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Friday, January 12, 2007 11:32 PM CST
EIU seeks turnaround at Eastern Kentucky
BY BRIAN NIELSEN Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
So far in his first two transitional seasons as Eastern Illinois’ basketball coach Mike Miller has challenged most of the Ohio Valley Conference.
All four meetings against the league’s marquee program Murray State have gone down to the wire, and even in a 5-10 ninth place season EIU was one of just three OVC teams to beat the league champion Racers who went 17-3 in the regular season and 3-0 in the postseason tourney.
The Panthers also played league-runner-up Samford to a 58-55 game last season.
Among the teams Miller has already played at least three times, he has beaten highly regarded Tennessee Tech for his one OVC win this year after playing the third-place Golden Eagles into overtime last season.
Just last week, EIU went overtime before losing to an Austin Peay team currently in second place.
If any OVC team has owned Miller’s Panthers, it has been middle-of-the-road Eastern Kentucky.
Last season’s sweep by Eastern Kentucky that placed sixth in the 11-team OVC included a 57-50 game at Richmond, Ky., which Miller at the time called “bad basketball” and then a 71-46 drubbing at Lantz Arena.
Then this season when the Panthers appeared to be turning the corner, Eastern Kentucky threw a 73-57 road block on them in a Dec. 18 game in Charleston.
Trying to get back in the OVC’s postseason picture, EIU needs to change some trends in today’s 3 p.m. CST game at Eastern Kentucky.
The Panthers have lost five straight games to Eastern Kentucky since a 95-76 win in the second of two meetings in the 2002-03 season.
Now they have lost four straight games since a 76-56 non-conference win over Western Illinois on Dec. 22 and seven straight OVC games since a 74-69 win at Tennessee Tech on Dec. 7.
Their most lopsided loss during that stretch came in Thursday’s 67-43 romp by Tennessee-Martin.
That has the Panthers 5-13 overall and 1-8 for last place in the conference trailing 1-6 Jacksonville State, 3-5 Tennessee-Martin and 3-4 Tennessee Tech in the race for one of the OVC’s eight postseason playoff berths.
After a strong start to the season, Eastern Kentucky was having its troubles too with three straight OVC losses before beating then second-place Morehead State 73-65 on Tuesday.
The Colonels now stand 9-6 and 4-3 for fifth in the OVC.
This game of Easterns matches the OVC’s top shooting team in Eastern Kentucky with a .463 field-goal percentage against an Eastern Illinois team that leads the league in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to .430.
Eastern Kentucky’s Julian Mascoll has the OVC’s top field-goal percentage of .603 while averaging 8.1 attempts per game while Eastern Illinois has no player among the league’s top 15.
Partly because of the teams’ first meeting when Eastern Kentucky made eight of 24 3-pointers while EIU went 0-for-12 from the arc, Eastern Kentucky tops the OVC with 8.1 3-pointers made per game while the Panthers stand last making 4.8 treys per game.
This afternoon, we may see if the law of averages work in EIU’s favor or Eastern Kentucky continues to own the Panthers.
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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