Nov. 1—With three exhibition games complete, the Eastern Washington men's basketball team will open its regular season Monday night at Stanford, the first of seven road games it will play in November.
It's unclear, though, just how many of the Eagles' main rotation players will be available.
Starting guard Andrew Cook injured his left hand in the Eagles' 81-65 exhibition game victory Tuesday over Western Washington, and his status for the opener is uncertain.
He's not the only one. Senior guard Tavi Jackson and freshman forward Alan Gballou, each of whom redshirted with the Eagles last season, are game-time decisions Monday as well.
"We think we're a deep team until we start looking around and all of a sudden four guys are out," EWU head coach Dan Monson said after Tuesday's game in which redshirt sophomore forward Jamil Miller also dealt with an injury.
Monson counted those four among the team's "top five or eight" players.
"With guys like Andrew going out and Jamil not able to play his usual minutes," senior Alton Hamilton IV said, "a lot of guys had to step up and try to find some comfort in a role they're not necessarily used to."
Against Western Washington, the Eagles started redshirt junior forward Emmett Marquardt and sophomore Cole Scherer along with Hamilton, Cook and Miller, who scored 14 points in 20 minutes on Tuesday. Senior guard Jalen Griffith played nearly 24 minutes off the bench, and sophomore guard Isak Homelius played the next-most minutes off the bench with 16.
All of the team's bench players combined to shoot 4 of 16 from the field and 8 of 10 at the free-throw line. Freshman center Zach Trezvant made the most of the opportunity, Monson said, with four points and four rebounds in seven and a half minutes.
"We've had to go deep into the bench here," Monson said. "Afterwards (Tuesday) I thought Zach was really the only one who came in and took advantage of those extra minutes that he got. We've got to get more of our new guys settled down to be able to contribute. Jamil is the only one who isn't a returner who is really in the lineup."
After Monday's game at Stanford, the Eagles will play at Oregon on Friday and at Oregon State on Nov. 9.
The Eagles will play at Reese Court in Cheney once this month, on Nov. 13 against Corban University, an NAIA program in Salem.
