ok, ok, before you haters out there get on me, lets get real about last night's game. It was a woeful performance, and i think even Gib would agree. After beating an inferior opponent a week ago,, and losing to a top 20 team on the road, last night's game was an opportunity to see exactlyy where this year's team in the early season. Unfortunately, it exposed lots of problems.

First, lets give Eastern Washington its due. It is a solid club, but let's face it, they lost 20 games last year in the Big Sky. Yes, they played Oregon and Gonzaga tough in loses, but we are not talking about a top 150 RPI school here.

What was exposed. Number 1, we have no dependable complimentary outside shooter for Zane, and teams have fiqured it out. He will continue to face double teams, and he will not get many open looks which he needs to score. After the game, Coach Arnold said that guy has to be Bereton, but frankly, i havent seen it yet.

Next, Vander really misses Bill Amis. Teams realize he is the only real inside threat and they are doubling down on him every time he touches the ball. He is still not very comfortable in his passing game, and tends to get tangled up in the paint. Last year, teams had to contend with Amis down low. No one has stepped into that role yet.

Stokes has a long way to go. His shooting percentages in the first three games has been awful, and his defense needs lots of work. Yes, he is only a Freshman, and I like his attiude on the court. If this team is to go anywhere, he needs to step up soon.

Rozitis is a 7 foot big man with limited rebounding skills. Last night, the Bows were out-rebounded by a smaller team , and several rebound attempts were merely swatted at by the team, not taken down and controlled.

On the positive side, Bobby Miles played a solid game at the point and has shown much improvement over last year. And Wiseman continues to play steady basketball on both ends of the court.  Jefferson shows promise defensively.

Thomas continues to be an enigma. He continues to make mental errors and take ill advised shots, but when he plays within himself, he shows how important he can be to the long term success of this team.

 The big problem last night was the defensive failures in stopping the penetration by the Eagles. They drove inside at will for lay-up after lay-up. There was little help defense, and showed that Hawaii will have trouble with teams with quicker guards. Frankly, lets hope last night is not indicative of where this team will be come conference play. They have a fairly easy opponent this Friday in Pacific, and they have to know how disappointing their performance was last night to the fans and the coaches. They were out-hustled and out-played. The jury is still out on this team, but there are problems that need to be addressed and some that may plague them throughout the season. I remain optimistic, however, that the coaches will get things fixed and the team will chalk last night's loss as " just one of those things".

Happy Thanksgiving. Come on out Friday to show this team some support. The season has a long way to go.