Eastern Washington University was founded in 1882 on an 8-acre site, as the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy, after a generous contribution of $10,000 from Benjamin P. Cheney, a wealthy transportation industrialist fulfilled the dreams of Cheney citizens for an institute for higher learning in their community.
Located in the northern Palouse near Spokane, EWU sits on 330-acres and has a student population of 12,607 (8217 undergrad). It is one of only three universities in the nation with a research facility in a national wildlife refuge.
EWU's nickname is The Eagles, although from 1923-1973, they were the Savages, represented as a male American Indian. EWU mascot is Swoop the Eagle, the student section is called The Flight Club.
It’s 12 varsity men’s and women’s sports play in the Big Sky conference (since 1987). It claims 3 national championships: Football 2010 Div. I FCS, Wrestling 1977 – NAIA, Men’s cross-country 1982 Div. II.
Notable sports alums: WR Cooper Cupp (LA Rams), DE Samson Ebukam (IND Colts), WR Kendrick Bourne (NE Pats).
First Men’s Basketball season was 1903-04, 1408-1205 (.539) all-time record, 5 conference regular season and 3 tournament championships, 3 NCAA appearances (2004 loss to #4 OK St, 2015 loss to #22 Georgetown, 2021 loss to #11 Kansas), 18 20+ win seasons, 1946 30+ wins, 2 NIT appearances (1W-2L).
3 NBA draft selections: Ron Cox Cleveland Cavs 1977 6th rd, Rodney Stuckey Detroit Pistons 2007 1st rd, Tyler Harvey Orlando Magic 2015 2nd rd
5 AP AA Honorable Mentions– Alvin Snow, Rodney Stuckey, Tyler Harvey, Jacob Wiley, Bogdan Bliznyuk
2 retired jerseys Rodney Stuckey and Ron Cox
The 20th head coach in EWU history is David Riley, promoted after 10 seasons as assistant at EWU. This is his 3rd season. Was a 2021-22 Joe B. Hall Award finalist (top D-I first year coach) and was 2022-23 Big Sky Coach of the Year after the Eagles won the conference with a 23-11 (16-2 in Big Sky) record.
Big Sky Preseason Media Poll
1. Weber State, 2. Eastern Washington, 3. Montana, 4. Montana St, 5. Sacramento St, 6. Portland St, 7. Idaho St, 8. Northern Arizona, 9. Northern Colorado, 10. Idaho
The Eagles are currently 1-4 in the midst of a long road trip to raise money for the program. Their losses were at Utah, at Ole Miss, at Cincinnati, at Stanford, at WSU and the only win vs. Walla Walla University in their home Holiday Classic.
SC has met EWU just once before in a 2005 second round game of the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage an SC win 69-51 behind 25 pts from Nick Young (SwaggyP). The 2005 Trojans were led by the late great freshman PG Ryan “Franchise” Francis – tragically murdered at age 19, in a drive by shooting on a Mother’s Day visit to his hometown of Baton Rouge, LA.
EWU averages 73.7 ppg (-7.0 margin) on 45.3% FG, 32.5% 3FG, 68.9% FT. Average 32.8 rebs/g (-4.0 margin), 17.3 assists, 6.3 steals, 1.5 blocks/g and have 14.2 TO/g (-2.7 margin).
Scoring for EWU: Cedric Coward 13.0 ppg (50.8% FG, 32.0% 3FG, 90.9% FT), Casey Jones 11.3 ppg (50% FG, 22.2% 3FG, 65.1% FT), Ethan Price 10.5 ppg (42.3% FG, 30.8% 3FG, 78.6% FT). If you go down their roster at 7.2 ppg you find a familiar name - Jake Kyman (ucla > Wyoming- where he was teammates with Ethan Anderson and Max Agbonkpolo (2X as they were HS teammates at Santa Margarita Catholic)).
LeJuan Watts leads EWU with 5.7 rebs/g, Coward 5.3; Ellis Magnuson leads with 3.5 assists, Casey Jones with 1.5 steals and 3 players average 0.3 blocks.
SC averages 74.8 ppg (+7.6 margin) on 44.6% FG, 36.4% 3FG, 76.1% FT. Average 37.7 rebs/g (0.0 margin), 13.3 assists, 6.5 steals, 6.0 blocks/g and have14.7 TO/g (-1.5 margin).
