CHENEY, Wash. — After a banner year last season, there has been some roster turnover for the Eastern Washington men's basketball team this off-season.
The team's top two leading scorers from a year ago, Steele Venters and Angelo Allegri, have both departed from the program along with bench guard Deon Stroud.
Losing 28 points per game leaves big shoes to fill, but rising juniors Ethan Price and Casey Jones will look to help fill that void as they begin the process of assuming a leadership role on this year's squad.
"Obviously Steele and Gelo are big losses for our team, but I think we have a lot of guys who can step up into a bigger role this year. We have had a week of practice so far and the new guys are picking stuff up really quickly and they are just good guys, so I am excited," Price said.
Last year's squad ripped off 18 consecutive victories, the longest winning streak in the nation. The Eags will look to carry that success over to this season.
"Success is huge, it is kind of contagious and if we are going to do it again this year, we had to have a good year last year. Now, with the new guys coming in, they know we have a winning program," Jones said.
This will also be the third season in charge for head coach David Riley. He will look to improve upon a 23-11 record and Big Sky Coach of the Year honors last season.
"What I love about David is he is a player's coach. He asks us for feedback during practices and games and we get a lot of say in what goes on, so I love that," Jones said.
Despite the success of last season, the Eags collapsed at the end of the year losing four of their last five games, an experience players hope they can learn from and use as motivation.
"The failure at the end of last year, although the year as a whole was not a failure, I think it was important for us because we can use how we finished to work towards this year," Price said.
The Eags will begin Big Sky conference play at home at Rees Court on December 28th against Portland State.
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