Monday, March 5, 2007 10:23 PM CST
Many happy returns
Entire team set to be back for coach Mike Miller’s Eastern basketball program next year
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- No departures. No news this March might be the good news for Eastern Illinois’ basketball program.
A year ago at this time after his first season as Eastern’s coach, Mike Miller was announcing that three players were leaving his program for reasons ranging from playing time to going closer to home to injury.
That was before the even more surprising news -- to fans if not the coaching staff -- that 2005 Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year George Tandy was transferring and after one player quit basketball before the 2005-06 season began and another during the season.
While such transactions could still come this spring, off-season No. 2 for the Miller era does not appear to include rewriting most of the roster like the past season with only four returning players.
EIU coaches are looking to fill one open scholarship with a shooter to join a team that finished third in the OVC in field-goal percentage defense the past season.
But mainly, instead of overhauling, Miller is now looking to build from what appears to be five returning starters from a team that had no scholarship seniors.
Wins in five of the last eight games made Eastern’s 10-20 season and second straight year without a spot in the OVC’s eight-team postseason tournament considerably less bleak.
“My thought at the end of the season was we just ran out of games,” Miller said. “When we finished our season there wasn’t one person ready to stop, and it’s a long season.”
Granted, when taking the job in the spring of 2005 saying the program was in place, Miller might not have been counting on 6-21 and 10-20 seasons and learning that some of the promising returning players from Rick Samuels’ program simply did not fit into his new system.
But a year after the players’ locker room needed a revolving door, maybe the program -- Miller’s way -- really is in place.
“Last year we brought in seven new guys,” the EIU coach said. “We went into this year and preached to them the importance of taking the next step. I think we did that. There’s no question we played our best basketball in February.
“I think the January stretch we had was difficult. With the inexperience and immaturity of the team at times, I don’t think we ever let up and didn’t lose focus.”
Once 1-10 and last in the OVC, Eastern moved its way up to having a shot at getting into the league’s tournament before a season-ending 71-45 loss at Samford to complete a 6-14 conference season.
Not playing in last week’s OVC tourney meant coaches could at least devote more time to recruiting.
Just because Eastern, which in November’s early signing period landed 6-foot-11 shot-blocking center Matt Dorlack of New Berlin (Wis.) Eisenhower, only has one more scholarship spot to fill does not mean the recruiting is not still busy.
“We’ve evaluated a lot,” Miller said. “I can’t give you an exact number. After we had a chance to play, we saw our needs. We’ve probably evaluated close to 40-50 guys. If you have only one or two scholarships, you have to be more careful. Sometimes it’s easier when you need one of everything.”
Instead, with the center signed in the fall to join this season’s impressive freshman center Ousmane Cisse, rising freshman Justin Brock and senior-to-be Jake Byrne in the post, Eastern’s recruiting can now focus on finding someone to complement OVC Co-Freshman of the Year Romain Martin.
This is a team that finished next to last in the conference in scoring at 61.1 points per game and shooting percentage at .408 and last with 4.63 3-pointers made per game.
“We need to be able to loosen up some defenses,” Miller said.
Who knows whether that shooter could give Eastern four straight OVC Freshman of the Year awards or maybe a more seasoned player?
While Miller noted he wanted to build a program foundation rather than a quick fix with all junior college transfers, last off-season he also took three junior college transfers and could get another.
“We’re looking at high schools, prep schools,” Miller said. “We’ve looked at some foreign kids.
“We feel we’ve got some quality in every class now.”
The incoming shooting guard does not necessarily have to bring the numbers Kevin Durant did to Texas this year or for that matter the 14.8 scoring average and 68 3-pointers Martin brought to Eastern.
For the Panthers’ offense to catch up to the strong defense Miller implemented relies on more than just a one-man addition.
“One area we want to improve on n and it starts with our guys here n is our scoring,” Miller said. “We were again in the top three in the league in defense and we improved in our rebounding. What we need to do is to pick up on our scoring. As I told our guys, we’re not going to pick up where we left off offensively. We’ve got to get better. We have high expectations now. I’m not saying they haven’t been before.”
After giving players one week off after the season, spring workouts began Monday.
“I’ve been doing this for a while and the greatest gains are made in the spring,” Miller said. “We made very little impact on these guys in the fall because we were playing our first exhibition game at the start of November. The greatest gains are made in the spring.”
This spring, Miller has more than four players on campus for those spring gains.
Contact Brian Nielsen at 238-6856.
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