Scoring for SC: Boogie 20.2 ppg (43.8% FG, 40% 3FG, 77.8% FT); Collier 18.2 ppg (52.9% FG, 41.2% 3FG, 76.9% FT), Kobe 14.8 ppg (45.5% FG, 42.1% 3FG, 84.6% FT). The rest of the team combines to average 25.9 ppg, led by Josh’s 6.5 ppg.
Collier leads with 36 FGs, Boogie with 16 3FGs, Collier with 30 FTs. Josh leads with a remarkable 84.2% FG (16/19), Collier with 42.1% 3FG, Kobe & DJ tied with 84.6% FT.
Josh leads with 5.7 rebs, Kobe 5.0; Collier with 4.0 assists, Boogie 3.6. Kobe leads with 3.9 steals, Josh with 3.3 blocks.
Pregame
Coming out of the parking structure we spy Isaiah Collier in a yellow sweatsuit on his way into Galen for the pregame meeting with the team. We continue to the Founder’s Room, passing the new “improvements” Galen Center has undergone. I like the new video screens in the HOF area, but I don’t like that the “Trojans on the Covers of Sports Illustrated” wall has been taken down. That was one of my favorite things to look at in Galen. But it wasn’t kept current. I also don’t like that the USC Bookstore in Galen has been closed and replaced by a single booth of Trojan garb.
In the Founder’s Room I see former starting PG Jacque Hill from the Class of ’83, who ranks No. 6 for Career Assists with 363. I also see former walk-on G Chris Penrose from the Class of ’07. While Coach Eric Mobley waited for his cue to get to the mike, Trojan Candy caught up with him and got a picture for her website. Mobley spoke of the disappointment of losing that last game to Oklahoma in the Rady Classic. He said everyone was hurting, especially DJ Rodman who failed to block out to prevent the game-winning tip. He said everyone makes mistakes and that they will learn from this loss. The intensity in practice has really ramped up as the team is anxious to redeem itself and achieve the goals it has established. Asked what drills they did this week in practice, he replied “Rebound! Rebound!. They ran individual rebounding drills, 2 v 2 and 3 v 3 drills. Players were going at it so hard, they had to be separated a few times. He is hoping that fight shows up in the game.
He mentioned that the starters were the same: Boogie, Kobe, Isaiah, Josh and DJ and he had no timeline for Bronny’s return, saying that was up to the doctors. He did note that the team was excited to have him join them.
Coach said that all five EWU starters can shoot the 3 ball and that they would try to run the shooters off the line.
One audience member asked how his sons were doing in Cleveland. He bursts with pride talking about them. They love Cleveland. Isaiah is averaging 23 ppg with The Charge and is close to a promotion to the Cavs. Evan is still just a 22-year-old kid playing against grown men. He had a great game vs Big O’s Atlanta Hawks: 34 min, 8-11 FG, 1-1 3FG, 17 pts, 19 rebs, 7 blocks! One Founder says “we were sorry to lose the boys, but are glad we kept their Dad!” Applause in the room as Mobley smiles and exits.
The emcee notes that Soccer is meeting UMBC on Friday in 1st round NCAA action and men’s Water Polo is also playing in the 1st round of the NCAAs against San Jose State. He gets a large crowd reaction when he mentions 6-0 WBB and JuJu breaking Lisa Leslie’s freshman record with her fourth 30+ pt game. He notes that Aaliyah Gayles got her first points as a Trojan and said she was – the true definition of Fight on!
The Game
Awaiting tipoff, I spy Caleb Williams with JJ III (who spent his last season at Nevada and produced 35 receptions for 267 yds) and Minnesota Vikings receiver Jordan Addison who has 54 catches for 686 yds, 12.7 yds, 7 TDs so far this season. Super-agent Rich Paul, creator of Clutch Sports and agent of Lebron James and other stars was in the house.
From the tip, it would be raining threes and though they didn’t guard each other, there was a scoring duel between Boogie Ellis, who made a career high 8 threes (2 shy of the school record) and Jake Kyman, who made 7 threes in a career high 25 pt performance in front family and friends. For the game EWU sank 13 threes, SC had 12.
