Making History
While the end to Eastern’s greater ambitions came too soon — a heartbreaking final-second loss in the 2023 Big Sky Basketball Championship tournament — EWU’s men’s basketball team walked off the court in Boise knowing they’d already cemented a season for the history books.
Head coach David Riley’s squad, a group just a year removed from a big rebuild, came into the season with three returning starters, a core of experienced role players and high expectations. In preseason polling, however, coaches and sportswriters expressed their doubts, with both groups picking Eastern to finish no higher than fifth.
The Eagles answered the doubters with a remarkable regular season that included a Big Sky record 16-0 start to conference play. That streak, part of a record-tying 18-game stretch of victories, earned them the regular season Big Sky Championship.
Following a heartbreaking, last-second conference tournament exit, the team got a nod from the National Invitation Tournament, where, in the first round, they avenged an early-season defeat to Washington State with a gritty road win in Pullman. It was just the second postseason game win in program history.
“The talk in the locker room after the game was very, very brief about this game in particular. We played a good team and lost,” Riley said. “But what these guys have done throughout the season, I can’t tell them enough how much our coaching staff appreciates them.”
A second-round loss to Oklahoma State brought the 2022-23 season to a close. Then the accolades began pouring in.
In March, Eagle’s guard Steele Venters was named the Big Sky’s Most Valuable Player, the conference’s most coveted individual honor. It was the fifth time in seven years —and seventh time overall — that the Big Sky’s top accolade had been awarded to an Eastern player. In addition, Venters’ teammate Angelo Allegri was named to the All-Conference First Team, while forward Ethan Price earned an All-Conference Honorable Mention.
Coach Riley, meanwhile, was named Big Sky Coach of the Year, joining a distinguished list of seven previous EWU head coaches who have been awarded the conference’s highest coaching honor.
Not surprisingly, it was Riley who, after the season ended in Stillwater, shifted the focus back to where it belongs — on the student athletes.
“The talk in the locker room after the game was very, very brief about this game in particular. We played a good team and lost,” Riley said. “But what these guys have done throughout the season, I can’t tell them enough how much our coaching staff appreciates them.”
