{"id":712,"date":"2021-06-16T21:27:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T21:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/?post_type=stories&p=712"},"modified":"2021-06-16T21:27:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T21:27:28","slug":"infectious-winning","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/news\/infectious-winning\/","title":{"rendered":"Infectious Winning"},"content":{"rendered":"
A <\/span>Bi<\/span>g <\/span>Sk<\/span>y T<\/span>ourna<\/span>m<\/span>e<\/span>n<\/span>t <\/span>Championship, and a t<\/span>hi<\/span>rd Marc<\/span>h Mad<\/span>n<\/span>e<\/span>ss app<\/span>e<\/span>a<\/span>r<\/span>ance, cap a Covid-p<\/span>l<\/span>agued s<\/span>e<\/span>ason <\/span>t<\/span>o re<\/span>m<\/span>e<\/span>m<\/span>ber.<\/span><\/h5>\n

By Paul Delaney<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

L<\/span>ast March, after EWU\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team won the Big Sky Conference regular season title, it seemed only a matter of time until the Eagles punched their ticket to their third NCAA Tournament berth. Then came the coronavirus, the Big Sky and NCAA tournament cancellations and a new reality for us all: social distancing, masks, lock-downs, sadness.<\/span><\/p>\n

But out of the Covid-19 chaos, the Eagles emerged with renewed resiliency in 2020-21, creating moments and memories that will last a lifetime. \u201cFlying out of there going to the NCAA tournament for the first time in my head coaching career \u2014 but for the third time in Eastern history \u2014 it was an amazing feeling,\u201d head coach Shantay Legans said in an interview shortly before he announced his departure for the University of Portland.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Covid-year campaign began with an original schedule offering potentially electrifying match-ups against powerhouses like the University of Southern California and Notre Dame, games intended to provide both much needed revenue guarantees for the program and once-in-a-lifetime experiences for the players.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Tanner
Tanner Groves, Big Sky Conference MVP.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, the pandemic had other ideas, and these games never materialized. Replacement contests were promptly added at Oregon, Arizona, Nevada-Las Vegas and St. Mary\u2019s, but the virus wasn\u2019t finished. A rescheduled match up against the WSU Cougars \u2014 relocated from Cheney to Pullman \u2014 was on, then off, then on again. Games with Montana Tech and UNLV were canceled. The Arizona and St. Mary\u2019s games did go on as scheduled, however, with EWU providing a tantalizing preview of its potential.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In both games, the Eagles pushed their opponents to the brink but came away with losses. Still, while there may be no moral victories in basketball, there are certainly losses that put your opponents on notice.<\/p>\n

With Covid-19 case counts exploding nationwide, conference competition got off to a rocky start in January. Five of the Eagles first six league games were canceled. When finally allowed to take the floor, the Eagles struggled to find their bearings. On January 23, as they prepared to take on Northern Colorado, they were a lackluster 3-2 in Big Sky play.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But things were about to change. EWU\u2019s six-point road win that night seemed to transform the momentum of an uncertain season. The Eagles reeled off nine consecutive wins, including dominating victories over Montana in both home and away games.<\/span><\/p>\n

As conference play wound down, Eastern split a pair of Reese Court contests against Idaho State that ultimately cost them a second consecutive regular-season title. But Eastern made good by putting together another four game winning streak to take the Big Sky tournament title.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As tourney champs, the Eagles earned a 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a match-up against the storied University of Kansas Jayhawks. <\/span>That game, a spirited, gritty performance that garnered Eastern accolades from across the nation, ended in defeat. But in a year so fraught with heartbreak, it was a moment that will long be remembered as a triumph.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe went toe-to-toe with them,\u201d Legans told The Spokesman-Review<\/i> after the game. \u201cI tell my guys we don\u2019t believe in moral victories, but at the end of the season this was a moral victory for our program.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2014 Paul Delaney is a reporter with the Cheney Free Press<\/em>. His third book, on EWU football, Taking Flight<\/em>, is available now.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Big Sky Tournament Championship, and a third March Madness appearance, cap a Covid-plagued season to remember. By Paul Delaney   Last March, after EWU\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team won the Big Sky Conference regular season title, it seemed only a matter of time until the Eagles punched their ticket to their third NCAA Tournament berth.…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":715,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-712","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","stories_categories-sports","stories_tags-spring-summer-2020"],"acf":{"featured_video":"","subheading":"","display_byline":false,"display_date_published":false,"Links":false,"Resources":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":719,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/712\/revisions\/719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}