SC led 52-33 at the half on 58.1% FG, while holding EWU to 43.8%. The 52 points were SC’s high in the first half of a game this season. USC had 12 assists on its 18 first-half baskets. Boogie Ellis led all scorers at the break with 19 points. Jake Kyman had 13 points for the Eagles.
The team looked much better and more cohesive offensively. They were setting screens and cutting to the basket. Isaiah is making an effort to reduce his TOs, and success may result in him being the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft. Boogie had no TOs in the Rady tournament and only 1 this game! Isaiah was successful in bringing his TOs down to 2 this game, with 6 assists, the kind of ratio we need from him.
EWU only led once at 5-2 to start the game. SC was in control throughout. When it looked like the Eagles were draining threes and getting rim rattling dunks, I would glance at the scoreboard and see that SC was still leading by 20+ pts – phew.
The second half looked like the first and SC end over the century mark for the first time since 2018 with a 106 – 78 win.
Both benches were strong, SC with a season high 41 bench points to EWU’s 29. Post-game, Boogie said that “this was a coming out party for our bigs” and he was right, they looked strong, athletic and confident. Vince had his season high of 13 pts (4-7 FG and 5-5 FT), plus 6 rebs and 2 blks. Kijani had a career-high 12 pts (5-9 FG, 2-2 FT), with 5 rebs (4 offensive), 2 assists. Josh had 7 pts (3-5 FG, 1-2 FT), 5 rebs, 2 assists, but was not credited with a block.
Boogie matched his season high 28 pts (9-13 FG, 8-10 3FG, 2-2 FT). Collier had a quiet 15 pts (5-8 FG, 1-2 3FG, 4-4 FT), Kobe had 12 (4-8 FG, 1-4 3FG, 3-5 FT) and a career high 7 assists. You will win a lot of games when you have 5 players in double figures.
SC shot a season best 57.1%, had a season best 24 assists and season low 7 TOs!
SC improves to 5-2 and Eastern Washington falls to 1-6. Next up for SC is Gonzaga at the Legends of Basketball Las Vegas Invitational at the MGM Grand Garden Arena (ESPN 7pm PST).
Fight on! Beat the Zags!
Located in the northern Palouse near Spokane, EWU sits on 330-acres and has a student population of 12,607 (8217 undergrad). It is one of only three universities in the nation with a research facility in a national wildlife refuge.
EWU's nickname is The Eagles, although from 1923-1973, they were the Savages, represented as a male American Indian. EWU mascot is Swoop the Eagle, the student section is called The Flight Club.
It’s 12 varsity men’s and women’s sports play in the Big Sky conference (since 1987). It claims 3 national championships: Football 2010 Div. I FCS, Wrestling 1977 – NAIA, Men’s cross-country 1982 Div. II.
Notable sports alums: WR Cooper Cupp (LA Rams), DE Samson Ebukam (IND Colts), WR Kendrick Bourne (NE Pats).
First Men’s Basketball season was 1903-04, 1408-1205 (.539) all-time record, 5 conference regular season and 3 tournament championships, 3 NCAA appearances (2004 loss to #4 OK St, 2015 loss to #22 Georgetown, 2021 loss to #11 Kansas), 18 20+ win seasons, 1946 30+ wins, 2 NIT appearances (1W-2L).
3 NBA draft selections: Ron Cox Cleveland Cavs 1977 6th rd, Rodney Stuckey Detroit Pistons 2007 1st rd, Tyler Harvey Orlando Magic 2015 2nd rd
5 AP AA Honorable Mentions– Alvin Snow, Rodney Stuckey, Tyler Harvey, Jacob Wiley, Bogdan Bliznyuk
2 retired jerseys Rodney Stuckey and Ron Cox
The 20th head coach in EWU history is David Riley, promoted after 10 seasons as assistant at EWU. This is his 3rd season. Was a 2021-22 Joe B. Hall Award finalist (top D-I first year coach) and was 2022-23 Big Sky Coach of the Year after the Eagles won the conference with a 23-11 (16-2 in Big Sky) record.
