They are trying to recruit some talent in the spokane area.
Any ideas who has the talent to play D-1 in Spokane?
Walk on, Fisher is moving on with a scolarship at lower level school, sorry i don't remember which.

 

[Eagle1990]

Ron is right. Was a good meeting/presentation. The main reason that Earlywine was let go was money and Hayford is bringing money with him from Whitworth. That is a good thing. I gave more than $100 to the basketball program these last several years, but not $10,000! Good for the program. I will continue to give (and give more) and hopefully others will to. Ron, how much did you give to the basketball previously and how much will you committ now? In terms of talent, I've heard the Kelly kid and Ehlo kid are going to be walk-ons. I hope they are only walk-ons. While I am sure they are great kids they are not D-1 basketball players. If we expect to win with a bunch of local kids, we have another thing coming. A local kid or two for flavor, ala David Stockton, is good for fans to cheer, but to win, we will need much more. This will be the test in the coming years. Can Hayford recruit and retain inner-city players from backgrounds different from his experience at Whitworth? I pray he can given his stregth of character and person. I don't want EWU to become the best D-3 program in the region. We have an incredibly athletic team right now. Can he maintain that level of athleticism? I hope so and look forward to a great season. We are loaded and should do well.

 

[eaglesfootball]

wow, the first $10,000 donation in such a short amount of time. outstanding work! The concerns on whether or not this staff is going to be able to recruit at the Division I level are pretty valid but only time will tell. Surely they know that they cannot just recruit eastern washington and be succesful. I think they are probably a little more switched on that that. personally i am really excited about what the future brings for this program and can't wait until the first game next year. great that we are playing more pac-10 schools and not just the occassional wsu and uw, too.

go eags!

 

[clawman1]

wow, the first $10,000 donation in such a short amount of time. outstanding work! The concerns on whether or not this staff is going to be able to recruit at the Division I level are pretty valid but only time will tell. Surely they know that they cannot just recruit eastern washington and be succesful. I think they are probably a little more switched on that that. personally i am really excited about what the future brings for this program and can't wait until the first game next year. great that we are playing more pac-10 schools and not just the occassional wsu and uw, too.

go eags!

That level of donation is impressive. Recruiting has been mentioned numerous time in the past. Others have questioned Hayfords ability to recruit at the D1 level. What does that mean?
Do you question his ability to recognize talent?
Will he not be able to speak to the level of a D-1 recruit?
Will he or his staff not be able to communicate with the parents of a high school star?
I am not being critical but do not understand the doubt about Hayford and staff being able to recruit at the D1 level.
Help me out here.

 

[nwhoops44]

Clawman:

Per usual and for everyone, this is a great place for comments, you ask a good question.

For my take and I am only one person in a very big picture:

1. I think Hayford was an outstanding choice.

2. It will be an adjustment to jump from D-3 to D-1, basketball, but a winner is a winner.

3. What he has done at Whitworth is remarkable to say the least and I have followed his career since he has been there.

4. I will stick with my comments though about two things:
a. It is going to be very hard for Eastern to be in the upper division in his first year there. Sure there is talent, but the whole league outside of a couple of teams is going to be drastically improved next year and in basketball you just can't jump over that many teams. I have studied each team for next year in-depth and also the players that will be joining them.
b. It still is puzzling to myself why Ehlo? As I have posted before, I would have thought there were better choices out there with much greater experience. Being an NBA player for 14 years means nothing. Just look in my hometown, Larry Steele was a disaster at University of Portland.

5. Finally, it would be great to get some players from Spokane, but when you even look at the state of Oregon as an example, which on a annual basis, probably produces 3 D-1, you have to really broaden the horizons nowadays for recruiting, including Canada, which is producing some great players and the rest of the world. Good basketball players are everywhere, you just have to work and work some more to find them. Seattle is the key to Eastern recruiting in state of Washington.

 

[EWURanger]

I really hope the new staff can find ways to get people's butts back in Reese Court, as well as get the students involved again and wider support from the Spokane area. It'd be nice to get that place rockin' like this again: :thumb:

 

[clawman1]

I really hope the new staff can find ways to get people's butts back in Reese Court, as well as get the students involved again and wider support from the Spokane area. It'd be nice to get that place rockin' like this again: :thumb:
Thats easy...WIN

 

[eaglesfootball]

its more than just winning though. we had awesome fan support in 2004 when we went to the big dance but then it tapered off again Burns took over. we need to win, but we need more than the occassional good season here and there. consistently making the big sky tournament would be a start but there was a time in the not so distant past where were were competing for regular season titles and beat Washington. i think Hayford will find ways to increase fan interest and generate booster support for the program. get the fans in the seats, start winning some games again, and the sky's the limit.