Basketball season is quickly approaching, and the Eastern Michigan Eagles are coming off of a 9-22 effort and the firing of coach Charles Ramsey.
During the offseason, the Eagles hired new coach Rob Murphy, who was introduced on April 21. Before coming to EMU, he was an assistant coach at Syracuse University. Now we will see if he can bring the success from Syracuse to the squad and turn around this Eagles team.
The Eagles are going to have to navigate through a tough schedule if they want to make it to the NCAA Tournament. This season’s nonconference schedule features perennial powers like Michigan State, Syracuse, Purdue and Virginia Tech.
The highlight game is against Michigan State as the Spartans make a trip to the Convocation Center on Sunday, Nov. 27. Last year the Spartans beat the Eagles 96-66 in East Lansing, and this could be looked at as a revenge game.
I would have to say this is the biggest game of the season, and I’m excited to see a national power like the Spartans make a visit. I would expect a packed house when these teams meet.
After the Spartans visit, the Eagles take a trip to Syracuse on Nov. 29, which is a homecoming game for Murphy.
With road games against Purdue and Virginia Tech also on the schedule, it makes for a tough road before conference play as all of these teams are looked at as Top 25 teams and potential
NCAA Tournament contenders almost every year. It will be exciting to see how the Eagles can
navigate through this part of their season.
The Eagles were 5-11 in the MAC last season and haven’t won it since 1998. These games could get them prepared mentally and physically for conference play. They can take these games as learning experiences and hopefully go into conference play stronger.
However, the Eagles will have to go without last year’s leading scorer and rebounder, Brandon Bowdry. He averaged a near double-double with 19.9 points and 9.5 rebounds. He was unquestionably a leader and this team’s best player. He definitely will be missed.
This year’s team has a lot of experience, though, and you can look for players like Derek Thompson to step up to fill the void Bowdry left. Thompson was last year’s second-leading scorer with 9.4 points per game, and he is going to up his production for this team.
I think the Eagles are in line to improve as they have a lot of veterans, and with a team full of upperclassmen it can be expected that they will look at last year’s mistakes and learn from them.
The Eagles start the 2011-12 season against the Illinois-Chicago Flame on Nov. 11 in the Convocation Center.
I’m looking for this veteran team to make strides under Murphy. I’m excited to see how different this team will look from last year’s, and I’m ready for the basketball season to start. We will see if the Eagles can soar to expectations.