Big Sky Preseason Media Poll
1. Weber State, 2. Eastern Washington, 3. Montana, 4. Montana St, 5. Sacramento St, 6. Portland St, 7. Idaho St, 8. Northern Arizona, 9. Northern Colorado, 10. Idaho
The Eagles are currently 1-4 in the midst of a long road trip to raise money for the program. Their losses were at Utah, at Ole Miss, at Cincinnati, at Stanford, at WSU and the only win vs. Walla Walla University in their home Holiday Classic.
SC has met EWU just once before in a 2005 second round game of the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage an SC win 69-51 behind 25 pts from Nick Young (SwaggyP). The 2005 Trojans were led by the late great freshman PG Ryan “Franchise” Francis – tragically murdered at age 19, in a drive by shooting on a Mother’s Day visit to his hometown of Baton Rouge, LA.
EWU averages 73.7 ppg (-7.0 margin) on 45.3% FG, 32.5% 3FG, 68.9% FT. Average 32.8 rebs/g (-4.0 margin), 17.3 assists, 6.3 steals, 1.5 blocks/g and have 14.2 TO/g (-2.7 margin).
Scoring for EWU: Cedric Coward 13.0 ppg (50.8% FG, 32.0% 3FG, 90.9% FT), Casey Jones 11.3 ppg (50% FG, 22.2% 3FG, 65.1% FT), Ethan Price 10.5 ppg (42.3% FG, 30.8% 3FG, 78.6% FT). If you go down their roster at 7.2 ppg you find a familiar name - Jake Kyman (ucla > Wyoming- where he was teammates with Ethan Anderson and Max Agbonkpolo (2X as they were HS teammates at Santa Margarita Catholic)).
LeJuan Watts leads EWU with 5.7 rebs/g, Coward 5.3; Ellis Magnuson leads with 3.5 assists, Casey Jones with 1.5 steals and 3 players average 0.3 blocks.
SC averages 74.8 ppg (+7.6 margin) on 44.6% FG, 36.4% 3FG, 76.1% FT. Average 37.7 rebs/g (0.0 margin), 13.3 assists, 6.5 steals, 6.0 blocks/g and have14.7 TO/g (-1.5 margin).
Scoring for SC: Boogie 20.2 ppg (43.8% FG, 40% 3FG, 77.8% FT); Collier 18.2 ppg (52.9% FG, 41.2% 3FG, 76.9% FT), Kobe 14.8 ppg (45.5% FG, 42.1% 3FG, 84.6% FT). The rest of the team combines to average 25.9 ppg, led by Josh’s 6.5 ppg.
Collier leads with 36 FGs, Boogie with 16 3FGs, Collier with 30 FTs. Josh leads with a remarkable 84.2% FG (16/19), Collier with 42.1% 3FG, Kobe & DJ tied with 84.6% FT.
Josh leads with 5.7 rebs, Kobe 5.0; Collier with 4.0 assists, Boogie 3.6. Kobe leads with 3.9 steals, Josh with 3.3 blocks.
Pregame
Coming out of the parking structure we spy Isaiah Collier in a yellow sweatsuit on his way into Galen for the pregame meeting with the team. We continue to the Founder’s Room, passing the new “improvements” Galen Center has undergone. I like the new video screens in the HOF area, but I don’t like that the “Trojans on the Covers of Sports Illustrated” wall has been taken down. That was one of my favorite things to look at in Galen. But it wasn’t kept current. I also don’t like that the USC Bookstore in Galen has been closed and replaced by a single booth of Trojan garb.
In the Founder’s Room I see former starting PG Jacque Hill from the Class of ’83, who ranks No. 6 for Career Assists with 363. I also see former walk-on G Chris Penrose from the Class of ’07. While Coach Eric Mobley waited for his cue to get to the mike, Trojan Candy caught up with him and got a picture for her website. Mobley spoke of the disappointment of losing that last game to Oklahoma in the Rady Classic. He said everyone was hurting, especially DJ Rodman who failed to block out to prevent the game-winning tip. He said everyone makes mistakes and that they will learn from this loss. The intensity in practice has really ramped up as the team is anxious to redeem itself and achieve the goals it has established. Asked what drills they did this week in practice, he replied “Rebound! Rebound!. They ran individual rebounding drills, 2 v 2 and 3 v 3 drills. Players were going at it so hard, they had to be separated a few times. He is hoping that fight shows up in the game.
