2008 Woodie Awards
Out of bounds: January not kind to Eastern
Matt Daniels/Sports Editor
Issue date: 2/26/07 Section: Sports
A missed wide-open layup at the buzzer at Eastern Kentucky.
A questionable charge call with the game tied in regulation against Austin Peay.
A missed 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game against Tennessee State.
All three of theses endings happened in the month of January for Eastern men's basketball.
And when one looks back at the Panthers' 2006-07 season, this month stood out the most - for all the wrong reasons.
Take out the entire month of January, and Eastern's record stands at 9-13 and 5-7 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Still not pretty, but a lot more desirable than the 10-20 record the Panthers finished with.
Eastern's roster had a brand-new look this past season than it did in Mike Miller's first year.
He had his players that he wanted for his system.
Yet, they didn't produce immediate winning results.
The talent is there for Miller to win.
Now change those three outcomes of the games; make them wins instead of losses.
The talk about Eastern basketball would be where the Panthers are playing Tuesday in the first round of the OVC Tournament.
Instead, it now goes to questions of where the program is headed, if they can make the OVC Tournament next year and if they can become a contender in the conference.
And the best part is every one on this year's roster is coming back next year.
But talented seniors don't always translate into success.
In fact, Miller said in late August he doesn't think too much about senior leadership.
Next year, he'll have five of them, and two who have been around Eastern for at least four years.
Miller did see a four-win improvement from his first year to his second year and should expect the same, and more, in year three.
When analyzing Miller's second year, it's hard to find one word that matches the tone of the season.
But one word does sum up this year: inconsistency.
Inconsistency in how Eastern shot the ball, inconsistency in who would score on a given night, inconsistency in the defensive effort and inconsistency on effort sometimes.
A questionable charge call with the game tied in regulation against Austin Peay.
A missed 3-pointer at the buzzer to tie the game against Tennessee State.
All three of theses endings happened in the month of January for Eastern men's basketball.
And when one looks back at the Panthers' 2006-07 season, this month stood out the most - for all the wrong reasons.
Take out the entire month of January, and Eastern's record stands at 9-13 and 5-7 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Still not pretty, but a lot more desirable than the 10-20 record the Panthers finished with.
Eastern's roster had a brand-new look this past season than it did in Mike Miller's first year.
He had his players that he wanted for his system.
Yet, they didn't produce immediate winning results.
The talent is there for Miller to win.
Now change those three outcomes of the games; make them wins instead of losses.
The talk about Eastern basketball would be where the Panthers are playing Tuesday in the first round of the OVC Tournament.
Instead, it now goes to questions of where the program is headed, if they can make the OVC Tournament next year and if they can become a contender in the conference.
And the best part is every one on this year's roster is coming back next year.
But talented seniors don't always translate into success.
In fact, Miller said in late August he doesn't think too much about senior leadership.
Next year, he'll have five of them, and two who have been around Eastern for at least four years.
Miller did see a four-win improvement from his first year to his second year and should expect the same, and more, in year three.
When analyzing Miller's second year, it's hard to find one word that matches the tone of the season.
But one word does sum up this year: inconsistency.
Inconsistency in how Eastern shot the ball, inconsistency in who would score on a given night, inconsistency in the defensive effort and inconsistency on effort sometimes.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment on this story