He mentioned that the starters were the same: Boogie, Kobe, Isaiah, Josh and DJ and he had no timeline for Bronny’s return, saying that was up to the doctors. He did note that the team was excited to have him join them.
Coach said that all five EWU starters can shoot the 3 ball and that they would try to run the shooters off the line.
One audience member asked how his sons were doing in Cleveland. He bursts with pride talking about them. They love Cleveland. Isaiah is averaging 23 ppg with The Charge and is close to a promotion to the Cavs. Evan is still just a 22-year-old kid playing against grown men. He had a great game vs Big O’s Atlanta Hawks: 34 min, 8-11 FG, 1-1 3FG, 17 pts, 19 rebs, 7 blocks! One Founder says “we were sorry to lose the boys, but are glad we kept their Dad!” Applause in the room as Mobley smiles and exits.
The emcee notes that Soccer is meeting UMBC on Friday in 1st round NCAA action and men’s Water Polo is also playing in the 1st round of the NCAAs against San Jose State. He gets a large crowd reaction when he mentions 6-0 WBB and JuJu breaking Lisa Leslie’s freshman record with her fourth 30+ pt game. He notes that Aaliyah Gayles got her first points as a Trojan and said she was – the true definition of Fight on!
The Game
Awaiting tipoff, I spy Caleb Williams with JJ III (who spent his last season at Nevada and produced 35 receptions for 267 yds) and Minnesota Vikings receiver Jordan Addison who has 54 catches for 686 yds, 12.7 yds, 7 TDs so far this season. Super-agent Rich Paul, creator of Clutch Sports and agent of Lebron James and other stars was in the house.
From the tip, it would be raining threes and though they didn’t guard each other, there was a scoring duel between Boogie Ellis, who made a career high 8 threes (2 shy of the school record) and Jake Kyman, who made 7 threes in a career high 25 pt performance in front family and friends. For the game EWU sank 13 threes, SC had 12.
SC led 52-33 at the half on 58.1% FG, while holding EWU to 43.8%. The 52 points were SC’s high in the first half of a game this season. USC had 12 assists on its 18 first-half baskets. Boogie Ellis led all scorers at the break with 19 points. Jake Kyman had 13 points for the Eagles.
The team looked much better and more cohesive offensively. They were setting screens and cutting to the basket. Isaiah is making an effort to reduce his TOs, and success may result in him being the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft. Boogie had no TOs in the Rady tournament and only 1 this game! Isaiah was successful in bringing his TOs down to 2 this game, with 6 assists, the kind of ratio we need from him.
EWU only led once at 5-2 to start the game. SC was in control throughout. When it looked like the Eagles were draining threes and getting rim rattling dunks, I would glance at the scoreboard and see that SC was still leading by 20+ pts – phew.
The second half looked like the first and SC end over the century mark for the first time since 2018 with a 106 – 78 win.
Both benches were strong, SC with a season high 41 bench points to EWU’s 29. Post-game, Boogie said that “this was a coming out party for our bigs” and he was right, they looked strong, athletic and confident. Vince had his season high of 13 pts (4-7 FG and 5-5 FT), plus 6 rebs and 2 blks. Kijani had a career-high 12 pts (5-9 FG, 2-2 FT), with 5 rebs (4 offensive), 2 assists. Josh had 7 pts (3-5 FG, 1-2 FT), 5 rebs, 2 assists, but was not credited with a block.
Boogie matched his season high 28 pts (9-13 FG, 8-10 3FG, 2-2 FT). Collier had a quiet 15 pts (5-8 FG, 1-2 3FG, 4-4 FT), Kobe had 12 (4-8 FG, 1-4 3FG, 3-5 FT) and a career high 7 assists. You will win a lot of games when you have 5 players in double figures.
SC shot a season best 57.1%, had a season best 24 assists and season low 7 TOs!
SC improves to 5-2 and Eastern Washington falls to 1-6. Next up for SC is Gonzaga at the Legends of Basketball Las Vegas Invitational at the MGM Grand Garden Arena (ESPN 7pm PST).
Fight on! Beat the Zags!
